Naomi Campbell challenges Racist ‘White Beauty’

In her first major opinion piece OBV's Mallory Moench takes a look at recent developments in the fashion industry in which supermodel Naomi Campbell challenges the racism and stereotyping of ‘beauty’. She also explores of how the racism of ‘white beauty’, has become a global phenomenon, but one against some black women are at last fighting back.

Pouting on billboards and strutting across catwalks, classic images of the fashion industry aren’t just selling clothes. They’re also selling the sham that if icons of beauty are white, then white must equal beauty.

Naomi Campbell doesn’t buy it.

The fashion icon phoned up fellow runway superpower Victoria Beckham on October 29 and demanded to know why Beckham had only one non-white model in her recent 30-strong show. Beckham immediately responded with a defensive "I'm not racist", but the British designer isn’t the only target of her contemporary’s criticism.

Earlier this year, Campbell joined forces with Somalian supermodel Iman, wife of David Bowie, and former model agent Bethann Hardison to spearhead the Diversity Coalition, a campaign to end racism in the fashion industry.

On September 5, the Diversity Coalition exploded onto the world media stage with a bang. In a letter sent to the heads of the fashion industries in New York, London, Paris, and Milan, it accused high-end brands as “guilty of a racist act”.

Eyes are on an industry that season after season watches design houses consistently use one or no models of color. No matter the intention, the result is racism,”

read the letter.

The list of offenders included Versace, Céline, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Prada, Chanel, Gucci, and Marc by Marc Jacobs, just to name a few.

The letters exposed the reality of an industry whose catwalks are white-washed and design houses dominated by the pale elite.

At New York Fashion Week in February, 82.7% of designs were shown on white models, 9.1% on Asian models, 6% on black models, and only 2% on Latina models, according to statistics compiled by the website Jezebel.

Iman, Campbell’s partner in the Diversity Coalition, said that there are less non-white models on the runway now than when she started modeling in the 1970s. Campbell demanded that the fashion world needs to diversify to reflect the real world, and to extend equal competitiveness, as well as opportunity, to models of all colours.

What we are asking for is that you are chosen based on your talent, on your beauty,"

Naomi Campbell told Channel 4 News.

Not on the colour of your skin."

The real problem though, is as inextricable as the chicken and the egg: does the fashion industry feed the idea that white is beautiful, or does it just conform to society’s preexisting views?

The tragic truth is that ‘white beauty’ is a distorted idol across the globe. In some Asian cultures, lighter skin can determine a woman’s chances for employment and marriage – or, if she’s deemed too dark, destroy them.

Kavitha Emmanuel, director of the Indian Women of Worth (WOW) blames this propaganda on three causes: colonialism, the caste system, and the media.

“The influence of all three and more over the years has bred a deep-rooted bias that equates success, beauty and even a sense of superiority to fair skin,” she said.

This “deep-rooted bias” has turned into hard cash for “white beauty” profiteers. Asia’s skin-lightening market is valued at over 13 billion US dollars, according to a 2012 article by Asian Scientist. In China alone, it comprises 71 percent of the 5.5 billion dollar skincare market.

Mass marketing feeds this propaganda monster, as adverts in Thailand and Bollywood films in India delude viewers into believing that white skin is a magic ticket to love and prosperity.

But it’s not just the Far East that defines beauty as white. Hasnet Lais writing for The Independent revealed that discrimination based on skin colour is prevalent among British Asian communties.

He told the story of Sukwindher Kaur, a 25-year-old Punjabi schoolteacher in London whose hopes of marriage have been dashed by countless suitors because her skin is too dark.

Lais discovered Kaurs story is not uncommon. Sixth form student Manvir said that “many girls in my family, including me, have been taught to hate ourselves because we’re too dark to be attractive.”

Manvir refused to let the judgment get to her. Instead she started a campaign called “50 Shades of Brown” calling fellow students to challenge the “Bollywood narrative” that white is beautiful.

Across the world in India, women are also standing up against concepts of ‘white beauty’. WOW’s campaign Dark is Beautiful, fighting this prejudice, is gaining media recognition.

Dark is Beautiful has claimed as its poster child Bollywood star Nandita Das, who is described by Indian media as “dark and dusky” – although how dark she really is in comparison to the general population is debatable.

Whomever its icons, Dark is Beautiful is a vital movement that challenges detrimental racist notions of beauty that prevail around the globe – and one from which Western fashion runways could learn a lesson.

European designers start waves of fashion trends that are felt across continents. If the catwalks of London promote the message that white is beautiful, they set a global norm against which it’s hard to compete.

But Naomi Campbell’s Diversity Coalition and Kavitha Emmanuel’s Dark is Beautiful are giving them a run for their money. On opposite sides of the globe, they are pioneering racial justice by calling upon fashion moguls to set a new standard of diverse beauty.

"It’s time for a new wave of thinking towards skin colour,”

said Emmanuel.

"It’s time to redefine beauty. Not based on skin colour, but on a person’s innate worth.”

Mallory Moench