Even in the age of affirmative action, institutional racism persists. The fashion and modeling industries are no exception to this phenomenon. As another rail-thin Russian or blonde-haired Brazilian is booked for yet another advertising campaign, many Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Latin American models find themselves sitting at home, waiting for their agents to call. The sad reality is that, for many, that call may never come.
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Jourdan Dunn
Liu Wen
Deonna Pinkerton
In a world where the camera lens captures everything, underrepresentation of minorities in the modeling industry is especially evident. While "it girls" like Burberry's Jourdan Dunn might land high-profile jobs, more and more non-white models are finding themselves professionally marginalized, tokenized or simply excluded.
Deonna Pinkerton, a biracial former model previously represented by a top 10 agency, has been modeling for most of her life along with her brother.
"I started modeling around 3 or 4 for Nordstrom," Pinkerton said. "The kids that I modeled with were all white, and my brother and I were the only black kids."
What Pinkerton refers to — tokenism — is all too prevalent in the modeling community. The industry will designate its top two or three Asian or black models that are the "hot, ethnic girls of the moment," such as Liu Wen or Chanel Iman, and place them among an army of white girls. It's the fashion industry's "dirty little secret," because no one seems to acknowledge the discrimination.
Tokenism also creates fierce competition between minority models, as they are all well aware that the demand for them is low. When more than one black or Asian model shows up for a casting or a go-see, they look at fellow members of their racial identity group as their primary competition. It doesn't matter how talented you are if your "quota" has been filled. "If we see other black girls at castings, we know that that's our competition and that they are only going to pick one of us," Pinkerton explained.
The discrimination and competition not only follows the girls to castings, but into the very agencies whose job it is to find them work. "If you notice on the boards of modeling agencies you will see about 50 white girls who all look the same, but when I would walk in they would tell me 'Oh, we already have a girl like you,'" Pinkerton said. "They could have 50 white girls, but two girls who were minorities wouldn't work?"
While the trend of "blotting out the color" in the modeling industry persists, there are a handful of up-and-coming creative directors, photographers and editors who want to see change. "If the girl has a good look and a good attitude, I don't care what race she is," said Valerie Chan, junior fashion director of NYU's student fashion magazine, NYChic. "I look at the girl on an individual basis, and being a minority myself, I am really interested in using someone who is capable of doing the job."
