One of my favorite things to do on my past time, or my anytime is to log on to my twitter account and tweet my little heart out along with my friends and some very cool strange people I follow. In doing so, I find some very interesting articles and links that catch my attention such as this one and It makes me feel the need to speak. What you see above is black face on an Dutch supermodel Lara stone in a shoot photographed by Steven Klein styled by editor Carine Rotifield of French Vogue. Unfamiliar with the term black face? Well, so you know Webster had this to say about it; noun: 1.Makeup for a conventionalized comic travesty of Black people, especially in a minstrel show. 2.An actor wearing such makeup in a minstrel show. Now I don't know about you, but when I look at this, I think when will it end? I don't see fierce photo shoot, I don't see high fashion, I don't see artistry. Something else blocks all of the normalcy for me. I don't know, perhaps it's the "comic travesty of black people" thing. I mean really am I wrong to assume that there is something else behind this then doing "something different" to sell magazines? People have suffered, and fought and, marched and died trying to fight for the rights of African Americans along with other ethnicity's. Have some respect. This is not cool. Like a lot of industries, fashion has its fair share of racism, Iman, Naomi Campbell and Alek Wek are some models in the past and present that have been brave enough to publicly address the issue. I'm all for fashion and the arts but when do we draw the line between haute-couture and haute-mess??? Please speak on it, I'd love to know how you feel.
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5 comments:
i, like you, find this absolutely ridic. i'm not sure why blackface has been utilized and in the news so much, but it isn't funny and it damn sure isn't art.
I heard about this a couple of days ago and at first I was a little pissed. I had also heard about the Australian incident with Harry Connick Jr. I have come to the conclusion that it is ignorance in the truest sense of the word. I do not mean to be derogatory. I mean that blackface is not understood in other parts of the world as it is understood here. America has been f#%king with black people for centuries and there is such a heightened level of sensitivity here that we are intolerant of any form of racism. Around the world (though extremely racist) they don't have the same history and don't understand things like blackface, IMO. Total ignorance. I do believe that they have heard of it and they should know better, but I don't think they understand the magnitude of the offensive nature of what was done.
Furthermore I believe that though they were trying to go out and push the envelope and be avant-garde, they should have just hired Chanel, or Sessilee, or Jourdan. The world wants to be black they just don't want to admit it.
Steven Klein is one of my faves. He should have known better no excuse for him. SMH
i can't even begin to understand how they decided this would be a good idea. people always want to say how far this world has come. this is a prime example of how far we still have to go. horrible!
The Anti-Pop, I know you would feel me on this one.There isn't anything funny or artsy about it at all.
Flix, my sentiments exactly. with all the beautiful models of color out there, this is what they pull. I did read about the Harry Connick Jr,incident too, I'm so glad he was uncomfortable with it and spoke up.
The world probably wants to be black?! very interesting theory, I mean, I guess that would explain the big tanning obsession, huh??
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