Following the news earlier this week that transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf would be one of the new faces of L’Oréal’s diversity initiative, the beauty brand has today announced that it will be ending its partnership with her over comments she made calling out racism on social media.
In the aftermath of Charlottesville, Bergdorf wrote a now deleted Facebook status to vent her anger around the circumstances that led to one person being killed and many others severely injured. “Honestly I don’t have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people,” she wrote. She went on to say: “Because most of ya’ll don’t even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour.”
This morning L’Oréal publicly announced that Bergdorf would no longer be a part of the campaign, releasing a statement that read: “L’Oréal supports diversity and tolerance towards all people irrespective of their race, background, gender and religion.” Bergdorf wrote another status to share her disappointment with the decision. “The irony of all this is that L’Oréal Paris invited me to be part of a beauty campaign that ‘stands for diversity’. The fact that up until very recently, there has been next to no mainstream brands offering makeup for black women and ethnic minorities, is in itself due to racism within the industry.”
