Alyssa Traore + Jessie Bloemendaal Try Racial Reversals Lensed By Marcin Kempski For Vogue Portugal
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Dutch models Alyssa Traoré and Jessie Bloemendaal are styled by Sam Ranger in a 1+1=3 editorial ‘Eu Eu Eu’. There is no doubt about the intent of the editorial, once a black model is holding a white mask and vice versa. Alyssa wears primarily white outfits and Jessie black. Perhaps this staging seems too literal to some folks, but given the simmering resentment among large numbers of America’s women of color towards ALL white women, it’s time to spring this Pandora out of her box and give it some daylight.
When people are cornered in all or nothing boxes, based on skin color, progress is tough. Note that neither Democratic primary presidential candidate Kamala Harris or barely-defeated Democratic Georgia governor candidate Stacey Abrams come from this school of thought, and both have massive support among educated white women, if not high-school educated, women don’t belong in politics because God said so Trump supporters.
The February 2019 Vogue Portugal team jumpstarts this convo in a fashionable way with images by Marcin Kempski. / Hair by Joey George; makeup by Rebecca wordingham
