Brazilian Fashion Show Reaches Deal in Using Black Models

Brazilian model: Thais Dos Santos Fernandes

 

 

Via BBC:

 

Brazilian prosecutors and organisers of Sao Paulo Fashion Week have reached a deal over claims that too few black and mixed-race models are taking part.

Under its terms, fashion brands must ensure that 10% of the models are of African or Indigenous descent.

Last year, an investigation concluded eight of 344 the models taking part in the event were black - just 2.3%.

Companies failing to meet the new target could face the prospect of being fined more than $120,000.

Sao Paulo Fashion Week, being held in June, attracts worldwide attention.

But when the Brazilian newspaper, Folha de Sao Paulo, drew attention to the fact that few black models were used, the legal authority responsible for looking after the public interest opened an investigation.

Easier to work abroad

Brazil has more people of African descent than anywhere outside Africa itself.

Almost half of the population is said to be black or of mixed race.

But black Brazilian models say it has often been easier to get work abroad than in their own country.

It is a sensitive time for the issue of racial quotas in Brazil.

While there has been little visible sign of tension over race, people of African heritage make up the poorest section of society.

An attempt to create a national law to establish quotas to address this inequality has once again been delayed in the Brazilian Congress, because of a failure to reach a consensus.

Some legislators are arguing that the best way to tackle inequality would be to use social rather than racial criteria in setting targets.

 

I guess now we can see that the "Black Out" of the fashion industry extends further than just the runways of the NYC.  Black models or black women just can't seem to catch a break.  Why is it that so many are threatened by "Black Beauty"?  That is the only explanation I could come up with.  These people have to be threatened by "Black Beauty" and that is the only reason why they refuse to use these women.  They can use whatever excuse they have for excluding us from their runways, magazines, and television shows, but at the end of the day it all boils down to jealousy and envy.  Its not that they don't see our beauty; they just covet it and because they cannot encapsulate this regal beauty that we possess, they rather relegate it to something that is undesirable and ugly. 

 

There is nothing more diabolical than a bunch of girls teasing a pretty girl so much that it gets to a point that the pretty girl starts to doubt her own beauty.  This is what is being done to black women.  We have been teased so much about our looks that it has gotten to the point that even we doubt our own beauty.  When someone like Iman can say that Michelle Obama is no "Great Beauty" you have to ask of whose standards are Iman judging Michelle.  If we cannot recognize our own beauty how can we expect others to respect the beauty that we possess as a people?