Make Fetch Happen had a great post on the sensitive situation concerning black models in Brazil and how they can’t find jobs. Brigitte @ Make Fetch Happen included a BBC article which you can read here.
Some interesting and shocking stats & quotes from the article include:
-2% of the models at Brazilian fashion shows are black
-”The black models can’t get jobs and have no access, don’t have a good distribution of money or earnings and live in a sub-world, because there are no job opportunities.”
-Dudu Bertholini, designer for Cori, whose show on the first day involved no black models, was adamant: “If the models are good, it doesn’t matter if they are black or white.” but then the journalist says that some black models find it hard to get work. Guess what the designer replied with? “They do? Are they good models? Are they beautiful? Are they tall? Are they good enough?” he asked.
That might as well be a euphemism for …. do they look white? Are they light-skinned? It really disgusts me and leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Being dark and light are two gorgeous components of black beauty; being light-skinned does not make your prettier than dark, nor does being dark make your prettier than a light-skinned girl. It is all in the features for me. Black beauty is one of the most diverse in the whole world; why exclude black Brazilian models? I have had enough of this Gisele Bundchen/Raquel Zimmerman over-exposure when in fact, they only represent one side of Brazil.
Fashion has always been racist, that is no joke but this is like a fashion version of apartheid. What is so equal and diverse about that?
3 Comments
23/05/2008 at 09:28
i was being chatted up by a pardo (mixed) brasillian and he insisted that i must also be pardo and seemed upset by my insistance that i was in fact completely black. needless to say, the good mood was spoiled and we never dated again
27/01/2008 at 19:15
@Ana, welcome to Charcoal Ink and thank you so much for your input. Your views are most welcome here
Glad to see another diaspora sister!
I am horrified to learn that black brazilians feel good that the white models are successful as opposed to them. it is one thing if they are happy but they are white and the black brazilians are black — why don’t they want to see people who look like them blazing down the catwalk?
I completely agree with you that black brazilians have a lot of fighting to do. This topic is very interesting.
27/01/2008 at 17:09
the answer is plain and simple.Black Brazilians have a lot of fighting to do. Brazil have some of the most beautiful and intelligent black people in the world, but they are invisible. Afro Brazilians need to really uncderstand that they are entitled to justice, opportunities, and equal rights and start a struggle to end discrimation and their invisibility. They also need to stop believing that being Brazilian( citizenship) is all that matters. Many Afro Brazilians identify with the whites, therefore they feel very good when Giselle and the other white models are successful.The solutions to their surmountable problems can only come from within the realm of the Afro Brazilian world. No one else can solve their problems.
Saludos.