Jezebel 
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New York, 7:34 AM
Sun Nov 8
22 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/06/09
11/06/09
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11/06/09
11/07/09
It is a little embarrassing. One of my friends peeked in my makeup bag and was like "I didn't know you were a Mary Kate and Ashley fan" #zoekravitz
11/06/09
Fisher's ads feature a pretty wide range of women (ages, races and yes, sizes). She doesn't need to target the plus-size market because they already flock to her.
Also, Rosie bugs me. Does Donna Karan go for a plus size image? No. #ragtrade
11/06/09
If I go to a higher end department store and look at plus sizes, the style is very dowdy and matronly. There are young, plus size women who have the money to buy nice things.
11/06/09
However, it is true the company is consciously chasing a younger "hipper" customer -- they certainly collaborated with a Times article stating same -- and that strikes me as foolish.
And if Fisher herself said what O'Donnell reports, to her very face, that is just downright mean.
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
Famous person talking about and wearing your clothes = great advertising. Famous person telling fans how rude and ungrateful clothing designer is = bad advertising. That's how social media works, lady. #zoekravitz
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
I didn't know the President was able to do this. Are we in England? #ragtrade
11/06/09
11/06/09
10/14/09
And I don't think the "But we're French!" excuse flies anymore. It's not like France is hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world or doesn't have its own racial problems. I'm sorry to say that from my perspective, Europeans seem to be behind Americans in terms of racial sensitivity. I still clearly remember the slanty eyes pictures of the Spanish Olympic basketball team and the repeated, lame Berlusconi jokes about the Obamas being "tanned." Both of those were excused as instances of cultural ignorance, usually accompanied by a "hey, it was a joke you PC Americans. Lighten up!"
Ugh.
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
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10/14/09
10/14/09
The shoot is apparently intended to be arty, to be edgy; fine. But it feels cheap and attention-seeking, and the lack of non-white models in the rest of the issue suggests that the editors are actually the opposite of edgy - they are just lazy and conservative.
10/14/09
10/14/09
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10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
As I mentioned in the first story about this, racism does not exist on its own. It is an intent. There is no way there was intent here. Brown paint on white skin is not in and of itself a minstrel show, and it does not inherently make the pictures racist. So by the logic of the detractors on the board, no one is ever allowed to wear white robes anymore just because the Klan does? Or is it the pointy hats that make them racists? The people involved in this are not racists. So the pics cant be either.
The most disturbing thing about this is that if they had used a black model wearing white paint in the spread, this article and these discussions would not even exist. Everyone here that is offended by this would be appeased by that simple tit for tat. And for anyone to think that actual racism could be resolved so easily is dangerous. If your resolution to "racism" can be resolved that simply, then it wasn't real in the first place. And please spare me the forth coming "I didn't say that would appease me" line. Its the truth, and if you're being honest with us and yourself you know it is.
10/14/09
10/14/09
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10/14/09
10/15/09
A: how on earth would you know what their private beliefs are?
The same way you do apparently. Your assumption that they are racists is as valid as my assumption that they aren't.
B: Racism, or any other ideological position, doesn't function overtly. Most of us are unaware of our own prejudices.
Exactly. Real racists don't go around promoting it. Much less produce multipage photo shoots in international magazines touting that racism.
C: Nobody has suggested that the editors of Vogue 'are racists'.
Ok, lets say hypothetically that's true. So then what you are saying is that the the images are racist instead. No actual person is, just the pictures. Talk about a strawman argument.
You and others on this board will never concede any of my points as it gets in the way of you politically correct agenda. No one ever actually wants to discuss race. You just want to bludgeon the other side into submission in hopes of them just going away. That does nothing to actually help resolve the race issues in the world.
I can only assume you would have made equally as forceful an arguement for Tawana Brawley, or the Duke Lacrosse "victim", up to the point where they were both proven to be liars. You much like the professors at Duke who condemned the entire team immediately, see race first and no further discussion is warranted. And god help the person that does. They are obviously (moronic, deficient, dense, witless, dim, foolish, brainless, half-witted, idiotic, shortsighted, simple, slow, sluggish, thick, imbecilic, unintelligent, insert your own...) Although I have to admit being called Tom Cruise is a new one. Kudos for that. #vogueblackface
10/14/09
I don't think there's anything wrong with this because really, she's just painted brown. They didn't enhance her lips or give her an out of control afro wig, or any of the stuff that really makes me think "blackface". She's just darker.
10/14/09
10/16/09
I added in my race because, like it or not, it does kind of matter who the "I'm NOT offended" comment comes from. I in no way meant it as a green light for white folks to start jumping in brown paint and walking around all day talking about massa' and what not. I'm just saying, I'm more offended by "mammy" type of images, like Aunt Jemima, than I am by some white girl covered in brown concealer.
I understand wanting to caution people against the "well my one black friend says...." effect, but don't put that shit on me, because I never said, "hey chill out everybody, I've just made it OK to love blackface!" #vogueblackface
10/14/09
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10/14/09
you can even make the argument that one of the reasons josephine baker was so welcomed by french people was BECAUSE she was a highly eroticized other that played into colonial myths about the hypersexuality of native peoples. I mean, come on, her most famous dance performance was called the "danse sauvage" and she wore a skirt made of bananas. she became a citizens through marriage, but she was first and foremost a PERFORMER. that being said, baker was still a badass who fought for civil and human rights but i doubt that her acceptance into the french mainstream is a whole-hearted/wholesome as you make it to sound.
10/14/09
10/14/09
Indeed. As an African America woman who has traveled extensively throughout France while reading for my PhD in French History I can honestly say that this perceived prejudice seems to stem more from class and economics than it does to your actual skin tone. As in England.
I don't think you can say that by and large French society as a whole is more or less racist than any other place. Their problems with immigration are also something that should be viewed in a wider spectrum, such as the lack of desire on the part of many of these North Africa/Arab/Afro-Carribean minority communities to integrate.
Let's try to refrain from broad and sweeping generalizations. This editorial is outrageous, but it simply cannot be attributable to the whole of the French peoples perceived prejudice.
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
as far as assimilation and integration go: why should these groups be forced to forget their cultural heritage and adopt the cultural markers of a society that doesn't really want them AS THEY ARE but would only accept them if they were more like them? and how do you integrate into a culture when you go into a job interview are immediately taken out of consideration when you open your mouth and the interviewer hears your accent?
the riots in 2005 happened because immigrant youth couldn't find jobs BECAUSE they were immigrants. they wanted to work and many of them did conceive of themselves as french but weren't treated as such.
im not saying france is any more or any less racist than anywhere else. im just saying that it IS and it is something that they cultural minister is going to have to address at some point. either french culture needs to reimagine itself as more inclusive or these sorts of problems are going to continue indefinitely.
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
You basically just said that French people are racist. I am hugely offended by this unqualified, unequivocal statement which is in itself racist.
10/14/09
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10/14/09
also, both france and the us have large communities of poc. if i were to say that ALL french or ALL americans are racist i would be making the assumption that ALL people in those countries are members of the culturally dominant group and be ignoring the existence of the communities of poc.
10/14/09
In fact, this is a sad face. A SAD FUCKING FACE.
10/14/09