It was London Fashion week last week and as per usual, among the catwalk shows and outrageous clothing, a debate was raging. Last year the argument was about the use of “size 0” models; this year it surrounded the lack of Black or Asian models on the catwalk, a topic that has long been discussed and discarded in Europe.
The question “why” has often been answered by fashion industry with the argument that ethnic models are harder to sell. In other words the clients don’t want them. Their clients, the clothing and cosmetics companies as well as the magazines, argue that their customers cannot relate to ethnic models, despite the fact that the populations of large European cities such as Paris and London are more than 20% ethnic. I suppose what they really saying is that their products are not marketed at ethnic minorities; that is not where the "big money" is.
Regardless of their reasons for it, it is obvious that the fashion industry is biased against ethnic minority models. Naomi Campbell, the most famous of the Black European models and the most vocal against discrimination in the fashion industry, has been quoted as saying she had a little help form her friends all the way. Other models would have to threaten to boycott catwalk shows if designers refused to use her before she was led backstage and she contends that she would never have graced the cover of French Vogue if Yves Saint Laurent had not threatened to pull his adverts. Yves Saint Laurent, who was the first designer to use black models in his catwalk shows way back in the 1970s, has long been a supporter of ethnic models, as has Dame Vivien Westwood. The scenes during last weeks fashion shows proved that they are in the minority as hundreds of white models walked the catwalk, with one or two ethnic minorities trailing them.
So is the real reason that there is no demand for ethnic minority models or is it simply that we in Europe are racist? Many advertising campaigns have been “white washed” so to speak. Ford was greatly admonished in the 1990’s for removing the faces of its black employees from a picture contained in an advertising drive when it was run in Spain. Last year Santander, a Spanish owned bank removed Lewis Hamilton from its campaign pictures in Spain. There was outrage in France when it was alleged that L'Oréal had described the women they wanted to front a 2000 advertising promotion as 18 to 22 and "BBR," the initials for "bleu, blanc, rouge," or blue, white, red - the colours of the French flag a designation know by French agencies to mean white.
It is easy for us in the UK to be smug about the number of black faces in our advertising but how “black” are they? When I first saw the Marks and Spencer adverts featuring Noémie Lenoir, the Black French model I did not realise that she was black, so close is she to looking like a white woman. Everywhere you look there are women who could pass for white passing for black models. How often do we have Alek Wek gracing the cover of mainstream glossy magazine?
As much as we would like to point the finger it is not just Europe where the majority of people believe that true feminine beauty is white or as close to it as one can get. I remember being at school in Kenya when a girl was described as only capable of being pretty in the eyes of other black people albeit by a white girl. There were a lot of black people nodding in agreement as she said it. Then there was the blond never could tan girl, who in reality was as plain as could be but somehow became the definition of beauty.
This is not a new thing, if you read descriptions of beauty in English literature there is often mention of milky white skin. Look closely at the descriptions of the beautiful body and there is little mention of behinds that are often a feature of the black woman’s body.
Black women the world over use skin lightening creams and straighten their hair in a bid to have “good” hair. We go on extreme diets in order to attempt to conform to the definition of beauty that we see around us, that is marketed to us by the very companies that refuse to use black models. We are complicit in the message that white is beautiful.
In the face of societies perception of beauty perhaps the argument for using white models is not that black beauty does not sell; conceivably it is simply that the majority, even some black people, do not believe it exists.
The wedding planning blues
I am finally going to a wedding. I have to go, it is my own. I have always dreaded the thought of having a wedding. However, I managed to circumvent much stress through extensive research and all out action. I am not patient enough to spend eight months planning an event; I have other things to do with my life! I ensured most of the major decisions were made in about three weeks and carried on with my existence.
Yet despite my obsessively organised approach to the planning and dissemination of information, people have still managed to stress me out. Now, just two months before the event, people are coming forward to say they would like to come, asking for information that I have already given them or that is readily available from other sources or that I cannot actually supply as I am not a travel agent/doctor/omnipresent all knowing being.
I realise from my experience why the saying “weddings and funerals bring out the best and the worst in people” was coined. The people that you least expect to become demanding and insensitive in ways that are exasperating. I once read a letter in a magazine where a woman, who was (by her own description) heavily pregnant and had a very young child, wrote about how outraged she was that her sister did not pick her to be her Maid of Honour.
People seem to think that a wedding is a big free party, thrown together at a moments notice and they are owed something, that they have rights depending on who they are and how long they have known you. Few people seem to understand that weddings require a great deal of planning and actually cost money.
Weddings are notorious for being extraordinarily expensive events and yet the cost does not seem to occur to people. Many simply see it as a way to get a free meal and some drinks of their choice. I have had people demanding that the drink they normally have be on the menu without a thought that they might be the only ones drinking it.
Most people also don’t consider that the wedding is a celebration of the bride and groom, of their union. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been told that this wedding is not about me, so I should accommodate my cousin’s brother in law’s uncle’s youngest sister’s son’s nephew’s request not to have nuts in the wedding cake or bring his wife that I have never met and who could care less if I got married or not. Most likely she is coming for the wine, or the free food.
It has off course not been all bad. The people that have shocked me with their behaviour are my parents. They have listened to me, and been supportive of my wants and decision. I was prepared to fight demands for a bigger wedding; they are after all Zambians. They have not insisted that we go the traditional route and have the “kitchen party” and Matebeto and all the extra celebrations that these events attract in Zambia.
If my partner and I were both Zambian it would be a given that I would have, depending on tribe, had a kitchen party, which is a get together for the women on both sides so that the older women can give advice to the bride as well as give her items for her new kitchen. This may have been followed by a matebeto, an event where the women of the bride’s family cook for the men of the groom’s family. This is a mostly northern tradition that is intended to show the groom’s family what the groom will be eating in his new home. There is a similar event in the eastern province but the food is not cooked. There would perhaps have been hiding of the bride or the killing of a white chicken in the early morning and other revelries that all have a place in our traditions.
There are many traditions related to marriage in my country but the thing that stands out about most is that they are about bringing the community together to celebrate the coming together of the two people, the continuation of the family and by extension the tribe. The members of the community are happy to help with the proceedings, be it giving advice to the couple or a present or assisting with the food preparations. It seems that although the traditions are sometimes testing for the couple, they are ultimately supportive, an attempt to give the couple the best possible chance of staying together.
So people’s insistence that weddings are not about the bride and groom makes me wonder when the coming together of two people became about everyone else. For all the talk of “it’s the bringing together of two families”, we must not forget that without the couple there would be no coming together.
As for me, I hope I remember how I am feeling when my children want to get married.
Yet despite my obsessively organised approach to the planning and dissemination of information, people have still managed to stress me out. Now, just two months before the event, people are coming forward to say they would like to come, asking for information that I have already given them or that is readily available from other sources or that I cannot actually supply as I am not a travel agent/doctor/omnipresent all knowing being.
I realise from my experience why the saying “weddings and funerals bring out the best and the worst in people” was coined. The people that you least expect to become demanding and insensitive in ways that are exasperating. I once read a letter in a magazine where a woman, who was (by her own description) heavily pregnant and had a very young child, wrote about how outraged she was that her sister did not pick her to be her Maid of Honour.
People seem to think that a wedding is a big free party, thrown together at a moments notice and they are owed something, that they have rights depending on who they are and how long they have known you. Few people seem to understand that weddings require a great deal of planning and actually cost money.
Weddings are notorious for being extraordinarily expensive events and yet the cost does not seem to occur to people. Many simply see it as a way to get a free meal and some drinks of their choice. I have had people demanding that the drink they normally have be on the menu without a thought that they might be the only ones drinking it.
Most people also don’t consider that the wedding is a celebration of the bride and groom, of their union. I cannot tell you the number of times I have been told that this wedding is not about me, so I should accommodate my cousin’s brother in law’s uncle’s youngest sister’s son’s nephew’s request not to have nuts in the wedding cake or bring his wife that I have never met and who could care less if I got married or not. Most likely she is coming for the wine, or the free food.
It has off course not been all bad. The people that have shocked me with their behaviour are my parents. They have listened to me, and been supportive of my wants and decision. I was prepared to fight demands for a bigger wedding; they are after all Zambians. They have not insisted that we go the traditional route and have the “kitchen party” and Matebeto and all the extra celebrations that these events attract in Zambia.
If my partner and I were both Zambian it would be a given that I would have, depending on tribe, had a kitchen party, which is a get together for the women on both sides so that the older women can give advice to the bride as well as give her items for her new kitchen. This may have been followed by a matebeto, an event where the women of the bride’s family cook for the men of the groom’s family. This is a mostly northern tradition that is intended to show the groom’s family what the groom will be eating in his new home. There is a similar event in the eastern province but the food is not cooked. There would perhaps have been hiding of the bride or the killing of a white chicken in the early morning and other revelries that all have a place in our traditions.
There are many traditions related to marriage in my country but the thing that stands out about most is that they are about bringing the community together to celebrate the coming together of the two people, the continuation of the family and by extension the tribe. The members of the community are happy to help with the proceedings, be it giving advice to the couple or a present or assisting with the food preparations. It seems that although the traditions are sometimes testing for the couple, they are ultimately supportive, an attempt to give the couple the best possible chance of staying together.
So people’s insistence that weddings are not about the bride and groom makes me wonder when the coming together of two people became about everyone else. For all the talk of “it’s the bringing together of two families”, we must not forget that without the couple there would be no coming together.
As for me, I hope I remember how I am feeling when my children want to get married.
A Rose by any other name?
About a month ago a gentleman called me “coloured”. To put this in context he was a 71-year-old Irish man who was trying to be friendly. He did not realise I might possibly be insulted. I wasn’t, I understood how at his age he could be confused by the nomenclature surrounding non-white people, even I am not sure what everyone is calling themselves at the moment.
The most interesting thing for me has been the observation of differences in attitude towards certain appellations across Africa and Europe. When I first arrived in London for example I worked with a girl of mixed heritage from Cape Town in South Africa who referred to herself as “coloured”. She could not understand why people were offended or taken aback. When I lived in Kenya people like her were widely referred to as “half caste” and it wasn’t until I read about the caste systems in India that I realise this may be offensive. No one ever batted an eyelid at the reference.
In Zambia they are “point fives”, the implication of which I did not consider until I saw a letter to the editor of a newspaper written by someone of mixed race heritage from Zambia iterating that they are a whole being. In Zambia I can understand where this name comes from as the word for a black person in most of our languages could also be translated as person. So my ancestors saw themselves as people and then had to define these beings that though similar to them were still very different.
Indians too, have been called all kinds of things most of them unrepeatable but some of which in some circles have become acceptable. I remember once being shocked as one of my black workmates referred to someone as a “coolie”. When I tried to explain to her that this was rude, tantamount to using the N word she told me she told me it was a compliment. It meant that the person was lighter skinned and had “nicer” hair than most other black people.
In a discussion of names black people are tops when it comes to causing confusion because in the end we call ourselves so many things we confound the whole world, including ourselves. There are many people who cannot understand why it is ok for black people to use the N word to each other and yet be offended when someone else uses it. I had an Indian friend at boarding school, who was very into hip-hop and used it all the time. She was almost lynched when she made the mistake of using it in front o group of black girls outside of school.
It is never easy to tell what will offend and what is acceptable. I made the mistake of referring to some Zambian girls as Negroes. Their looks could have stopped my heart. So in the end if everything is acceptable to someone, what exactly is unacceptable? Although there are some things I would prefer not to be called, I tend to feel that I am more than what people call me and will take things in the spirit that they are meant and try to react accordingly.
After all I am more than the designation thrust upon me by others.
The most interesting thing for me has been the observation of differences in attitude towards certain appellations across Africa and Europe. When I first arrived in London for example I worked with a girl of mixed heritage from Cape Town in South Africa who referred to herself as “coloured”. She could not understand why people were offended or taken aback. When I lived in Kenya people like her were widely referred to as “half caste” and it wasn’t until I read about the caste systems in India that I realise this may be offensive. No one ever batted an eyelid at the reference.
In Zambia they are “point fives”, the implication of which I did not consider until I saw a letter to the editor of a newspaper written by someone of mixed race heritage from Zambia iterating that they are a whole being. In Zambia I can understand where this name comes from as the word for a black person in most of our languages could also be translated as person. So my ancestors saw themselves as people and then had to define these beings that though similar to them were still very different.
Indians too, have been called all kinds of things most of them unrepeatable but some of which in some circles have become acceptable. I remember once being shocked as one of my black workmates referred to someone as a “coolie”. When I tried to explain to her that this was rude, tantamount to using the N word she told me she told me it was a compliment. It meant that the person was lighter skinned and had “nicer” hair than most other black people.
In a discussion of names black people are tops when it comes to causing confusion because in the end we call ourselves so many things we confound the whole world, including ourselves. There are many people who cannot understand why it is ok for black people to use the N word to each other and yet be offended when someone else uses it. I had an Indian friend at boarding school, who was very into hip-hop and used it all the time. She was almost lynched when she made the mistake of using it in front o group of black girls outside of school.
It is never easy to tell what will offend and what is acceptable. I made the mistake of referring to some Zambian girls as Negroes. Their looks could have stopped my heart. So in the end if everything is acceptable to someone, what exactly is unacceptable? Although there are some things I would prefer not to be called, I tend to feel that I am more than what people call me and will take things in the spirit that they are meant and try to react accordingly.
After all I am more than the designation thrust upon me by others.
Racism, once again
There has been a media uproar at the treatment that Lewis Hamilton, the black British Formula one driver, suffered as he was practicing in Spain two weeks ago.
For those of you who don’t live in the UK and have no interest in formula one, Lewis Hamilton is the 21-year-old racing sensation who captivated the country in his rookie season last year. His entry on to the Formula one stage gave a chance to the British hope of once again achieving F1 glory. He is also the first black driver in the 56-year history of formula one. Though in the end he only managed to come second in the drivers contest, he brought F1 into the limelight again especially among black people, most of who had previously had no interest in the sport.
So what happened to him? Seven fans of Spaniard Fernando Alonso were seen dressed in dark, curly wigs, with blacked-up faces and wearing T-shirts bearing the words “Hamilton’s family” at the Montmelo circuit near Barcelona. Some other fans shouted racist abuse at the him, taunting him. Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, launched an investigation and threatened to ban Spain from holding grands prix in Barcelona and Valencia.
This is not the first time Hamilton has been racially abused by the Spanish. In Oct 2007, following tension between Hamilton and Alonso, then team mates at McLaren, Spanish F1 fans posted racist anti-Hamilton messages on websites. When there were complaints Spain's head of motor racing, Carlos Garcia, claimed Britain was a racist country and said it was paradoxical that British fans were supporting a black driver.
In my opinion it is unlikely that the FIA will do anything about the abuse. After the media have forgotten it we will all just carry on. Why do I say this? Well, this is not the first time that a black sportsman has been abused in Spain.
There was outrage when Luis Aragones, the coach of the Spanish national football team, was caught on camera in October 2004 calling Thierry Henry, the French footballer then star striker at the premier league team Arsenal, a "negro de mierda". For those of us who don’t speak Spanish it was translated in all the papers as “black s***." Aragones was unmoved by the outrage, claiming he had done nothing wrong. Nor did he apologise to Henry.
In November the same year, during England's friendly with Spain at the Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, Ashley Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Jermain Defoe were subjected to sustained monkey chants and racial insults. In February 2006 Barcelona and Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o threatened to walk off the pitch after being subjected to relentless abuse in a match at Real Zaragoza. I watched this game on television and I can tell you Eto’o was, rightly, not a happy man. This was not the first time he had been racially abused and he was tired of it and frankly so am I. I cannot imagine how he felt when Zaragoza were fined just £450.
When will FIA, UEFA, FIFA and the other sporting bodies realise that they cannot continue to ignore the problem, they cannot continue to allow this behaviour to go ahead unpunished. And let us not pretend it is just in Spain or Black people who are abused. There have been numerous abuses in France and Italy including an incident in the 2006 Champions league campaign when Dida the Brazilian and AC Milan goalkeeper had a glow stick throw at him in Italy. Indian and Pakistani cricketers suffer the same treatment in Australia and South Africa, some even accusing the umpires of being racist showing that the problem is not simply the ignorance of the fans. What we should be asking now is why are these people allowed to get away with this, why is this not something that is dealt with severely?
I think it is best to look at who runs these sports and therein lies the answer. Essentially in Europe most of the governing bodies are still old boys clubs run by white men, with a few token minorities thrown in for the sake of appearances. And no matter how hard they try white men find it difficult to understand what it feels like to be discriminated against, because it is rare that they experience it in any form. A prime example of this lack of understanding presented itself this morning when one of the men in my office gave a speech stating that he thought Hamilton should just ignore it and carry on, he could not understand why Hamilton would be hurt by this kind of abuse.
If the people making the rules and handing out the punishments cannot empathise with a situation they are unlikely to react to it in an appropriate manner. They may take it seriously but in the end they cannot understand what the best course of action would be, because they cannot understand the feelings of those who are being hurt. So the solution is to strive to change the make up of the governing bodies before we can expect to see them acting with appropriate strength and decisiveness to rid sport of racism.
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