Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader Wears Blackface for Halloween

Those are certainly not cheers a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader is hearing for her Halloween costume last weekend. Whitney Isleib covered herself in brown paint and posed as rapper Lil' Wayne for a party. But now she is at the center of controversy as the pictures circulate on the Internet.

According to CBS News.com, photos of the blond cheerleader dressed up as the metal-mouthed rapper were originally posted to Facebook. But as often happens, those supposedly private pictures went viral, eventually appearing on the sports blog Deadspin.com, causing a furor.

Neither the Dallas Cowboys nor its iconic cheerleaders squad would officially comment on the incident. However, a team spokesperson said that management is aware of the situation and is addressing it.

Football fans seem torn on whether this was harmless fun or extremely racist.

"If she wasn't a Dallas cheerleader, would it really matter?" Cowboys fan Laura Pyhrr told CBS 11 Dallas. "It's Halloween, you know. You get to go how you want to go."

"I'm assuming you would hold yourself up to a higher standard - especially if you're playing for the Cowboys," said Richard Vasquez, another fan. "But wow, not much I can say about that -- it speaks for itself."

Blackface, where white people use dark theatrical makeup to play black people, rose to prominence in the 19th century but became associated with racism by the mid-20th century.