In a recent interview with Alan Carr on Alan Carr Chatty Man, Naomi claims that she doesn’t feel the obstacles she faced in the modeling industry were a result of racism.
She says:
“I never use that word ‘racism’, I find it a cliche word and I don’t want to use it as an excuse.
“For me it was, I call it territorialism, where there are people that have that certain territory and they stand their ground and they are not going to change their mind and that is their opinion. I have always risen to every challenge and so basically my other friends had a French Vogue cover and I was like ‘Why can’t I have a one too?’ and at first they said no, because they had never had anyone on it.
“It was instantly no without thinking. So I thought ‘Let me go to my great friend Yves Saint Laurent and tell him’, since I was his contract girl. I asked him to fix the situation and he did. That is how I got it.”
She also wanted to make it clear that all models face obstacles in the industry:
“As I sit here, I fight for the younger models of colour, and when I say colour I mean of all colours, its all shades and origins that have a hard time.
“Again, it’s not saying ‘You’re racist’. That isn’t what it is about. Maybe we should remind you when casting to use all colours and more models of colour. I hope that is going to happen in more television in England actually. I think there could be more on television in England.”
Girl what? I love Auntie Nay Nay but I’ma need her not to sound so new blackish in her interviews.
She’s about her money so she’s not going to say anything that will offend white people. Sad but true. She knows the truth. And the truth is fashion is a very racist business and always has been.
LOL. It’s so funny when black celebs try their hardest to be PC.
This is kind of hypocritical because in real life she’s a big advocate for black models. I’m not sure why she’s trying to downplay that now though. But then again she’s been getting really cool with these watered down reality star “models” lately when she used to shade them so I guess Naomi is just trying to play the game right now.
Oh please Naomi don’t insult our intelligence she knows damn well the fashion industry is very racist.
Dumb interview.
Sigh…
Is she serious?
She sounds stupid. She’s still my fave tho.
Dammit, I thought Naomi knew what was up. She and iman used to campaign together against racism in the fashion industry.