Salon.com wrote about this today. Basically, Vanity Fair had a cover on 9 up and coming young actresses in Hollywood and all of them are white.
Yeah, maybe these people could have been included. But I’m having a hard time seeing that Vanity Fair only included these actresses because they’re white. I mean, the fact that so many of them are white is probably a result of bias in our system and all that. I’m just having a hard time seeing this as a conscious discrimination issue. I mean, it’s their call who to put on the magazine–every time they do a cover with all white people on it, do they have to make sure to put in a couple of darker ones? That screams of tokenism.
And this quote (the Shine post) seemed fairly reasonable to me. I have no idea why Kate Harding thinks thinking and waiting = racism.
Ultimately, I have a hard time as really seeing this as racism. Yes, in general, white people are over represented in Hollywood and I suppose you could make the case that the Vanity Fair cover is just one symptom of that. But racist in and of itself? I don’t see any evidence of that here.
I could see it as unconscious bias. That is, it’s racism without malice, but racism nonetheless.
Seriously, leaving out Zoe Saldana, who had prominent roles in two major films this year, including the all-time highest box office earner? What criteria were they using for picking the women on the cover, anyway?
A Google search of vanity fair covers on Google and the darkest woman I could find was this cover of Demi Moore. Who no one is going to mistake for multi-racial. The women on Vanity Fair covers aren’t just white, they’re very white and often the lighting is such that it further bleaches out their skin color. Intentional or not, black people don’t exist on the cover of that magazine. Neither, apparently, do Asians, Hispanics, or even the darker-skinned varieties of Caucasian, not even on a token level.
In other words, yes, at the very least the editors need to re-examine how they make choices. I mean, cripes, not only are all the cover women so white as to glow in the dark, most of them also have very similar facial features, like they all went to the same doctor and got the same nose.
Well, not necessarily to defend Vanity Fair, but couldn’t you make the same argument about Ebony magazine? (Coming from the other direction, naturally.)
I see no racism. I admit that I’m not really plugged into this sort of scene, but I at least recognize the names of 3 or 4 of the white girls. All those black girls that have been mentioned for consideration? Never heard of them. “Oh yeah, black girl from Star Trek.” That’s about as much recognition as they get from me. So from my limited Hollywood experience, the white girls deserve the cover more than those others candidates that were mentioned.
I haven’t seen the cover but depending on your definition of white there is around a 12% chance that all of them would be white by random chance, which does not rise to proof in most instances.
Or the NBA. “I’m sick of seeing all these tall, black guys. When am I going to see an Indian or Filipino or Moroccan basketball player on the cover of ESPN?” Uh, maybe because when there’s an Indian or Filipino or Moroccan basketball player who’s talented and extraordinary enough for him to become a basketball star, they’ll put him on the cover. Until then, it’s going to be the same tall black guys, a few tall white guys, and one very tall Chinese guy.
Tiger Woods is on the cover the most recent issue of VF,meryl Streep was on te cover the issue before that, but i would guess that Oprah has been on it at some point in time.
Who knows if they tried to get a non white and couldn’t?
More importantly, all of them are too darned skinny, and have stick-arms. It’s a travesty that only girls who need to consume many cheeseburgers are allowed to become up and coming starlets in America today.
But that’s obviously because Ebony is explicitly a magazine about African Americans. Nobody complains about that for the same reason no one complains about all the white people on the cover of Irish America, because again, that magazine is specifically about the interests and achivements of Irish-Americans. So far as I know, Vanity Fair isn’t claiming to cater to the interests of some particular ethnic group.
As a woman of color, I will say it would have been nice to have a non-white woman on the cover. Is that really so much to ask? That not every role model presented to us be lily-white and so conforming to the standards of beauty?
I don’t know that I see racism so much as much as just habit…but I can’t deny one feels a bit slighted. Just a little.
Ebony magazine - wasn’t it exactly made to be the opposite of this sort of thing? However, it is called “Ebony”. Vanity Fair presumably has a different outlook than just “white people”. And it was “9 Up and coming actresses…” if Ebony had a similar article and it didn’t say “9 up and coming BLACK actresses” I’d expect them to have a range, too.
As to whether or not one or two Dopers have heard of them, who cares? I don’t mean to personaly single out anyone in this thread, really. But the point is “9 UP and COMING actresses”…which basically means by default, women a lot of people haven’t heard of. And sure, it feels good to see an Indian girl on the list, or hell even a black girl, because Asians mostly live vicariously through blacks. All white girls just makes one think…they didn’t even look.
It is not evidence of overt, conscience, “I hate them black people” type racism. At some point, a group of writers and editors got together and decided who was on this list. I don’t think anyone really suspects that they intentionally threw out anyone not lily white. But the question of institutional myopia, where the minority actresses don’t even cross their minds as possibilities, does arise. The group picking these actresses had some selection bias at work (at the very least they should have been selecting for goodnew actresses). But if they are, like many others, subconsciously equating lighter skin with better quality then it should be addressed. There is no objective criteria for acting quality. But if all the actresses fall into a very narrow range of looks and size, then maybe they need to look at their selection process a little better.
The world racism is probably strong, since I doubt there was any intent of slight. But I don’t think that it would be wrong to say that this shows the subconscious prejudices of the editors. Or perhaps Hollywood.
Get a clue. If Vanity Fair, etc, covered the whole ethnic spectrum then Ebony, etc. would probably never have come into existence.
Yeah, I hear you on that. I’ve definitely felt as you do growing up, to the point where I sort of tune it out now. Also, sometimes I feel petty but I can’t help thinking that “diversity” so often means like…a white doll and a black doll and that’s it. Growing up as someone who was (and is) brown skinned but not African American, it was kind of like, anyone who’s not white got clumped into one group.
As a lot of you are saying, it does seem more institutional bias than a specific targeting of non-whites. I do think that Gabourey Sidibe is an important up and coming actress who more people have probably heard of than a lot of the lesser known actresses here–I mean, some of them are fairly well known (Amanda Seyfried and Kristen Stewart) but most of them left me scratching my head. Not all that surprised they left off Sidibe, though. In the mainstream sphere, someone like her is almost entirely invisible.
I just don’t get the racism without malice. Racism by it’s very definition is with malice.
If you are trying to define racism as the accidentally omitting someone of color from a photo shoot as racist. Well, that is what has gotten us to our corporate % of hirings. Some percent can be white, some black, some asian etc
Just want to point out that, afaik, no hispanics in that picture either. They DO seem to like the blond and aristocratic (and slightly anorexic…yucko) look. But then, I think that a lot of Americans (of all races) like that look too, so my guess is that we aren’t seeing overt ‘racism’ here as much as we are seeing marketing (‘what will sell this magazine’) and a bias towards skinny fair haired and fair skinned people.
Personally, I think that Americans (and Europeans) obsession with the skinny blond look means they are missing the boat, but it is what it is.
All white girls just makes one think…they didn’t even look.