Month: June 2020

Vogue’s Anna Wintour has apologized in an internal email for “mistakes” made in her 32-year tenure in not doing enough to elevate black voices on her staff and publishing images and stories that have been racially and culturally “hurtful or intolerant.”
The fashion doyenne wrote in the June 4 email: “I take full responsibility for those mistakes.”
The magazine’s editor in chief, who is also Conde Nast’s artistic director and global content adviser, had no further comment Wednesday on the email obtained by The Associated Press. It was first revealed Tuesday in the New York Post.  
Wintour’s mea culpa surfaced soon after Adam Rapoport, the editor in chief of another Conde Nast title, Bon Appetit, resigned after a photo surfaced of him in brownface, amplifying outrage over how the food magazine treats employees of color.
On Monday, the top editor and a co-founder of the lifestyle site Refinery29, Christene Barberich, resigned after former employees complained on social media of a toxic culture and unfair treatment of staff members of color over the years.  
Meanwhile, Samira Nasr on Wednesday was named the first editor in chief of color in the 153-year history of U.S. Harper’s Bazaar.
In her email, Wintour referenced the country’s “historic and heartbreaking moment” after the death of George Floyd and other black people at the hands of police, events that sparked rage and grief in protests playing out for more than two weeks around the world.
“I want to start by acknowledging your feelings and expressing my empathy towards what so many of you are going through: sadness, hurt, and anger too. I want to say this especially to the Black members of our team — I can only imagine what these days have been like. But I also know that the hurt, and violence, and injustice we’re seeing and talking about have been around for a long time.
Recognizing it and doing something about it is overdue,” Wintour told her staff.
She called for the tumult to be a “time of listening, reflection, and humility for those of us in positions of privilege and authority. It should also be a time of action and commitments.”
Wintour didn’t specify what content she was referring to as offensive, or what steps will be taken to rectify hiring and bring on a new creative approach. She pledged, “On a corporate level, work is being done to support organizations in a real way. These actions will be announced as soon as possible.”
She wrote: “Meanwhile, I want to say plainly that I know Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators. We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes.”
Wintour said her staff includes “too few” black employees. She didn’t say how many there are.
“I know that it is not enough to say we will do better, but we will — and please know that I value your voices and responses as we move forward.”
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FX’s fictionalized hit show “Pose” introduced many to the underground world of ballroom culture, in which historically black and Latino LGBT youths compete in elaborate performances on a runway.
 
Now “Legendary” on HBO Max is serving up real ballroom battles to the mainstream, with competitors in eight “houses” vying to be declared the best and take home $100,000. Judging the competition are recording artist Megan Thee Stallion, actress and activist Jameela Jamil, stylist and TV personality Law Roach, and ballroom legend Leiomy Maldonado.
During battles, competitors wear elaborate costumes, makeup and wigs. They vogue, dance like acrobats and spin like ice-skaters.
“It’s like if ballet and break-dancing had a baby,” said Jamil, best known for her role on “The Good Place.”  
But “Legendary” is not just about being fierce. It’s about overcoming.
In the first episode, one of the competitors opens up about being ostracized from his family when he came out, a sad truth for many who turned to the ballroom community for acceptance.
“Growing up I already knew my mother wasn’t accepting of my sexuality,” Xa’Pariis Ebony says. “When I did decide to finally come out to her, I was put out. Like, I had to sleep in parks sometimes. But ballroom just really gave me a family. It really did teach me to be comfortable with who I am.”
The ballroom community not only offers a place where LGBT youth of color feel welcome but also powerful, Jamil said.
“These are people who are living a lifestyle that so much of our ignorant society shuns,” she said. “The fact that they are doing it as boldly, as loudly, as colorfully as possible, is so empowering.”
Although widely viewed as a big step by the ballroom community, “Legendary” has been criticized for allowing Jamil and Megan Thee Stallion to be judges, as opposed to others who are a part of the community.
Jamil in particular was singled out when HBO sent out a news release about the show that incorrectly identified her as the emcee. The competition’s emcee is Dashaun Wesley, a ballroom legend.
The backlash grew so much that Jamil worried that too much attention was on the controversy.
“I said to the show, I was like, ‘Do you think it would be better if I leave?'” she said. “And it was the ballroom community and it was Dashaun and Leiomy who got straight on the phone with me and they were like, ‘You’re not going anywhere.’ And the contestants like, grabbed one of the producers and were like, ‘Don’t let her leave,’ and it was because they don’t believe in ostracizing people. They believe in inclusion and not exclusion.”
And that, she said, was her “first big lesson of really experiencing the heart of ballroom.”
She defended her and Megan as judges, saying the show needed Hollywood names to get the proper attention it deserves.
“You need to make sure that you’re going to have eyeballs on a show and therefore you need people who have big followings,” she said. “And unfortunately, because of how our society is set up, the people with those big followings are often cis privileged people. So we are just here to try and do our service as good allies and open the door to let everyone else in.”  
The show’s message of acceptance is so strong, one of the eight houses competing is comprised entirely of cis women.
Wesley said he was involved in making that decision, which also has faced criticism among the ballroom community.
“The powerful thing is that you get to see a house that’s filled cisgender women. You get to see a house that’s filled with nothing but gay men. You get to see a house that’s filled with a cisgendered woman, a Hispanic man, a black man, a drag queen and a trans woman,” Wesley said. “You get to see all genres of everything.”
The message: It doesn’t matter who you are as long as you can bring it to the runway.
Those involved with the show say they hope introducing ballroom culture to a broader audience leads to more understanding and acceptance of LGBT culture.
“There are two different types of people that I’m really looking forward seeing (the show),” Jamil said. “One, are the young kids who might be queer or trans themselves, who haven’t seen themselves reflected back on mainstream television being glamorized and glorified. I think it’s important for them to know that like, ‘Oh, maybe not in my hometown, but somewhere there is a place for me and there’s a community for me where I would be accepted.'”
Next, she said she can’t wait for parents of such children and “people who maybe feared this culture or thought there was something wrong or dirty or shameful about it” to see the show.
“They can see the beauty and the joy of it,” Jamil said. “And, you know, I think that a lot of ignorance and bigotry just comes from fear of the unknown. And so let’s get to know these people.”
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Italian authorities on Thursday unveiled a stolen artwork by British artist Banksy that was painted as a tribute to the victims of the 2015 terror attacks at the Bataclan music hall in Paris.L’Aquila prosecutors said the work was recovered on Wednesday during a search of a home in the countryside of Tortoreto, near the Adriatic coast in the Abruzzo region’s Teramo province. It had been “hidden well” in the attic, prosecutors said.  No arrests have been made.  French officials last year announced the theft of the piece, a black image appearing to depict a person mourning that was painted on one of the Bataclan’s emergency exit doors.Ninety people were killed at the Bataclan on Nov. 13, 2015, when Islamic extremists invaded the music hall, one of several targets that night in which a total of 130 people died.Authorities said they were still investigating how the artwork arrived in Italy, and the role of any Italians potentially involved. They said the discovery was the fruit of a joint Italian-French police investigation.At a news conference Thursday in L’Aquila, a French embassy liaison officer, Maj. Christophe Cengig, said the Bataclan owners were informed that the work had been recovered.  “It belongs to the Bataclan, it belongs to all of France in a sense,” he said. The owners, he added, “were thrilled, very happy.”  L’Aquila Prosecutor Michele Renzo said authorities believed the motivation for the theft was financial, not ideological.  Some Chinese nationals were living in the Tortoreto home, but they appeared unaware that the work was there. Teramo Carabinieri Col. Emanuele Pipola said someone else had access to the attic. 
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The organization behind the Oscar awards elected “Selma” director Ava DuVernay on Wednesday as it slightly increased its number of female and black governors.The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has repeatedly been hit with criticism in recent years for a lack of diversity both among its members, and among the Oscar nominees and winners they select.”As a result of this election, the number of female Academy governors increases from 25 to 26, and people of color increases from 11 to 12, including the three Governors-at-Large,” the Academy said in a statement.DuVernay’s election comes well after the #OscarsSoWhite movement was launched in January 2015 in response to the Academy picking an all-white slate of nominees — the same year “Selma” was in contention.The movie about Martin Luther King Jr’s civil rights march did earn a best picture nomination, and won best original song, but was seen to have been snubbed in other categories.Its star David Oyelowo, who failed to pick up a nomination, last week claimed Academy members had threatened to sink “Selma” after cast and crew protested the death of Eric Garner with “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts at the film’s 2014 premiere.The Academy responded on Thursday, tweeting: “Ava & David, we hear you. Unacceptable. We’re committed to progress.”The expression “I Can’t Breathe” has once again become a rallying cry for anti-racism protesters after the death of George Floyd last month.Garner and Floyd were both African American men who died in police custody.Four of those joining the board for the first time are women, including Lynette Howell Taylor — who produced this year’s Oscars ceremony — while Whoopi Goldberg was among those reelected. 
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NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag from all events and properties. NASCAR says the Confederate flag “runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry.” Former chairman Brian France in 2015 tried to ban the flying of Confederate flags at race tracks, a proposal too broad to enforce and one that angered NASCAR’s core Southern-based fan base.   NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its races and properties on Wednesday, formally distancing itself from what for many is a symbol of slavery and racism that had been a familiar sight at stock car events for more than 70 years.  The move comes amid social unrest around the globe following the death in police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis. Protests have roiled the nation for days and Confederate monuments are being taken down across the South — the traditional fan base for NASCAR. FILE – Bubba Wallace greets fans during a NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Va., Oct. 27, 2019.Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s lone black driver, called this week for the banishment of the Confederate flag and said there was “no place” for it in the sport. At long last, NASCAR obliged.  “The presence of the Confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry,” NASCAR said. “Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special.  The display of the Confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.” The move was announced before Wednesday night’s race at Martinsville Speedway where Wallace, an Alabama native, was driving a Chevrolet with a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme. Wallace got a shoutout on Twitter from several athletes, including NBA star LeBron James, for using the paint scheme in the race. The flag issue has been a thorny one for NASCAR. Former chairman Brian France in 2015 tried to ban the flying of Confederate flags at race tracks, angering many fans. NASCAR did not address how it would enforce the policy or indicate any penalties for fans who violate it by bringing the Confederate flag to the track. NASCAR has not raced with fans since the sport resumed last month amid the pandemic and was expected to have minimal fans allowed at races this month in Florida and Georgia. 
 
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The art director of Cairo’s international film festival has resigned amid calls for his removal because of past inflammatory posts on social media, the festival said.  The resignation of Egyptian film critic Ahmed Shawky was announced Tuesday in a statement by the festival’s advisory board. Shawky, who was acting artistic director of the 2019 festival, had been appointed artistic director of this year’s festival earlier this month.  His recent appointment brought criticism from activists and others who pointed to past comments Shawky made that apparently espoused violence. Those include referring to the death of dozens of Egyptian soccer fans in a notorious riot as their being “culled.”The statement said the festival would continue preparing for its 2020 edition and “uphold our principles of championing diversity, bridging cultures, encouraging dialogue, celebrating new voices.” The festival is scheduled for November 19-28.The festival statement did not provide reasons for Shawky’s resignation. The film critic did not answer phone calls and messages seeking comment Wednesday.But Shawky’s resignation came after activists threatened to write to foreign filmmakers invited to the festival to inform them of Shawky’s history.  Among the most controversial statements of Shawky’s were posts about a 2012 soccer riot that left more than 70 people dead in Egypt’s worst sports disaster and one of the world’s deadliest.  In a 2014 post, Shawky referred to the deaths of the soccer fans as their being “culled,” suggesting those who died were somehow inferior and selectively killed. Almost all of those killed were from The Al-Ahly club’s “Ultras” — hardcore supporters of the Cairo-based team and the country’s largest fan association.Shawky used the same word to describe the death of the daughter of a Muslim Brotherhood leader who was killed in the summer of 2013 when security forces descended on supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.  “No-one should feel sorry for her,” he said. “If I know someone like her … I would kill her with my own hands.”‘Hurtful words’Following the recent backlash on social media, Shawky apologized this week, saying in a statement that he used “hurtful words” that were “painful to the families of the dead.”He has since shut down his social media accounts.Shawky was also sharply critical of Syrian filmmakers documenting the country’s civil war, accusing them of taking advantage of the suffering to gain Oscar nominations.
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A toppled statue of an Englishman involved in the slave trade in the British city of Bristol will be retrieved from the harbor and placed in a local museum to educate residents about the history of racism, the City Council announced Wednesday.A statue of Edward Colston, a local philanthropist who worked for the Royal African Company in the 17th century, was toppled by anti-racism protesters and thrown into the harbor on Sunday.In statement on the Council’s website, Mayor Marvin Rees announced the creation of a new commission that will explore more fully the southern city’s ties to racism and inequality.”As a city, we all have very different understandings of our past,” he wrote.Rees noted that “Education of our history has often been flawed,” and called for an increased “accuracy of our city’s history which is accessible to all (and) will help us understand each other, our differences, our contradictions and our complexities.”FILE – A banner is taped over the inscription on the pedestal of the toppled statue of Edward Colston in Bristol, England, June 8, 2020.As part of the new exploration of the city’s history, Colston’s statue will be placed in a museum alongside signs from Sunday’s Black Lives Matter protest.It has not yet been determined who or what will replace Colston on the plinth.Some activists have advocated for a statue of civil rights campaigner Dr. Paul Stephenson to be erected as a replacement, the BBC reports.Stephenson spearheaded the Bristol bus boycott in the 1960s, which ultimately resulted in overturning a ban on ethnic minorities working on city buses.Famed artist Banksy submitted an informal proposal on Instagram, suggesting that the statue be resurrected and restored to its plinth — with the addition of bronze protesters in the act of removing Colston.”Everyone happy. A famous day commemorated,” he wrote.Edward Colston was a senior official in the Royal African Company, which in the late 1600s trafficked 80,000 African men, women and children to slavery in the Americas. According to the AP, Bristol’s port transported at least half a million Africans into slavery before Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807.Upon his death in 1721, Colston bequeathed his fortune to charity. Many streets and schools in Bristol are named for Colston.
 
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HBO Max has temporarily removed “Gone With the Wind” from its streaming library in order to add historical context to the 1939 film long criticized for romanticizing slavery and the Civil War-era South.  
Protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death have forced entertainment companies to grapple with the appropriateness of both current and past productions. On Tuesday, the Paramount Network dropped the long-running reality series “Cops” after 33 seasons. The BBC also removed episodes of “Little Britain,” a comedy series that featured a character in blackface, from its streaming service.  
In an op-ed Monday in the Los Angeles Times, the filmmaker John Ridley urged WarnerMedia to take down “Gone With the Wind,” arguing that it “romanticizes the Confederacy in a way that continues to give legitimacy to the notion that the secessionist movement was something more, or better, or more noble than what it was — a bloody insurrection to maintain the ‘right’ to own, sell and buy human beings.”
In a statement, the AT&T-owned WarnerMedia, which owns HBO Max, called “Gone With the Wind” “a product of its time” that depicts racial prejudices.  
“These racist depictions were wrong then and are wrong today, and we felt that to keep this title up without an explanation and a denouncement of those depictions would be irresponsible,” said an HBO Max spokesman in a statement.  
The company said that when “Gone With the Wind” returns to the recently launched streaming service, it will include “historical context and a denouncement of those very depictions, but will be presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed.”
Based on a 1936 book by Margaret Mitchell, “Gone With the Wind” is a historical epic about a romance between Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh), the daughter of a Georgia plantation owner, and Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), a gambler who joins the Confederacy.  
“Gone With the Wind” has long been denounced for featuring slave characters who remain loyal to their former owners after the abolition of slavery. It remains the highest-grossing film of all time when adjusted for inflation. It won eight Academy Awards including best picture and best supporting actress for Hattie McDaniel, the first black actress to be nominated or win an Oscar.
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