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Is this ever going to stop?! Just a few weeks ago, we saw a designer feature models in blackface (more like brown face). Now, French Vogue has decided to join in on the racist, outdated minstrel foolery by showcasing Dutch supermodel Lara Stone in blackface. What is wrong with these people?
We’re also baffled as to what why blackface is so damn appealing to non-black people.
It’s tired, futile, and meant to be highly degrading to people of color. If these individuals value the beauty of our beautiful skin tone, why don’t they feature one of the many of beautiful black models in the world who would love to book a Vogue shoot.
Clutchettes, what say you about this ridiculousness?
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OMG! If they desire black faces so bad, then hire black models! This is socially irresponsible and I am tired of these people using art as an excuse for ignorance.
It’s art, not racism! In the same way as it would be interesting to change the ethnicities of black to white, this photoshoot is very cool and breaks the boundaries of race, does not set them in stone!
I am a mixed race woman (‘White’ and Native American – heinz 57 really, with English Irish Dutch German Black Russian Native American). I look very much white, however when I am tanned in the summer I look like an olive skinned European (I’ve been told a ‘Mediterranean look). Due to this, I have never had to endure the pain of being racially attacked like my sister who is quite dark (although when I am my darker shade people comment on how much better I look – sorry but excuse me?? I am the same person…).
I have never seen a black person done up in ‘white’ makeup. Would there be the same outrage?
By releasing only a few of the photos, we are only seeing what they want us to see – a ‘lighter’ form of blackface (I say lighter because it is not the dark black blackface and overly protruded painted on lips etc – the clownish blackface that is meant to mock). IF it is true that the photos (in whole) depict a soft color change from black to white in order to showcase that a woman is beautiful no matter what color, then I see it as artistic license.
HOWEVER would it not have made the point in a more appealing manner if they had hired a model of EACH color? For example, a beautiful dark ebony woman, then a dark chocolate woman, then a milk chocolate woman, and so on until they reached the whitest white? From darkest dark to whitest white, we are ALL beautiful and I believe if that is the point they were trying to make, then that is what they should have done.
My 2 cents.
Before I get started, I’ll be honest, I’m white. My older sister is black (related through my father’s side) She says she doesn’t care about this, but I find it terribly insulting. They won’t hire models that are too white, but they paint white models black when there’s some gorgeous black models willing to do the shoot. Iman, Naomi Campbell come to mind. Women are geogouse in all colours and if they want a model to look a cerain part, they should hire accordingly. It’s not right to make a white chick dark and claim you don’t know better. The good news is it wasn’t done with intentional malice as they would with a picture of Michael Jackson or something. They really did wrong though.
OMG, i’m so sick of everything being called racist. Who cares if some white girl is painted black. My goodness, its art, not related to racism in any way. How come everytime something to do with a white person that a black person or someone of another color could have done better be considered racist? The editor or whoever was incharge of the photoshoot had an artistic idea and i believe it worked. The first thing that caught my eye when looking at these photos was not the color of the skin, it was how pretty the face of this girl looks, how awesome her pose is, NOT COLOR. I firmly believe NO ONE could have done these pictures any better, not even an African American woman. Its time to get over it, racism does not exist in real life these days, it only exists when ignorant people claim racism when their choice of skin color was not picked for a role they believed should have been. These photos symbolize art.
There is not one thing wrong with these pics. Art is beautiful in all forms, racism was and is not the point these pics were trying to make. Art comes in all forms of colors, not only white/ not only black/ not only red/ not only yellow, so get your thoughts correct, racism is incorrect to think about when looking at these gorgeous pictures. The model looks amazing, great bone structure and beautiful eyes. Black people want to think of this as degrading but its not, no other model could have made these photos as wonderful to look at than the one pictured in them.
Art indeed!
Now, I used to work as Beauty Consultant for a well known French fashion house. The fact is that most of these companies ARE racist. When I worked for the company in question, they would sometimes say that they didn’t want some Black girls to work for them because of the way that they looked. If they deemed that the Make-up artist/Beauty Consultant didn’t have the looks they desired, they would tell the agency to send someone else the next week, preferably someone White.
I dislike it when people, epecially people that these things don’t affect jump in to say it is art. It may be art to you, but as a Black person, it is not art for me when these same companies will not employ Black models, but have to paint White models Black instead. This is the height of stupidity to me and I take it as an insult, big time.
I don’t understand why any black blogs gave the editorial any light, I would never even post these images on my blog.