The Guardian today weighed into The Independent for its decision to use a photo of Kate Moss on its front page yesterday made-up to look as if she were black.
The front page image, and poster inside, was part of a special edition of The Independent guest-edited by designer Georgio Armani which highlighted the plight of women in Africa.
Half of the revenue from yesterday’s Independent is going to Aids charity Red.
Guardian columnist Hannah Pool, who writes a regular column on cosmetics in The Guardian called The New Black, said the picture of Moss was “little more than a cheap old-fashioned blacking-up trick, and the fact that it is being used to highlight the battle against Aid in Africa is a disgrace.”
The Guardian today devoted pages one, six, seven, eight and nine to looking at the issue of “blacking up”.
Pool said: “What exactly is this picture of Moss-as-African woman supposed to portray? I suppose it is meant to be subversive, but what does it say about race today when a quality newspaper decides that its readers will only relate to Africa through a blacked-up white model rather than a real-life black woman?
”What does it say about the fight against HIV/Aids if that is the only way to make us care? And as a black woman (born that way), what does that say about me?”
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