PC Crowd Condemns Constance Jablonski | Greg Kadel | Numéro October, 2010

Shakira reminded everyone at Madison Square Garden two weeks ago that we are all African. The current Constance Jablonski editorial by Greg Kadel for Numéro October, 2010 conveys a similar message.

We’re thrilled to see image source Fashion Gone Rogue set some intellectual conversation in motion, although we’re clueless as to why the images might “go too far”. Seriously, I don’t know if the challenge is blond holding African child; Constance Jablonski going blackface apparently is the big deal.

Reading the comments on NYMag’s The Cut, Europeans are accused of being callous and insensitive to all racial matters, being the global colonists that they are. Only a black model should be used in this shoot and there’s not a remote possibility that the Europeans (this is said over and over again) are trying to make a point worth considering. 

Carine Roitfeld told the NYTimes this week that the level of political correctness in fashion has never been worse. We say ‘Amen’.

Returning to Shakira’s point: we are all African, until evolutionary biology proves otherwise.

This editorial directly targets the new Smart Sensuality readers, or women of style who have a strong global conscience and connection to global problems. Simultaneously, it juxtaposes our affinity to fashion and luxury branding with global realities.

Granted, the Greg Kadel for Numéro could have used two or three models of varying ethnicity pushing around African babies, but as a marketer, I believe the editorial is consciousness-raising and connects with the audience. Note also that there’s a cost to the additional models, although Numéro could have used local talent, I suppose.

We don’t go looking for trouble with magazine editorial but instead filter the images through what we know to be going on in the world, the shifts and trends that speak to fashion’s future.

In the same way that American women have been totally disconnected from global feminism until the past few years, we have been similarly disconnected from global problems. Smart Sensuality women, representing a mix of Modern style-conscious values with the Cultural Creatives global-concerns mindset, believing that African kids are our concern — and not in a paternalistic way, as some activists will jump all over me for even writing those words.

Smart Sensuality Global Consciousness

Using a black model does nothing to specifically cultivate a white concern for these awesome global challenges that are killing millions of people. Using a black model (s) can reinforce the prevailing view that the African problem is a black one, and not a universal humanitarian problem.

Of course we shouldn’t look for exemptions from an issue based on the color of a model’s skin. But Americans by nature look for a reason to disengage from involvement on global issues, and the movement is growing stronger again.

I will also add that for all their colonial-mentality faults, the Europeans have a superior history of race mixing than Americans. Josephine Baker and other African American artists preferred to live in Paris for a reason.

If business is to develop in Africa, we must all connect on multiple levels. Even Bono and Ali Hewson’s Edun project, now funded by LVMH, has experienced unbelievable challenges in Africa. We have the humanitarian challenges, as well as the business development ones.

The Constance Jablonski photos connect with an important global reality and an awesome opportunity if we can all get it right.

Can I swear that there’s not a hint of racism in the editorial? Of course not. But the comments I’ve so far are political correctness at its worst, confirming Carine Roitfeld’s perspective about creativity, communication and the challenges of saying anything serious or thought-provoking in today’s fashion world.

Dr Muhummad Yunus on The Simpsons

I received a note yesterday from Grameen that Nobel Prize winner and father of microfinance Professor Muhammad Yunus will be on the Simpsons this Sunday, October 3, 2010. Lisa Simpson uses her gift from her grandfather to buy a microloan for a schoolmate with unanticipated consequences. Lisa turns to Dr. Yunus for guidance, giving the Grameen Foundation an opportunity to reach a new, younger audience.

Should Muslims attack Dr. Yunus (this could happen, of course) because at some point The Simpsons offended Islam in some way? (Don’t confuse The Simpsons with the South Park controversy.)

Will the pc crowd be watching to insure that no offense is committed in bringing together the respected and revered global leader in helping women worldwide with a popular show that’s been known to ruffle a few feathers in America?

I just posted the results of a new global survey published Sept. 30 in Nature, confirming that looking holistically at a group of key indicators 80 percent of the world’s population is living near rivers that are in a dire state of ill health. The world’s rivers eco system is on life support.

World in Trouble Needs Stylish Activists

The majority of the people living near these riviers are not Caucasian. Is the pc crowd proposing that fashion never touch this issue, that just as Americans exploded over the Vogue Italia Steven Meisel photoshoot of the oil spill, we never want to see photos of models anywhere near polluted rivers?

I would like to see the pc crowd itemize the list of dos and don’t they expect from thinking, creative Smart Sensuality people like myself … the rules of the road for acceptable fashion editorials that don’t confirm the American view that we are the enlightened party, the nonracist, caring, consciousness-raised society while Europe suffers from their post-colonial past.

In reality Europeans are dollar for dollar far more committed in countries around the world than we are, granted trying to clean up a mess that they helped to create.

Rules, please, for politically correct fashion editorial in today’s world.

Of course, I want to see more black models in fashon, but in this editorial, I actually agree with the theme that reinforces Shakira’s main message: we are all African. I believe this concept in my own heart and choose not to put myself in a skin-color box.

As for my own pc credentials, I was gloriously stunned a week ago to discover via Alexa.com that Anne of Carversville is unusually strong among high-income, educated and nonprofit-employed African Americans and Africans. I knew we are strong in the Middle East, but this news about American blacks and Africans gave more meaning to my growing philanthropic, consciousness-raising, fashion mission.

Considering the negative comments on NYMag about the editorial, Alexa.com noted that we are also unusually strong in New York City. Perhaps we’re just strong with thinking people, wherever they live in the world.

Bottom line, I trust that my approach to this situation is correct with the readers who matter to me, if not with young fashionistas who can’t think beyond the myopic lens through which they analyze global events and fashion statements. Anne