A member of the Adelaide cheer squad went viral for all the wrong reasons on Saturday night after being spotted in ‘blackface’. Now the woman behind the paint has defended her actions.
During the Crows’ elimination final win over the Western Bulldogs, a fan with a black-painted face behind the goals was seen on the broadcast and on the big screens at the Adelaide Oval.
Fans were quick to call it out online, with one video of the fan seen more than 190,000 times alone, while others were viewed tens of thousands of times.
“It’s 2026, and there are people who still think this is okay…. Hey @Adelaide_FCyou okay with one of your members in “blackface?” one X user wrote along with a picture of the fan.
“What the f***,” another post showing footage of the fan said.
“I thought I was seeing things, but nope, there it is. There’s a dude in blackface at the footy. In 2026. You’d expect it in 1926 perhaps. Why? Just, why?,” a third wrote.
“Why are we showing the guy in blackface on the screen?,” another said.
However, the woman at the centre of the furore has broken her silence, stating she simply dresses to look like the club mascot, Claude the Crow.
“I just thought it would be more realistic (to paint black on her skin), that’s why I’ve got black gloves as well,” she told The Advertiser after the backlash.
“So I’m dressed like the mascot Claude the crow.
“A lot of people have thought the costume was cool and have asked to get photos with me.”
Others have come to her defence following the uproar.
“This is a stupid costume, but it is not ‘blackface’. She is pretending to be a bird not pretending she is black. Blackface is offensive for very specific reasons. “I want to be a Crow” isn’t one of them,” Mark Gottlieb wrote on X.
“Old mate dressing as a crow clearly didn’t do it with the intention of being offensive but that doesn’t take away the fact we are all old and aware enough to know that blackface in any form is unacceptable,” another said.
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