Please, No Dark Skinned Models Need Apply

A former agent of supermodel Naomi Campbell gives a frank assessment of the color prejudice against using dark skin black models in the fashion industry. An article titled, "Is The Fashion Industry Racist? Yes -- And It Goes Right To Its Core," by Liz Jones in the Daily Mail June 13, 2011 gets to the root of the issue.

The age old issue of skin color runs deep in the fashion industry. This is something that deserves to be elevated to the broader public. World wide black people spend plenty buying the designer labels from fashion houses that don't want dark skin models showcasing their clothes. I would hope that some high profile stars pick up the microphone on this and put the fashion industry on blast. We get upset about a Pepsi ad run during the Super Bowl that could be interpreted one way or another regarding the image of black women, but this is in your face from those in the fashion industry.

Some may scoff at what my seem to be a business preference, but in reality it gets to a basic definition of what is presented as normal, beautiful and acceptable as standards in society. This may seem like far less noble of an issue to pursue than the right to vote, eat at a public lunch counter or right to equal education, but is it really?

The fashion industry has a worldwide reach and projects a global view at the cutting edge of what is coming next. If what is coming next is rarely view adorning the body of people of a certain skin tone, then what does that say about them? It says that they don't matter. If they don't matter, then their dollars should not matter.

Meltdown – Black Jobless Rate Twice That Of Whites 16.2% to 8%

One Year Anniversary Unemployed Let Them Eat Cake

Something is seriously wrong in the black community when it comes to a May 2011 unemployment rate of 16.2% that is over twice that of whites at 8%. What does this prolonged and deep joblessness mean to a community that was already experiencing problems?

Once again the numbers tell a tale of two Americas. African Americans are going through a depression as their unemployment rate is twice that of some other groups. What kind of erosion of wealth and future prospects is taking place as this drags on? The housing crisis took huge chunks of net worth out of a community that was already lagging the mainstream. Why are black Americans having a much harder time finding work?

One issue that is not being discussed enough is that getting a job in this worker saturated market has gone back to a “who do you know” model. The buzzword of networking is the way to get past the screens and separate yourself from the hordes sending in job applications. Networking is another word for calling or finding someone that can make a difference in getting you an inside track to a job. When it comes to knowing folks that can make a difference in getting a job, most African Americans know fewer of those people.

The world of networking to get a job depends heavily on having contacts that are in positions inside companies that can say a good work, pull your resume out of the pile or even pull the trigger on hiring you. Simply put, most black people don’t have the inside networks that some other groups have and that combined with other factors make up a poison pill that results in higher unemployment rates in their community.