Emma Guinness
Conor McGregor has found himself at the centre of a social media storm after the fighter shared a picture of his mum wearing 'black face' at Halloween.
The UFC star, 34, shared his mum's controversial outfit to Instagram as part of a Halloween montage that saw him seemingly dressed up as a pilot - sporting a new, clean-shaven look.
However, it was his mum's costume that caught the eyes of social media commentators, as she wore dark face paint and a red dress.
The dress itself featured a piece of animal print cloth across the front and bones along the neckline.
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While the pictures of the fighter's mum went unnoticed by some social media users as they weren't first up in the montage, those who did see them were shocked.
One Instagram user wrote: "Conor's mum bro... has nobody noticed?"
"Is that... blackface? What is going on with that?" questioned a second while a third added: "Who went in blackface ffs?"
A fourth remarked: "Is no one talking about the woman in blackface???????"
"Nobody else seeing the black face paint on the lady at the end? Wtf?" wrote a fifth.
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A sixth questioned how someone could possibly think this was an acceptable Halloween costume in 2022.
They wrote: "Come on bruh we still doing blackface in 2022?"
Other members of the fighter's family also posted pictures of his mum's Halloween costume on social media, with Erin McGregor accompanying an Instagram story of the look with a laughing emoji.
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The racist history of blackface makes it a completely unacceptable Halloween costume, with CNN noting that early incarnations of the practice were used to mock black people.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) said of the problem: "Comedic performances of 'blackness' by whites in exaggerated costumes and makeup cannot be separated fully from the racial derision and stereotyping at its core."
This incident comes after Craig David said that the comedy sketch Bo' Selecta!, which used blackface, ruined his life.
He told The Times that its frontman, Leigh Francis/Keith Lemon, used comedy that was a form of 'bullying' to seemingly lampoon British culture between 2002 and 2009.
He said: "[Leigh] was highlighting characteristics he felt would trigger us personally. Every sketch felt personal.
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"It felt like a vendetta and when it got a following, it became something that affected me. People would shout at me on the street and I felt the same feeling I had when I was bullied at school. Leigh Francis had normalised bullying by making it comedy.
"It was bullying across the board for everyone. When he put blackface on, that was being racist."
Francis himself has since apologised for his actions on the show and said he didn't realise how offensive he was being at the time.
He said: "I just want to apologise, I just want to say sorry for any upset I caused whether I was Michael Jackson, Craig David, Trisha Goddard, all people I'm a big fan of. I guess we're all on a learning journey."
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LADbible has contacted Leigh Francis' representatives for a comment.
A spokesperson for McGregor told LADbible of the costume: "The McGregor family loves Halloween. Mrs McGregor had spiders painted on her face since her costume was a ghoul risen from the grave.
"Any other interpretation was just wrong and truly unfortunate."