In this clip, he asks senior correspondent, Larry Wilmore, if blackface is ever okay. The simple answer? "No."
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Is Blackface Ever OK? | ||||
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I did a little informal investigating into the November and October issues of Vogue Magazine. Basically, I went through and counted the race of all the models. OMG! I was racial-profiling! Literally.
This is what I found:
November 2009 Vogue:
White: 79
Black: 7
Other: 1
Percentage breakdown:
Out of a total of 87 instances of models appearing in advertisements, approximately 8% were black, and significantly less than 1% were of another other race (besides white and black).
October 2009 Vogue:
White: 135
Black: 15
Other: 7
Out of a total of 157 instances of models appearing in advertisements approximately 10% were black, and less than 5% were of another race (besides white and black).
Of great puzzlement to me is that there is not a clear path toward equality within the pages of Vogue. What would diversity look like? Black & White: 50/50? That would leave out the opportunity for other races and cultures to be represented. Okay, then, might I suggest proportional advertising?
American Racial Demographics:
Race
White: 74% of population
Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, of any race: 14.8%
Black or African American alone: 13.4%
Some other race alone: 6.5%
Asian alone: 4.4%
Two or more races: 2.0%
American Indian or Alaska Native alone: 0.68%
Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander alone: 0.14%
Vogue could embrace advertising and fashion spreads in proportion to the population of the country in which it publishes. I mean, that's just a suggestion. I hardly think it's realistic. Why? Well, the crux of the matter relies solely on one thing: $$MONEY$$.
Let's parse this issue down a little further so you can see what I'm getting at.
Issue #1: Blackface fashion spread in Vogue
Issue #2: "Racist" fashion cover/spread w/ Gisele & Lebron James
Issue #3: Lack of black models in Vogue advertisements
Issue #4: Lack of black models in Vogue photo spreads
My argument is that the one common denominator in all of these issues is money. Vogue could be racist to the core of its Alexander-Wang-smothered, delicate, white, bird bones, but that's not what this is about. It's about controversy, shock-value, and, ultimately, increased circulation (aka increased profits). The reason I suggest this is because blackface is Serious Business. It was an entertainment movement that aimed at mocking black people in the 19th century. It entailed a deep misunderstanding of black culture and relied on bad stereotypes to denigrate a race of people. I don't think that's what Vogue (or ANTM) was aiming to do. I think their racial insensitivity had everything to do with getting people riled up for profit. If there's no such thing as bad publicity, might I suggest that Vogue is feeding its own publicity mill for gain? Furthermore, the lack of black models in their advertisements and fashion spreads points to one thing: representation of a diverse population is not important to Vogue because it is not profitable.
There, I said it. This is not a defense of Vogue's politics or a suggestion that they aren't indeed racist. I just think there is a different mechanism at work here that, by ignoring, we are in turn fostering.
When we get offended by Vogue's blackface spread, or Tyra's blackface photo shoot on America's Next Top Model, and our outrage zooms around the internet and the blogosphere, we are drumming up global interest in this issue. Though the interest be of the negative type, it sends people running to their computers to type out their indignation on tweets and facebook status. We then become a free publicity machine for Vogue and for ANTM. We are generating interest, CPM, page clicks, ad revenue, etc.
On the flip side, ignoring this issue doesn't help either. I'm not saying that I have the answers, but I at least had an alternative perspective to suggest. The best we can do is take our righteous indignation and use it to fuel boycotts, or demands for diversity, personal responsibility and equality. The choice is ours. If we can lift our faces up from all the juicy drama, we can change the way the fashion industry addresses race.
11 comments:
i'm happy you acknowedged this issue in ur blog. i have too many thoughts and opinions on this topic to discuss further here but still wanted to give kudos to u for talking abt this. tonite i will be posting a collage of beauty from all spectrums. hope u enjoy. btw, love the red hair in ur pic. jenna pearle a la passionista place.
I wonder how closely Vogue readership demographics follow the American race population breakdown.
Also, since you were counting models in advertisements it made me think about how those would be unique companies and each company will have a target customer. From a marketing perspective, if 74% of the populations base is white then it follows a company/brand is more likely to pick a model that reflects the largest portion of their target customer base.
such a well thought out post. I'm glad that you backed it up with some data. Personally i try to avoid purchasing fashion zines because I feel that there is enough fashion content available for free on the internet, so your post just gave me another reason to avoid purchasing tangible fashion news. Although I am interested in the break down of race in smaller publications like Nylon, Jalouse, i-D, Another, Dazed and Confused, etc.
Hi Jenna, I am sure that you are addressing a sensitive topic here. It would be interesting to compare versions of let's say the China Vogue and the African Vogue (I am sure there is something like that) to the American Vogue. Because choosing only the American Vogue makes it not really globally representative. Perhaps we will face a surprise when we take that data also into account? You could contact fashion blogging girls (e.g. via IFB) from these countries and ask them to count out their national Vogues. Looking forward to the surely interesting results if you fancy that idea!
Love, Lilly
This is a sensitive issue, this black face scandal is shock value for them, a way to raise awareness and be relevant even if on the negative side, they know people will be more likely to check out next issues even if just to search for new controversies. As far as Vogue around the world goes I don’t think it’s any different since they are mostly mirror publications with low budgets and mostly do not create their own editorials as is the case of Vogue Latin America and the ads are the same ones you get for say the American version. But as Fashion XK8 I’m interested on how the smaller publications compare.
Well put, and I completely agree. Most of this "shock value" stuff is done to rile people up for the sake of publicity...
"But that isn't profitable!" is such a bad argument for ignoring racial diversity. Ethics vs business aside, if magazines don't try it, don't give people time to get used to it and reevaluate, then how can they say that the change won't benefit them marvelously, long-run?
Claire, I could not agree more!
Love it! THX for taking the time! We are working on a campaign about discrimination issues in fashion! Am going to post this on my blog!
[...] ones? Yes, but there is a lot about the fashion industry that bothers me (like it’s inherent racism, it’s treatment toward the overweight, it’s out-of-touch snobbery, it’s refusal [...]
Thank you for discussing this.
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