L’Oréal Has Dropped Its First Transgender Model For A Facebook Post Calling Out White Privilege
The announcement received considerable press coverage, and L’Oréal was praised for the campaign, themed around diversity.
However, this week the Daily Mail published details of a Facebook post Bergdorf had written after August’s violent far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she apparently called for white people to “admit their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth”.
The post has since been deleted, but the Daily Mail claimed to have text from it:
“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. Your entire existence is drenched in racism. From micro-aggressions to terrorism, you guys built the blueprint for this s***.
"Come see me when you realise that racism isn’t learned, it’s inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege.”
"Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth… then we can talk.”
"Until then stay acting shocked about how the world continues to stay f***** at the hands of your ancestors and your heads that remain buried in the sand with hands over your ears.”
Following publication of the Daily Mail’s story, white people on social media expressed their anger at what they believed was a L’Oréal model expressing “racist” views.
Some began using the hashatg #BoycottLOreal, saying they would stop using the company’s products until Bergdorf was removed from the campaign.
On Friday morning, L’Oréal UK’s official Twitter page wrote that the company would be parting ways with Bergdorf.
But this then also resulted in a backlash from people on social media who believed Bergdorf had done nothing wrong. They too began using the #BoycottLOreal hashtag.
Many people found it hypocritical of the company to remove someone from a diversity beauty campaign for speaking out on diversity issues.
L’Oréal also deleted the promotional video for Bergdorf’s campaign from its official YouTube page.
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