From Clutchmagonline.com:
On Friday evening, cultural critic and writer Michaela angela Davis tweeted: “It is with a heavy heavy heart I have learned that Essence magazine has engaged a white fashion director, this hurts, literally, spiritually.” Michaela’s tweet erupted a series of reactions, re-tweets, and scores of Facebook comments. Responses ranged from shock, disappointment to utter confusion.
Our immediate reaction? As the publication unofficially deemed “Essence‘s little sister”—a growing young urban women’s online brand for news, critical commentary, lifestyle, fashion and beauty—it felt like our Mom walked us hand in hand to the center of the biggest shopping mall in the state, turned around, and left us. But we are no longer the little girls eyeballing the glossy giant who taught us how to love ourselves. We’ve been finding our way through the life, love and labels for quite sometime now; and the likely abandonment of the counselor who taught us everything we know is now evolving into clearer overstanding. The pressing question for many of us is how much does Time Warner have to do with the hiring?
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at 12:56 pm
We won’t have anything to ourselves unless we keep it a secret.
at 9:07 am
Damn that is some $hit, Essence may be white owned but it was black opperated. And to put the directing of the fashion in the hands of some chick that figured that since she handle O! that she could take on Essence is some Bull-$hit. Yes I do feel like that is a slap in the face for them to do that, now my faithfullness to them is up in the air.
at 4:06 am
Just like in the movie, “UNDERCOVER BROTHER” they hire the white guy, “LANCE” as The Chief says: S__t, what can I say? Affirmative action.
Just Keep Real
XR4ti
at 10:51 pm
If this report is true, the solution is very simple: DON’T BUY ANOTHER ISSUE OF ESSENCE MAGAZINE! Black women have a unique style that is idiosyncratic to our culture and our journey through this thing that we call life. A white woman cannot successfully interpret our style, our pizzazz, our panache.
All print magazines are struggling now, waging war against the Internet. The battle is bloody and foolhardy and traditional magazines are losing! Time Warner cannot afford having black women proactively taking a stand against a move that is simply not conducive to our best interest, or our lifestyle. Don’t just get MAD: GET EVEN! Once this story is confirmed to be valid, don’t buy this magazine, and don’t go online to essence.com either. If you currently subscribe, cancel your subscription, and make sure that you tell them why you’re cancelling. DON’T BE COMPLACENT; TAKE A STAND!
Hit Time Warner and Essence magazine where it hurts: in their bloody pockets. When they are unable to generate revenue from subscription sales and Internet hits, their CPM rates will have to be lowered, and they will subsequently lose advertisers and profitability.
Couple your benign boycott, with a few carefully crafted malignant words. Write a letter to the C-Suite of Time Warner (CEO, COO, CMO), and the publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Essence magazine. Let them know how you feel.
If Time Warner owned a Hispanic, Arab or Asian magazine, I can guarantee you; they would not commission a white woman as the Fashion Director because they know that those communities would absolutely NOT tolerate it.
If you don’t mind having a white Fashion Director for your magazine, then continue to patronage Essence. If you do mind, take a stand: DON’T BUY ANOTHER ISSUE UNTIL THIS SITUATION IS RECITFIED. Do more than complain: STAND FOR SOMETHING. All you have to do is cease and desist purchasing Essence magazine, cancel your subscription and stop visiting their website.
SIDEBAR: Share this information with your family and friends. WE NEED TO NIP THIS IN THE BUD SWIFTLY!
at 9:16 am
Do people realize that Essence Magazine is white owned? The thing that kills me is blacks stand up and applaud when black companies sell their product for millions, then are surprised when those companies “dirty” up the brand? This is white supremacy at work people and we need to understand the full aspect of that. In short, they want to control how YOU/WE view ourselves and our people, so they come at us like it’s a black perspective, but it really isn’t. This should be a familiar formula. Anyone remember the real Black Entertainment Television network?
at 2:35 am
Obious that Eboney’s in the crapper and a non-Black in charge of us, gives me one word of Essence: WHOOOOOSHHHHH…..(sound of a toilet)……..
at 9:56 pm
Ummm, don’t WE have some bigger shyt to worry about, other than if some white person can dress a black person?
at 5:31 pm
Ain’t this some shyt??!! Don’t whites have their nose enough in everybody’s mix?! In the words of Public Enemy: “CAN’T TRUST IT!!!”