'It just doesn't seem fair': US teen in viral racist post speaks out

The teens dressed up for a fundraiser for their school's Future Farmers of America chapter. Photo / Supplied

A teenager from Oregon, US, who appeared in a now-viral photo of white teens in black face paint said she had no idea the photo with be posted online using a racist hashtag.

Jasmine Bates, one of the teens in the picture, says she has received death threats as a result of her viral infamy and will look at moving schools because of it.

"In my opinion the picture was innocent until somebody made it wrong," Bates told local TV station KEZI last week.

The photo was posted to Snapchat by an unnamed teen and included the hashtag "#n*****gang".

The photo was posted to social media on Saturday, October 26.

"I didn't even know that the picture was posted until Sunday morning," she said.

The teens dressed up for a fundraiser for their school's Future Farmers of America chapter. Photo / Supplied

The teens dressed up for a fundraiser for their school's Future Farmers of America chapter.

"All these kids in the picture, they're hard-working kids," her mum, Laura Lewis, said. "They're probably some of the best in the community."

The teen said she didn't intend to offend anyone by wearing black face paint.

"I signed up for the role doing people in black, and there were other people that did it too, and our job was basically to hide. One person hid behind the wall and like jumped out and scared people," she described.

She said an adult chaperone issued instructions to the teens at the fundraiser.

"He told us to put our hair back and our hoods up and have our faces painted black so that they wouldn't be visible at all."

"We took a picture, this group picture," she said. "And after everyone walked away, the girl who had took the picture posted the picture with the caption 'hashtag whatever', and the rest of us weren't really aware of what she said."

She said she woke up the following morning to a wave of anger and threats, because of the racist hashtag.

"People were blowing up my phone [saying] 'you're disgusting', 'You're nasty'… There were people who like sent death threats and lots and lots of insults."

The school says the girl who posted the photo could be punished.

"I think we need as a school to examine and educate the whole idea of blackface," said Craig Swanson, principal at Lebanon High School in Oregon.

"Though there was a role for it, to understand that's not acceptable, and I will take that on as principal."

"The whole thing just doesn't seem fair to me that all of us are getting blamed and attacked online for the one girl's action," said Jasmine.