Jourdan Dunn has hit out against racism in the fashion industry, criticising how the industry rushes to congratulate designers who cast a token black model in their shows.
"I find it weird when agents say, ‘You’re the only black girl booked for the show. Isn’t it great?’ Why is that great?" the 23-year-old model told Miss Vogue. "I don’t know why people applaud designers for having just one ethnic model. It’s not like only one type of woman loves fashion."
It's not the first time Dunn has slammed the insidious racism within the fashion industry. She's spoken before about being turned away from castings or cancelled from shows because the client "didn't want any more black girls" – an experience that has, sadly, been echoed by other black models like Chanel Iman. In one incident, a make-up artist assigned to Dunn refused to work on her face because she was black (and yes, the make-up artist was white).
Dunn consistently speaks out in favour of ethnic diversity on the runway and has backed the Diversity Coalition, a campaign launched last year by Naomi Campbell and Iman that calls for designers to make a stronger effort to represent different ethnicities on the catwalk. She's also a big fan of using Twitter to call out racism when she encounters it:
