By: Keli Goff
When most Americans think of the major civil rights battlegrounds—the ones that have the greatest impact on shaping our perspectives of race and justice in this country—we think of battles over integrating schools, the workplace and the voting booth.
Very rarely do we think of fashion. And yet the fashion industry has turned out to be one of the last frontiers in our country’s struggle to reconcile our complicated and painful racial history.
My mother grew up in an America in which you were as likely to see a black model as you were to see a leprechaun at the end of a rainbow. My older sister was fortunate to grow up in an America in which Beverly Johnson became the very first black woman to grace the cover of American Vogue. And I grew up in an America in which the runways were ruled by countless brown beauties from Tyra Banks to Veronica Webb, Roshumba, Karen Alexander, Lana Ogilvie and of course (by way of the UK) Naomi Campbell. But according to a recent analysis by the New York Times when it comes to the current face of fashion my 8-year-old niece is more likely to grow up in the America of her grandmother, one in which the definition of beauty is unequivocally white.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/fashion/shows/14race.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The New York Times notes that “Of the 101 shows and presentations posted on Style.com during the New York runway season, which ended a month ago, more than a third employed no black models, according to Women’s Wear Daily. Most of the others used just one or two.” So at a time in which as many as 50% of black males dropout of high school in some urban areas and HIV rates are the leading cause of death for young black women, should the issue of diversity in fashion really be a priority? The answer is absolutely.
Fashion is not merely an indulgence. It is a multi-billion dollar industry one that black women contribute an estimated $20 billion to. If any industry, from banking to construction had virtually no black employees at their major offices the issue would be at the very least, a cause for concern, and at worse, a cause for litigation. But there are even deeper societal implications. Despite how shallow it may sound to some fashion, as it is transmitted through media, magazines, advertisements and runways—is the vehicle through which we define our society’s ideals. It is the vehicle through which we define beauty in our culture. It is the vehicle through which we define who and what is relevant in our culture. It is the vehicle through which we define our dreams and aspirations. Thus it is the vehicle through which we define who we are.
And if we begin to define the American ideal as one in which scores of the population simply do not exist, it sends an incredibly dangerous message.
I want my niece to grow up in a world in which she thinks she is beautiful, but more importantly I want her to grow up in a world in which she wakes up every morning, goes to school and knows that she is just as entitled to her piece of the American Dream as her blonde-haired, blue-eyed classmates. That’s a hard message to pick up on when you grow up seeing the American Dream depicted on television or in magazines as one in which you do not exist.
In the New York Times piece it was noted that for many in the fashion industry the issue of diversity is rarely thought about, let alone discussed. In other words, people would rather plead ignorance, than acknowledge and address a problem. So I have an idea of how to help educate those who may simply be blissfully unaware of why this issue matters. If black celebrities, from Beyonce, to Rhianna as well as Kanye West, decline to attend the shows and wear the clothes of designers who do not employ black models, my guess is a few of those designers might get educated on this issue very, very quickly. West could prove to be a particularly effective voice because he has been dubbed an emerging style icon, a label seemingly confirmed by his ubiquitous front row presence at the most recent spate of European fashion shows. Furthermore, West, to put it mildly, is no shrinking violet. After all in the wake of Hurricane Katrina he infamously opined that, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Perhaps the same could be said of the fashion industry.
www.keligoff.com
Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments
The fashion industry is nothing more than the bi-product of the raced based views the European society towards people of African descent. I believe it is ridiculous of ask people that do not share in the interest of African people to include those imagines in their fashion campaigns. Asking the current fashion industry to include brown women is almost asking for their children to not view their features as attractive. Even though I believe people of European decent actually resent their pale features, hence the excessive tanning and bronzing cosmetic products. If these people started recognizing the features of African women as beautiful, how could they look themselves in the mirror and feel beautiful? Since black women as you stated contribute 20 billion in revenue, then why show black women if they are still willing to pay for the magazines and clothing.
There is nothing stopping people of African decent in forming their own fashion industry. Diverting revenue from the European industry to the African, purchase ad space within major distribution channels and declare ourselves as beautiful. Blacks in America are spending excess resources to be accepted by a society that just wants to be brown anyway. Black women in America have been ostracized for their features (i.e. lips, buttocks and skin tone) just to see Whites lay in the sun, get botox lip injections and butt implants over the past 10 years.
I applaud Tyra in creating a new space for brown women to be viewed as beautiful, which is exactly the formula that should be followed. Don’t ask to be viewed as beautiful, just ignore them, their opinions of our beauty do not matter. Once people of African decent create their on fashion outlets and successfully support them, the current European based industry could either ignore the lost of revenue or change their standards of beauty.
Another perspective could be is the major demographic of the people buying their publications within their distribution are white, which makes good business sense to market a white face in their publications.