A mum has been accused of racism after sharing a photograph of her partner wearing brown paint on his face and a dreadlocks wig next to her two mixed race children.
Sian Bannister, 30, of Bristol, posted the picture showing David-Jon Norman, herself and the kids to Facebook while they were at a five-star hotel in Newport, South Wales, with the caption 'Annual family photo'.
It sparked outrage online when it was reposted by rapper Ace Brown yesterday and was shared or commented on nearly 20,000 times.
The artist accused her of "taking the p*** - if not direct to the boys, but to their father's heritage" and said Miss Bannister should "be ashamed of herself'.
But Sian 'denied she was being offensive' in another post, adding: "Would I be offended seeing a black person dressed up as a white person… hell, no!'.
And she has claimed she's faced hundreds of threats and racist abuse over the picture.
Ace, real name Ashley Brown, wrote on Facebook: "I'm sharing this post to show this woman how offensive and disrespectful it is to her own children.
"I've just released a track for people like you. I want to add you might love them boys with all your heart but this picture is very disrespectful in my view - and the more people like me ignore people like you, the more it happens #Stopracism."
Wearing black make up to caricature a black person is known as blackface.
Blackface is a theatrical make up which can be traced to the 17th century theatre when it was used in William Shakespeare’s play Othello.
When the post went viral Miss Bannister took to Facebook to defend herself.
She wrote: "I actually cannot believe what's going on.
"Loads of shares overnight and loads of threats. WTF. My kids should be taken away from me etc! Would I be offended seeing a black person dressed up as a white person… hell, no! So did I think it offensive the other way round… hell, no!
"Admittedly I was ignorant not taking the 'history' of the black face into consideration, which was so far from my mind."
She then posted on Mr Norman's profile to say her world had been 'turned upside down' and her children were in 'immediate danger'.
She added: "Dave put the Rastafarian hat on and it was my son who asked him to paint his face brown - is he racist? Complete innocence, a family laugh."
The photograph was taken at the five-star Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, South Wales.
