Black Fashion Models Who Have Deeply Spoken Up About Racism Before

June 6, 2020

fashion models speaking up against racism

The fashion industry has a long history of racism, diversity, and inclusion problem that only the industry insiders can explain better. Season after seasons, there’s literally no fashion week without a complaint about racial discrimination and in the course of addressing this unfair treatment, several creatives, including a slew of models have spoken up in the past. Although, when it comes to modeling, it goes beyond the skin color to the discrimination against age and body size. In recent years, however, there’s been a surge in the diversity index thanks to supermodels like Naomi Campbell, Chanel Iman, and many others who have been on the frontline to fight for inclusivity. Here, a quick look at the black models who couldn’t resist the urge to voice out their unfair experience.

Adut Akech

Adut Akech is a talented South Sudanese-Australian model whose career has been skyrocketing after making her fashion week runway debut during Saint Laurent S/S ’17 show. Last year, the 20-year-old model got into a social media brawl with Australian magazine due to racial discrimination. Akech was featured on the cover of Who magazine but later realized that her photo was incorrectly identified as an image of model Flavia Lazarus. The Sudanese beauty called out the magazine while expressing her displeasure. According to Who magazine, it was an “administrative error” for the mistake but the model maintained that there was no excuse for such a mistake.

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A post shared by Adut Akech Bior (@adutakech) on Mar 4, 2020 at 12:27pm PST

Speaking to ABC Radio Melbourne, the model made it clear that it wasn’t her first time feeling discriminated and this one has to be addressed. “The first time it happened I was very quiet about it,” she told ABC Radio. “But I think this one here was way too personal and it wasn’t just personal [to] me but it affected a lot of people as well. I just feel like I have to speak because this needs to stop, it cannot keep happening.”

Addressing the issue on social media, the model called the situation “unacceptable and inexcusable under any circumstances.” She further stated that “people are very ignorant and narrow-minded that they think every black girl or African people looks the same.”

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I’ve have given some deep thoughts the past few days on how to approach this situation that isn’t sitting well with me. For those who are not aware, last week @whomagazine (Australia) published a feature article about me. In the interview I spoke about how people view refugees and peoples attitude to colour in general. With the article they published a large photo saying it was me. But it was of another black girl. This has upset me, has made me angry, it has made me feel very disrespected and to me is unacceptable and inexcusable under any circumstances. Not only do I personally feel insulted and disrespected but I feel like my entire race has been disrespected too and it is why I feel it is important that I address this issue. Whoever did this clearly the thought that was me in that picture and that’s not okay. This is a big deal because of what I spoke about in my interview. By this happening I feel like it defeated the purpose of what I stand for and spoke about. It goes to show that people are very ignorant and narrowminded that they think every black girl or African people looks the same. I feel as though this would’ve not happened to a white model. My aim for this post is not to bash Who Magazine -they have apologised to me directly – but I feel like I need to express publicly how I feel. This has deeply affected me and we need to start an important conversation that needs to happen. I’m sure that I’m not the first person that’s experienced this and it needs to stop. I’ve been called by the name of another models who happens to be of the same Ethnicity, I find it very ignorant, rude and disrespectful towards both of us simply because we know that this doesn’t happen with white models. I want this to be somewhat of a wake up call to people within the industry it’s not OK and you need to do better. Big publications need to make sure that they fact check things before publishing them especially when its real stories and interviews and not just some made up rumors. To those who work at shows and shoots it’s important that you don’t mix up models names. Australia you’ve a lot of work to do and you’ve got to do better and that goes to the rest of the industry

A post shared by Adut Akech Bior (@adutakech) on Aug 25, 2019 at 5:34am PDT

Ebonee Davis

When it comes to speaking up, model Ebonee Davis is clearly a radical. She’s a no-nonsense model and she’s known for calling out brands regardless of who’s involved. Just do the right thing and she won’t have your time.

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A post shared by Ebonee Davis (@eboneedavis) on Jan 17, 2020 at 8:26pm PST

In 2016, the afro-chic model penned an honest open letter to the fashion industry, criticizing how the industry perceives beauty and also urged others not to keep silent but to use their platforms to speak up against racial discrimination. “Use your platform to speak out against injustice rather than standing by in silence,” she wrote.

“As artists in the fashion industry, we are the embodiment of free speech,” she further stated. “We set the tone for society through the stories we tell—fashion, the gatekeeper of cool, decides, and dictates what is beautiful and acceptable.”

Jourdan Dunn

Like every other black model, Jourdan Dunn was not exempted. She’s experienced the worst and in 2011, the 29-year-old English supermodel couldn’t keep silent after her racist encounter with a makeup artist. Having at that time landed campaigns for Yves Saint Laurent, Tommy Hilfiger and Burberry, graced the cover of Vogue Italia and Teen Vogue, and won Model Of The Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2008, Dunn was still facing racism.

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A post shared by Jourdan Dunn (@jourdandunn) on Feb 26, 2020 at 8:49am PST

In 2011, the model complained about how a makeup artist said she couldn’t work on her face because she was black. As HuffPost pointed out, ‘this wasn’t a case of a white makeup artist not knowing how to apply products to a darker skin tone — this was just pure racism.’ In a tweet, the model expressed her grievances, saying that some makeup artists should learn how to work with a black woman’s hair or skin.