“Nita Negrita” is a television series from the Philippines’ GMA network about an orphaned Filipino/African-American child starring Barbie Forteza as the orphaned girl. I had never heard of this series until Filamako.com pointed out that they are actually using blackface! In another clip, you can see that the producers of the show even put blackface on a baby (around 1:10). You can see what Barbie Forteza actually looks like after the jump.
Barbie Forteza when not in blackface
It may seem that this show is trying to confront the racial and color prejudices of the Philippines, but some are angry that instead of Nita being proud of her color, she is ashamed of herself and her color. I managed to get through the first six episodes, and I’d have to agree with that. Even if you don’t agree, frankly, you would have to admit that the make up job looks terrible. It also sends a message that the show could be bothered to get a Filipina with African ancestry. It’s not like there aren’t good looking ones out there. Some say that the show is riddled with skin whitening commercials. I can’t confirm that.
There are a number of anti-Nita facebook pages such as “Nita Negrita is a Racist Show” and “Nita Negrita is Offensive. Duh” as well as some websites and blog posts angry with the show. We subscribe to The Filipino Channel at home, and I was thinking about adding GMA but was hesitating because of the additional cost. “Nita Negrita” is yet another reason for me not to get it.
