'Blackface is disgusting': Australian basketball player slammed for Kanye West dress up photo
A professional basketball player has lashed out at her teammate after she dressed in blackface and shared the photo on social media.
Opals star Elizabeth Cambage outed Alice Kunek after she uploaded the ‘disgusting’ photo to her private Instagram account.
In the photo, Kunek is pictured wearing a ripped white t-shirt, an oversized jacket and a beanie with her entire face and chest painted black.
The costumes were worn for an end-of-season dressup day.
Kunek was dressed as rapper Kanye West.
Cambage slammed the Opal star on Sunday afternoon, tweeting the offending photo to her 25,000 followers.
In the post she said she was shocked to see this behaviour from a teammate.
"People wonder why I have issues with Basketball Australia teammates, I've been dealing with these behaviours since we were kids," Cambage wrote.
"Blackface is disgusting. I honestly have no words,” she tweeted.
The photo was retweeted more than 100 times.
Kunek then responded, posting an apology on her own Twitter.
She said it was ‘never her intention to offend anybody’ and uploaded a similar image without the offending makeup.
Four-time Olympian and basketball great Lauren Jackson also weighed in on the issue, saying Kunek will learn a tough lesson.
“I feel for Alice as I know how devastated she is right now and as a teammate of hers in the past I know it's a really unfortunate situation and she will learn from this,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
"There's been so many issues [sport and race] in last 12 months it's upsetting," she said.
"I know none of the [Opals] girls want to see this sort of vitriol pointed towards Alice but at same time you have to be aware of the racial implications.”
