It was only a matter of time before someone was foolish enough to proudly wear blackface on social media again, be condemned for it, then say that they meant no offence.

This time it’s Brisbane model Sophie Applegarth and a few of her friends, who dressed as Serena and Venus Williams and Kobe Bryant — complete with brown paint covering their faces and bodies — at a party this week.

The photos were quickly picked up and spread on social media.

TW: Blackface/racism @Chic_Management model Sophie Applegarth has proudly shared photos of herself and friends in blackface for a “sports stars” party pic.twitter.com/x53i1MtEqj

— Lauren Ingram ? (@laureningram) December 29, 2017

Applegarth and the other people in the photos, Sally Coburn and Julia Iovenitti, have now set their Instagrams to private or deleted them altogether. They responded to the criticism of their costumes by saying that they meant no offence and were simply trying to praise their favourite sports stars.

“There’s nothing racist about backing ur favourite sport stars mate,” one of the women said according to The Daily Mail.

Applegarth later posted a “disclaimer” on Instagram.

“I had no ‘racist’ or malicious intent by the photos I just uploaded. We were praising our fav sports stars Serena and Venus Williams. Did not mean to offend,” she wrote.

Chic Management, which represents Applegarth, has deleted her profile from its website, but has not responded to requests for comment. An automatic reply from Chic said the agency is closed over the holiday break.

How Have We Not Learned This By Now? 

Look, it’s just never ok to paint your white face black for other people’s amusement. We shouldn’t have to say it again and again, but Australia’s long history of embracing and celebrating people in blackface shows that we’re pretty slow learners.

So here’s a brief history of blackface: American minstrel groups — troupes of men who dressed up as exaggerated caricatures of African-Americans in order to mock them — were popular in Australia in the late 19th and early 20th century.

As Allan Clarke wrote for BuzzFeed last year, this form of “entertainment” has a long, sad history in Australia that led to blackface becoming somewhat mainstream (remember the Hey Hey It’s Saturday controversy of 2009?).

In recent years our love affair with blackface has shifted from TV to social media, where a couple of times a year people will paint their faces black as a joke or as some form of tribute, then claim innocence when called on it.

It would be easy to dismiss these incidents as harmless or simply misguided, but surely by now, we’ve learned that even seemingly minor incidents like this lead to a culture in which “casual racism” is made more acceptable.

So let’s just be clear: Don’t wear blackface. Ever.