Not Just a Matter of Black and White

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One of the hottest discussions setting mainstream and social media ablaze these days is the story about a white model that was reportedly hired by French magazine, Numéro, to appear in an "African Queen" themed photo-shoot. Ondria Hardin, a 16-year-old blond haired, blue eyed North Carolina native, was "bronzed" to the max to darken her skin during the shoot. It even appeared that her eyebrows were drawn in thicker to give her more of an Afro-centric look. Then the creative directors really went to town, adorning the

Caucasian young lady in some really impressive looking African garb and even photographing her with a so-called African toddler.

So now the obvious question that's swirling around the world of fashion and amongst the general public is, "Who at the magazine made the decision to seek out a Caucasian women when there are so many real African or black models that could have filled that position?"

Why did they do this? Well think about it this way, would the magazine have received this much attention if they had used a real African model. Probably not. And as the saying goes, any kind of publicity is good publicity. Here's another one...if they're not talking about you, you're not relevant. To sum it all up, this was not the most politically correct choice Numéro magazine could have made, but oh boy was it clever!

By Larissa M. Tyler

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