French fashion magazine puts white model In ‘African Queen’ blackface

Category: RTM News Reel Published on Tuesday, 26 February 2013 09:10 Written by Danielle Young, hellobeautiful

French fashion magazine, Numéro recently showcased a African Queen photoshoot featuring White model, Ondria Hardin. Now, I know what you’re thinking–a White woman is an African Queen now? Yes, as long as there’s a big enough budget for limitless bronzer, then you’re good.

What’s most frustrating is that there’s so many Black models who could use the work, but the White models seem to always book the jobs. This fashion spread is very indicative of the racism in the fashion world. #TeamBeautiful reported on the lack of Black faces during New York Fashion Week, and now those very same faces are being ignored for their White counterparts to be painted Black for fashion. What part of the game is this?! This is like hiring Kerry Washington to play Oprah in a biopic and needing her to put on a fat suit.

According to Jezebel, the 16-year-old model is signed to Ford Models and it’s shocking that this agency has more than enough models of color who could have booked that very same job. Maybe it was something about Hardin’s thin features saturated in Blackface paint that made the powers that be at the magazine happy with their choice.
What kind of hope can Black models hold on to if White women are getting booked for jobs they should have not even showed up to the casting call for!?