Written by NZINGHA for ThGlamSquadFiles
****NOTICE****
This post will be disturbing and only advised for the racially mature so, if you’re hypersensitive I suggest you read no further.
This is a hard topic for me. Why? Because it amazes me that we are still tackling this race matter after all these years all over the world!!! It’s an ancient and exhaustive but a necessary evil. I started to not address it at all because I am so busy with work this season that to take a moment to sit down and write takes scheduling on my part.
However, about two months ago I read an article somewhere that had one of the hottest models on the runway Nykor. Well, I read the header and it addressed the issue of MAKEUP FOR WOMEN OF COLOR. And when you say that to me as a woman of color in the beauty and entertainment industry my ears automatically go up!
I read her Instagram post and was up on my feet yelling…”Are you serious!!! We are still doing this no makeup thing for black models in fashion?!?! REALLY???? I’m so over this crap! Why don’t Artists know this and come prepared BUT even more why don’t they have diversity on their makeup teams at these fashion shows??? But even if a Caucasian “Makeup Aritsts” does have a few darker colors, they still somehow don’t manage to get how to use those foreign colors!!! And what happens then? As a black Makeup Artist I’ve had to go and clean up the makeup work behind a lot of them!!!
After years of seeing this happen right before my eyes I’m thinking there is truly a mental, artistic and in some quiet cases a racial block! But why should you concern yourself with black makeup if there are hardly any black models on the runway anyway. Or the presumptuous myth, that you will never really have to encounter black people in this industry.
STOP THIS ALREADY!! LIKE I CANT PUT ON A DAMNED LIPSTICK OR FOUNDATION??? WHY ISNT THE FASHION INDUSTRY HIRING BLACK MAKEUP ARTISTS??? SHAME ON YOU ALL!!”
PERSPECTIVE/PERCEPTION
Well, with all the race concerns in this country that are once again resurfacing, it simply mean that there is still a problem that is not being solved with the notion of “color blindness”. It’s not just here in the US but has been perpetuated all over the world. It is a mindset that needs to be addressed, honestly examined, and rethought for redirection. Why is there such lack of consideration? Why is there a thought that it is made up and simply does not exist when these mentalities have been documented and chronicled by the mainstream (a politically correct way of saying white people here in America).
This post by the lovely NYKOR…bravely bought to the attention of the industry once again the swept under the rug, in DENIAL issue of race in the beauty, fashion and entertainment industry. Her post stirred a lot in many people some so deep in denial that they don’t even respond. Nor do they admit racism even exists. Many will want to use the old weak comeback of you “playing the race card”. NO! The inequity is very real as in any other industry. It’s like having a drug addict in the family and everyone knows the addicts habits are ruining the family but no one takes that member of the family to a place to get help,get better and become productive. The family just smiles covers over the addicts destructive habits and never addresses the illness. This allows the addict to run amuck and destroy himself and others in the process.
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