The Brazilians setting a new trend:affirmitive action in the fashion industry

I am sure a lot of us have heard about people claiming the fashion industry is racist. Well the Brazilians with their huge black population have set a new precedance:they are setting a 10% quota for the number of models of African descent and indigenous descent each fashion house/brand should have. $120,000 is the fine for failing to comply. Some people think the quota should be based on social background, rather than race. Read this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8063239.stm

 

Was wondering where you had got to Swazi, good to see you back.

 

Thanks..
Got a little stale in here, needed a break.

 

Uhmm as to the topic, I personally think it should be a figure representative to the market at which you are aiming, IE if the crowd you are going for has a 20% African/indigenous population then have 20% of your models as such.

 

Logically what you are saying makes sense. But I think in Brazil, most of the indigenous and black populations wont be able to afford most of the clothes these fashion houses advertise, so really the clothes will still be aimed at the same market just with more black faces advertising the brands. I wonder how this is going to affect sales in Brazil. Are the richer Brazilians(European descent) still going to buy in the same numbers? I would hope so.

 

good idea.. "only" having a 10% match may actually make the number of black/brown models artificially lower in a given country..

 

What is Brazil's black population in numbers compared to here in the United States? Is it it similar to the United States?

 

Brazil has the largest population of black origin outside of Africa.

 

This is interesting. This sort of goes along with their affirmative action policies that were instituted a few years ago in a documentary I saw on PBS. Basically, with such a large black population, there has been a huge disparity in terms of opportunities for black brazilians in recent years versus whites. Consequently, the government, with help from black civil rights attorneys and activists from the U.S., can together to put into place policies which would give those blacks a better footing.

With respect to the fashion industry, there was a part of the documentary where a young brazilian girl was showing the cameras a magazine shop, pointing out that virtually all of the magazines displayed had fair-skinned females on them. Clearly noting that there appeared no opportunities for women with her skin tone to make any covers. Now I for one can't stand quotas. However, let's not pretend that, over the years, skin color hasn't been a factor in the determination of a model's overall success. Yes, selling publications is the ultimate goal. But darker skin has received some serious demonizing whereby the average buyer and viewer is turned away. I just got done watching a portion of Tyra Bank's true hollywood story where she talked about her early career where the executives wouldn't/couldn't put a black woman on their covers. She got her first covers in Europe and didn't even get offers in the U.S. here for a few years.

So I for one can respect what the Brazilians are doing. Let's not pretend that this type of racism will go away quietly. Darker models will always have this issue to fight. At least some solid political backing will make it easier for them to fight it.

 

I think it's tougher in Latin America in the sense that instead of just thinking of themselves as "black"...they think of themselves as varying degrees of "white." In the States...we pretty much lump anyone with a trace of black DNA into the black category...not fair but it does allow for more cohesion relative to Latin America. Think about it...in the States...the "white" population's numerical advantage is roughly 6 to 1 over blacks while that disparity in Latin America is much closer to being even yet the profile of blacks in the States on TV, Film etc...while not ideal...is still much greater than in Latin America. It is a guarantee that if you flip the channels of English language TV...you will see some black folks..even as bit players..but if you watch Spanish TV...you'd be lucky to see anyone that didn't have blond hair or at least very fair skin.

 

They should have this in the states

 

That would be great

 

I just hope the Brazilians dont produce any Alek Wek Look alikes, and pass them of as models.

 

word.