Race Swap Card | EP 7

Curse of: America’s Next Top Model

iHeartPodcasts and Glass Podcasts

Documentary, Tv & Film, Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

ANTM was one of the most racially diverse reality shows of its era. So why did so many of its episodes look so racist? This episode investigates how ANTM represented, performed, and exploited race. We hear from models who were put in Blackface for the infamous race-swapping photo shoots and talk about the racial dynamics at play during the “We Were Rooting for You” moment. We unpack the show’s racial stereotypes and contradictions, including the paradox of a Black woman at the helm of a show that stereotyped and harmed other Black women.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an I-Heart podcast.
0:02.5	Guaranteed Human.
0:04.8	This week we've learned all about makeup and the power that it has to transform people.
0:10.3	Today, we are doing this shoot for Got Milk.
0:14.6	There are a lot of moments from America's Next Top Model that haven't aged well.
0:20.7	We've been revisiting them all season. But for a lot of people, there's next top model that haven't aged well. We've been revisiting them all
0:21.9	season. But for a lot of people, there's one that towers above the rest. Now there's a twist.
0:28.4	We are actually going to switch your ethnicities. Even diehard A&TM apologist can't deny the cringiness
0:37.2	of this photo shoot.
0:38.3	Christina, you're going to be an East Indian.
0:42.3	Tiffany, you're going to be Native American.
0:44.3	Of course, I'm talking about the race swapping photo shoot.
0:48.3	Believe it or not, A&TM actually did a version of this photo shoot twice.
0:56.7	The first time was on Cycle 4.
1:01.1	They assigned each of the contestants to portray a race that was not their own.
1:06.0	Brittany Brower, a white girl from Tallahassee, was straight up put in blackface.
1:08.8	Brittany, an African-American woman.
1:11.6	Kenya, Korean. Michelle, an Es-American woman. Kinya, Korean. Hey, hey. Michelle, an Eskimo woman.
1:14.6	Yikes.
1:15.6	Naima's gonna be an Icelandic Scandinavian.
1:18.6	Tatiana, a biracial woman.
1:21.6	Wow.
	...

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