Comments on: Allo, Blackface

By: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader in Blackface « Dallas Cowboy Gal

Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader in Blackface « Dallas Cowboy Gal — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 05:44:12 +0000

[...] possibly think that this is gonna go over well. It’s just hideous. I for one am tired of this recent resurgence of blackface, it’s insensitive and it just shows a lack of class. The Cowboys organization is one of the [...]

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:44:14 +0000

as far as painting the model black, I do not see a point in that. Why not just get a black model….

By: Lisa

Lisa — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:42:48 +0000

I actually love the look, and think the models look great in the afros. The black model, especially looks like a doll. I think it is great, and is apart of fashion. I do not think that they were trying to poke fun at black people or our hair. It actually makes me want to rock an afro!! Not that big of course….. Nevertheless, I loved the look

By: Ana

Ana — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:34:48 +0000

A lot of people are obsessed with Black people and their skin. They just dont wanna admit it.
There is no place for black models, even in Africa. I wish black women would get this through their heads already. Who cares anyway, this looks wack?

By: Zoë

Zoë — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:03:28 +0000

Back in May I remember seeing an asian model with a afro and painted brown skin for the Mac Style Warriors Collection and no one seemed to notice. Personally, I don’t have a problem with it…as long as it is done beautifully.

By: vx

vx — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 12:34:24 +0000

I think this is such an important issue and I would like to pose the question, what if the situation were reversed? what if they used a black model and painted her white? what would your opinion be and why?
would that not be equally, if not MORE offensive?

By: Mrs. McC

Mrs. McC — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:03:42 +0000

Looking at these pictures and the prior post about the Afro wigs, I wonder if any “imitation” of black people is seen as racist and offensive. Given the history of blackface, these pictures are at best racially insensitive, but I wonder if it could be possible for there to not be any real racism behind such expressions of “art”. It is more provocative, at least to me, to use a white model with darkened skin then it is to use a naturally dark model. If these were pictures of black models, while I am sure they would be beautiful, I would more then likely pay little attention to them, if any. But using a white model now has the name of the model, photographer, even the editor all over the internet. It seems like there are some brilliant people over at French Vogue who know how to effectively drum up buzz for their magazine.

Had the blackface model been hanging from a tree eating a banana, or any other racist display, I would be wholeheartedly against it. Being that she is just standing there in some clothes the pictures are just in poor taste.

By: b.

b. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:33:50 +0000

My mouth fell open and my head fell to one side when I visited the link to threadbared and saw the OTHER recent atrocity: the Carlos Diez show @ Madrid Fashion Week. What IN the world???!!!

http://threadbared.blogspot.com/2009/10/blackface-and-violence-of-revulsion.html

Bella, pls follow up on that foolishness as well. This spread from Fr. Vogue was sad in my opinion, although I do wonder at the entire context of the spread. They could have used Black models for crying out loud. But this…other…foolishness…why?

By: clara

clara — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:11:28 +0000

While I am mostly on the fence about this, there are some things I would like to discuss.

First, skin tone does not inherently indicate nationality and culture! We all know it is not unusual to see black women with skin lighter than that of many white women. In fact, one of my friends is an African American albino, and throughout her life she’s had to deal with accusations of not being “black enough”, whereas she learned very early that skin tone at its most basic level is pigment, not identity.

Blackface is undeniably a very dangerous concept to dabble with, and surely it will always be near-impossible to forget the racist connotations that often accompany it. But to me, it is also definitely a concept, rather than simply the presence of dark paint on light skin. Here, the model is not painted with exaggerated lips and bugged-out eyes, as happened in old minstrel shows and other disgusting circumstances. Does that make it okay? No, though I think this shows it’s important to consider context and intention. There is no meaning without context, and I don’t think we have all of the context right now.

To those who ask why French Vogue didn’t simply use a black model for this shoot, I say that the point of this was not to make a white woman look black or to suggest that facial features associated with Caucasians are in any way superior. Lara Stone painted black is not competing with black models. Reality just doesn’t seem to be the aim, and I doubt there were any malicious or racist intentions.

Modern fashion has been characterized by risk-taking and fantasy. For every hit there are innumerable misses. I haven’t decided what this is personally, but I hope French Vogue at least had the common sense and were prepared to have this stamped as a miss.

By: designdiva

designdiva — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:15:46 +0000

I was offended by the LV afros and now I’m offended by this. This is how it starts, next thing you know there will be blackface and “Pickaninny” characters everywhere–again.