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Anna Wintour apologises for not giving space to
black people at Vogue
Editor of fashion bible says sorry for printing
‘hurtful and intolerant’ stories and images
Morwenna
Ferrier
Published
onWed 10 Jun 2020 15.34 BST
Anna
Wintour, the editor-in-chief of US Vogue, has admitted to making mistakes and
publishing material that has been intolerant, as well as not doing enough to
promote black staff and designers at the fashion magazine.
In a
company-wide internal memo, written last Thursday and seen by the New York Post
this week amid nationwide unrest and protests over the killing last month of
George Floyd, Wintour apologised to staff at the magazine for “publishing
images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant”, admitted there were
too few employees of colour, and took full responsibility for mistakes made
during her 32-year tenure.
“I want to
say plainly that I know Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give
space to black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators.
We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful
or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes.”
The
statement follows an extensive reckoning at media organisations as
demonstrators in the US and abroad join global protests prompted by the death
of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white police
officer handcuffed him and pinned him to the ground with his knee for almost
nine minutes.
Earlier
this week, Adam Rapoport, the editor-in-chief of the Condé Nast title Bon
Appetit, resigned after a photo of him in brownface came to light, as well as
ongoing criticism of how the food magazine treats employees of colour.
On Monday,
Christene Barberich, the editor of the lifestyle website Refinery29, also
stepped down after accounts surfaced from staff who said they had experienced
racist discrimination at the company. On Wednesday, Samira Nasr was named US
Bazaar’s new editor-in-chief, the first black editor-in-chief in the magazine’s
153-year-old history.
According
to Page Six, a celebrity gossip website, the memo states that Wintour “[wants]
to start by acknowledging your feelings and expressing my empathy towards what
so many of you are going through”.
The
Guardian approached Condé Nast for a statement but had not heard back by the
time this article was published.
Following
the resignation of Rapoport, the publishing company issued a brief two-part
statement on Twitter in which it briefly outlined its “zero-tolerance policy
toward discrimination and harassment in any forms”.
Wintour
writes: “I want to say this especially to the black members of our team — I can
only imagine what these days have been like. But I also know that the hurt, and
violence, and injustice we’re seeing and talking about have been around for a
long time. Recognizing it and doing something about it is overdue.”
“It can’t
be easy to be a black employee at Vogue, and there are too few of you,” she writes.
“I know that it is not enough to say we will do better, but we will – and
please know that I value your voices and responses as we move forward. I am
listening and would like to hear your feedback and your advice if you would
like to share either.”
The model
Beverly Johnson became the magazine’s first black cover star in 1974, but it
was not until 2018 that Tyler Mitchell became the first black photographer to
shoot a Vogue cover – Beyoncé, for the September issue – in its 125year
history.
The
70-year-old British-born editor was recently criticised following the
publication of a memoir by US Vogue’s former editor-at-large, André Leon
Talley, in which he accused her of inflicting on him “huge emotional and
psychological scars” and said his departure from the magazine “felt like I was
just thrown under the bus”. Talley’s name still appears on the US Vogue
masthead, a list of its current staff.
Wintour’s
note ends with a promise to “support organizations in a real way. These
actions will be announced as soon as possible.”
Can Anna Wintour survive fashion's reckoning with
racism?
While Condé Nast has said the Vogue editor-in-chief
will not be stepping down, turmoil has been mounting as employees past and
present speak out
Edward
Helmore
Published
onSat 13 Jun 2020 14.06 BST
For decades
she has stood astride the fashion industry, micromanaging the look and content
of US Vogue, marshalling a significant part of the global fashion industry to
her worldview, and presiding over an annual gala at which, for $25,000 a head,
paying guests and favored courtiers mounted the lavishly carpeted steps of
Metropolitan Museum of Art to symbolically kiss the ring.
But for Anna Wintour this has been her annus
horribilis. New York fashion week has been written off, the Met Gala has been
cancelled, magazine advertising revenues are plummeting and there are scarcely
any frocks to shoot since the coronavirus barged its way into the European
fashion shows in February.
Yet now a
crisis is breaking over Wintour, Vogue and the Condé Nast publishing empire:
the reckoning with racism in America, triggered by the killing of George Floyd
by a white police officer in Minneapolis, that has now spread to all aspects of
American life, from publishing to academia to sports.
Last week,
Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue and other lifestyle glossy publications, was
hit by charged criticism for failures to support diversity in both the
workplace and in terms of the content it typically publishes. With two senior
editors leaving over racial insensitivity, and former employees describing
Vogue workplace as fearful, accounts of discrimination in the New York office
of Condé Nast flood out.
Speculation
mounted last week that Wintour’s position as Vogue’s editor-in-chief, as well
as the publisher’s US artistic director and “global content adviser”, could be
becoming untenable after several employees spoke out about racial
discrimination in the workplace and pay inequities.
On Friday,
Condé Nast’s top executive convened a town hall meeting of employees to say
that Wintour would not be stepping down.
“There are
very few people in the world who can have the influence on change and culture,
as it relates to the activities that our business has, than Anna,” Condé Nast’s
CEO, Roger Lynch, said. “The reason she is here is because she can help
influence the change that we need to make, and I know she is committed to it.”
Mounting
turmoil at the publisher in recent days has included the resignation of Adam
Rapoport, the editor in chief of Bon Appétit magazine who reported to Wintour,
over Instagram photos of Rapoport and his wife in a Latino version of brownface
at a Halloween party in 2013. A public apology said staff members conceded that
the magazine “continued to tokenize” the people of color that it did hire.
That was
quickly followed by the exit of Condé Nast’s head of lifestyle video
programming, Matt Duckor, after staffers claimed that Condé Nast failed to
feature people of color in videos and did not pay them for appearances. A
number of Duckor’s tweets with racist and homophobic comments were recirculated
online.
Wintour has
attempted to quell the tide of protest, admitting to making mistakes and
publishing material that has been intolerant, as well as not doing enough to
promote black staff and designers at the magazine. In a memo sent earlier this
month, Wintour apologized to staff for “publishing images or stories that have
been hurtful or intolerant” and admitted there were too few employees of color.
“I want to
say plainly that I know Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give
space to black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators.
We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful
or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes.”
But the
letter was met with scorn by an African American former member of Vogue’s
staff. Former colleague and ally André Leon Talley shared his views on
Wintour’s email in a podcast interview.
“[Wintour’s]
statement came out of the space of white privilege,” Talley said. “I want to
say one thing: Dame Anna Wintour is a colonial broad, she’s a colonial dame,
she comes from British, she’s part of an environment of colonialism. She is
entitled and I do not think she will ever let anything get in the way of her
white privilege.”
Others have
followed suit with damning portrayals of the treatment of minorities within the
company.
Former
staffer Shelby Ivey Christie wrote on Twitter: “My time at Vogue, at Condé
Nast, was the most challenging + miserable time of my career – The bullying +
testing from white counterparts, the completely thankless work, the terrible
base pay + the racism was exhausting.”
Magazine
publishing and fashion were in deep trouble before all this
Wintour’s
position may be further undermined by the appointment of Samira Nasr, formerly
of Vanity Fair, as the first female black editor of rival Harper’s Bazaar. “As
the proud daughter of a Lebanese father and Trinidadian mother, my worldview is
expansive and is anchored in the belief that representation matters,” said Nasr
in a video message.
British Vogue
also has a minority editor, Edward Enninful, who has done much to steer the
magazine away from predominantly featuring white subject material. In the
current issue, Enninful commissioned a series of powerful portraits by Jamie
Hawkesworth of women, often minorities, and often working in healthcare and
other essential services on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The turmoil
at Condé Nast comes as the magazine industry, as well as publishing in general,
has been slammed by coronavirus-related advertising revenue drops of about 45%.
In recent years, the publisher has cut or reduced publication of several titles
and sublet six of its 23 floors at 1 World Trade Center.
Wintour
will be hoping Condé Nast’s 10-member board of directors, headed by Lynch and
made up by members of the Newhouse family and two independent directors,
including former Gucci CEO Domenico De Sole, continue to stand behind her, as
they have for decades.
But some
observers are not so sure.
“Fashion
comes and goes,” one former glossy magazine editor, who declined to be
identified, told the Guardian. “Magazine publishing and fashion were in deep
trouble before all this. Will Anna get washed away in that flood?
Probably.”
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