Vogue Editors Pose For An Iconic Photo, No Black Editors To Be Found

Last week Vogue's 17 international edition editors gathered in Japan to celebrate Tokyo's Fashion's Night Out and sit for a rare photo opportunity.

The photo may be an iconic picture for most (it's rare to have all the editors in one room together), but it's also a glaring snapshot of the lack of diversity within the publishing industry for the black community.

Although there a handful of minorities represented (Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Indian), which is great--there are no editors of African decent. Beyond Vogue, why aren't there many blacks in the industry?

It's rare to find the names of black editors on the mastheads of the world's top mainstream publications. In fact, the names can fit in one paragraph.

So it was shocking when just last year Essence, under the direction of then editor-in-chief Angela Burt-Murray, hired Ellianna Placas--the black publication's first white fashion director. With so few opportunities to break into the industry, many believed at the very least there would be positions reserved for black talent at black heritage magazines like Essence. Apparently not.

Constance White, the current editor-in-chief of Essence, once voiced her concerns about the lack of diversity in publishing and fashion at a Lookonline.com roundtable:

"We can do a better job of integrating the industry. It's suspiciously still very white bread. You can go into a fashion gathering and be one of a handful or the only dark-skinned person in the room. And same can't be said of say the music industry. We're getting used to seeing blacks in powerful roles in music. This is not the case in fashion. As a fashion journalist, you're an arbiter. I think there's still a prejudice and a lack of sophistication about seeing a black person as a gatekeeper of style."

The issue remains and with no clear answers or solutions. With African-American buying power expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, according to The State of the African-American Consumer Report, why aren't blacks represented at in the industry that helps push the very products we are buying. Furthermore, is there not value in a diverse point of view? The mainstream is not one color.

What are your thoughts about the lack of diversity in publishing?

Yolanda Sacristan, Spain; Kirstie Clements, Australia; Anaita Adajania, India; Christiane Arp, Germany; Angelica Cheung, China; Franca Sozzani, Italy; Mitsuko Watanabe, Japan; Anna Wintour, America; Emmanuelle Alt, France; Alexandra Shulman, Britain; Victoria Davydova, Russia; Anna Harvey, representing Brazil and Greece; Seda Domanic, Turkey; Myung Hee Lee, Korea; Rosalie Huang, Taiwan; Eva Hughes, Mexico and Latin America; and Paula Mateus, Portugal.

Comments

[Bluejay00234]

11:47 AM on 11/18/2011

It's Vogue.

[Lakia Brown]

04:06 PM on 11/16/2011

No really though, who's really surprised?

[DaisyDooks]

02:07 PM on 11/16/2011

testing 1-2-3

[DaisyDooks]

01:56 PM on 11/16/2011

Why can't we create our own fashion publications that showcase Black designers in the Diaspora and Continental AfRAka? Stop thinking linearly and go OUTSIDE the box! AfRAkans are the purveyors of STYLE. That's where it ALL started. We don't need others to tell us how to dress or what to wear. Has western IDIOTkation taught you how to BUILD and CREATE your own industries or be dependent on ones that continue to snub you and take your dollars???

[Ground Z RO]

01:29 PM on 11/16/2011

Essence hiring a white woman is further proof of what Blacks have felt and known for years: that in order for the AfricanAmerican diaspora to be taken serious we must keep one person who can be accepted within the echelons of the country club. It dates back to the days of slavery where there could be no assembly of blacks without a white present. It has transcended time and is evident today. The lack of Black authority in the fashion world is pure and utter hogwash. Style and trend reports are always developed on the heel of the minority group. When designers want to find new "cutting edge" trends as they call it, they look at the ingenuity of the inner city youth. The feather trend has always been an inner city staple. Paying homage to the Indian traces found in most of our roots. How then can it be a hot NEW trend when it has been in existence for years? The Black perspective has and will never be fully taken seriously and it is of no fault to anyone but ourselves. We need to regroup and refocus our energy amongst ourselves to build powerhouses that will have no choice but to be recognized. After all the minorities combined are the majority, we are the pulse of this country and if we withdraw from mainstream and reinvest in ourselves, the world will literally shut down. And that's my shortened spill or spiel on the matter

[antbo0gie]

01:15 PM on 11/16/2011

this only the head editors of vogue not vogue but vogue of all the different countries and in all these countries they are the majority of the country! now if they was a white girl head editor at vogue jamaica or vogue haiti or vogue kenya then thats when you get upset

[twenty]

06:48 AM on 11/17/2011

Exactly, I don't think they have a Vogue Africa. And actually they should stay out as those countries and let them make their own stamp with their own contemporary magazine, they shouldn't be tarnished by Vogue's ethics. Anyway who is the Fashion Editor of Wonderland Magazine JULIA SARR JAMOIS and Edward Enninful might not be the fashion editor of W magazine but he is the Fashion and Style Director there, which is the same thing really lol. There are many black people that influence this industry, Pat Mcgrath is one of the best and most innovative make-up artists in fashion today. So you just need to do some research before people make out that there is no black faces here and there. Anyway, like I said we don't need Vogue in African countries, we just need the next future of clever, smart, original wave of black talent in Africa and elsewhere to create their own magazine which meets/surpasses or surprises and caters to its own and beyond. I mean Oroma Elewa created Pop'Africana, so this is all big fuss about nothing.

[SynthiaRose]

12:45 PM on 11/16/2011

Actually this is a surprise to me because I was under the impression that Andre Leon Talley was a main fashion editor there. When did he leave? Surely, he didn't give that up just to be on ANTM??

[NYC Bravado]

10:39 AM on 11/16/2011

What i cant help but notice is the argument that if an organization is 95% minority and 5% white that Caucasian's actually think they have a legitimate claim to throw in the air in comparison to whites being the majority in 85% of every other facet of life. That's something i find comical. Which is very telling because whether you like it or not, you wont be able to have unilateral control over everything in life. You just have to deal with it and stop getting upset at black people for feeling left out, the same way you get upset at the thought of you being left out.

[leamio]

10:59 PM on 11/14/2011

Starting with the obligatory phrase "I'm no racist", but this is the dumbest "news" story I've read about race, like, ever. Where do I start with the stupid?

1. "Although there a handful of minorities represented (Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Indian)..."
OMG those Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Indian women are the editors of Vogue China, Vogue Korea, Vogue Japan and Vogue India; HENCE THEY ARE NOT MINORITIES!!! A Chinese woman from China is not a minority!

2. Most of those listed countries do not have black minorities, like, at all.

3. "So it was shocking when just last year Essence, under the direction of then editor-in-chief Angela Burt-Murray, hired Ellianna Placas--the black publication's first white fashion director."

So it is "shocking" for a black heritage magazine to hire a white woman because... Yeah. That's not racist at all.

[missiv]

11:08 AM on 11/16/2011

It was a huge story in Black media. If course it wasn't in the rest. Black media doesn't exist in that realm. Unless of course, it's BET. But that isn't Black Owned Entertainment.

[Lakia Brown]

04:08 PM on 11/16/2011

It's shocking because not many white heritage magazines would do the same. Why cut her a break when most black people in any forum can't even get one?

[foius]

12:49 PM on 11/09/2011

It's no wonder here in the 21st Century that the purveyors of White Power and White Privilege have concluded that when it comes to making fashion decisions or critiques, it is best not to be done by people of African descent. Unfortunately, the reality of how consumerism is maintained and controlled by the rich/super-rich is a dynamic whose fundamentals are being sent to the pre-historic era by the fashion conscious, and savvy African-American urban consumer. Time is running out for the manipulators of high-end fashhion design/manufacture.

[Ebusafrica]

04:27 AM on 11/09/2011

The publishing Industry is very well race exclusive. Despite having the largest of reading population of fashion magazines in South Africa, making up 70% of the population, the conventional fashion magazine industry has continued to exclude blacks from attaining any meaningful milestone in the industry. What grates me even worse is that blacks (sadly) continue to be one of the biggest consumers of not the biggest of fashion products here in South Africa. The magnitude of this problem is shown in South Africa, where despite policies towards addressing the injustices of the past, the fashion industry has continued to "fly over" the radar, taking the loop hole in the AA law (where women of all colours including white women are seen as previously disadvantaged), to continue to perpertuate the status quo. That is why i NEVER buy fashion magazines.

[liatwolley]

08:49 PM on 11/08/2011

Wow such ignorance! How can you understand what you have never had to deal with it... A white young man who was attemping to understand racism & disguised himself as a African American said it best... "When I was white, respect was just given to me automatically, while I was African American, I had to continuously had prove I deserved it" If you don't think there's a difference switch places & see how you like it!

[disgusted2012]

06:59 PM on 11/08/2011

OMG can't we have our own thread without the invasion of the Freepers. I get so weary reading all of these "Race card get over it comments." Anyone who doesn't believe racism is alive and well in 2011, here's a little homework assignment for you. Search the web for racist websites, click on one of the hundreds of sites out there and read some of the vile comments posted by cowards hiding behind a screen name, then get back to me on that okay.

[pwte]

06:50 AM on 11/08/2011

Who looks at Vogue anymore...who cares?

[bpd9227]

09:09 PM on 11/07/2011

Any White editors over at Ebony or Jet magazines? Just curious.

[Queena]

03:41 PM on 11/08/2011

Did you not read the article. Essence has always had the ad, Essence for today's black woman. The editor in chief is a white woman named Elliana Placas.

[Minnehaha]

09:10 PM on 11/08/2011

That question is stupid, two Afrocentric publications compared to thousands of others publications, with no diversity!