Did L’Oreal really need to fire model Munroe Bergdorf after her ‘racism’ comments?
Munroe Bergdorf identifies as a black, queer, transgender model. She’s 29 years old and British. She was recently hired to be one of the new faces of L’Oreal’s YoursTruly True Match campaign, the campaign that aims to provide makeup for a wider variety of skin tones and races. L’Oreal fired her within days after Bergdorf wrote a Facebook post about how “all white people” are racist. Her Facebook post – which she has since deleted – went viral and now the whole thing is a gigantic mess.
Earlier this week, beauty giant L’Oréal Paris made headlines for hiring transgender model Munroe Bergdorf to appear in its YoursTruly True Match ad campaign. And now they’re making headlines several days later for parting ways with the 29-year-old British model after she wrote a lengthy post on Facebook in which she decried the “racial violence of … ALL white people.”
The post has since been taken down, but the model reportedly wrote, “Honestly I don’t have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people. Because most of ya’ll don’t even realize or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of color… Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggression to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s***…. Come see me when you realize that racism isn’t learned, it’s inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege. Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth… then we can talk.”
It didn’t take long for L’Oréal to quickly point out that her statements were at odds with the message they were trying to communicate, and end its relationship with the model.
“L’Oréal supports diversity and tolerance towards all people irrespective of their race, background, gender and religion. The L’Oréal Paris True Match campaign is a representation of these values and we are proud of the diversity of the Ambassadors who represent this campaign,” the brand said in an official statement to PEOPLE. “We believe that the recent comments by L’Oréal Paris UK Spokesperson Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with those values, and as such we have taken the decision to end the partnership with her. L’Oréal Paris remains committed to the True Match campaign and breaking down barriers in beauty.”
[From People]
I’m not an “all white people” kind of person, because I find that all of the people who make those kinds of sweeping generalizations are a–holes (that’s a joke!). It seems to me that it’s especially difficult to condemn “all white people” with the same brush after Charlottesville, where a white woman literally gave her life to fight the agents of white supremacy. Munroe’s argument could have been framed better, and she has attempted to clarify in more recent Facebook posts and interviews. She says, in part:
“When I stated that ‘all white people are racist’, I was addressing that fact that western society as a whole, is a SYSTEM rooted in white supremacy – designed to benefit, prioritise and protect white people before anyone of any other race. Unknowingly, white people are SOCIALISED to be racist from birth onwards. It is not something genetic. No one is born racist,” Munroe said.
She continued, calling out L’Oréal for dropping her from its campaign. “If L’Oreal truly wants to offer empowerment to underrepresented women, then they need to acknowledge THE REASON why these women are underrepresented within the industry in the first place. This reason is discrimination – an action which punches down from a place of social privilege. We need to talk about why women of color were and still are discriminated against within the industry, not just see them as a source of revenue.”
[From People]
On all of this, I agree with her. If her argument from the beginning had been that American and British society is built on white supremacy, then of course that’s the truth. What offended people was the idea that “all white people” deserve to be painted with the same brush. It caused a lot of #NotAllWhitePeople-ing and #ReverseRacism-ing. So… yeah, I’m on both sides of this – I think L’Oreal did what they needed to do by firing Munroe, and she has every right to use her platform to speak about these issues.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Source: Did L’Oreal really need to fire model Munroe Bergdorf after her ‘racism’ comments?
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