Do we still face racism in the 21st century?

I decided to do some research on one of the most successful fashion magazine vogue. It occurred to be that I hardly see a vogue a cover dedicated to an individual black model, I looked through the 2000s until now and I have discovered that only Naomi Campbell has been the only black model since 2002!!! There are many successful black models like Malikah firth, Betty Adewole who has been a model for tom ford, Alexandra McQueen and Prada and Jourdan Dunn and these are just the British models. So why are they not on the cover of vogue yet? We have seen numerous covers of Kate moss, Cara Delevingne, Natalia Vodianova etc. is vogue being racist??? But some may say we have seen Beyoncé and Rihanna on vogue cover, yes that is correct but that’s only during the last couple of years. And only these two celebrities have been featured. Vogue’s editor stated in the GUARDIAN “We have put Beyoncé and Rihanna on the cover of Vogue and at least half our covers do not feature models. We love Jourdan Dunn and she was the cover star of the last Miss Vogue which previously had featured Cara Delevingne.”

Jourdan Dunn is currently one of the most successful models who has worked with top designers and done many runways including Prada. Also, she has been in campaigns for Ann Taylor, Burberry, Balmain, Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, DKNY, John Galliano, Victoria’s Secret, Tommy Hilfiger, Topshop, Kate Spade, Express, Jaeger, Rag & Bone, Gap, Aldo, Shiatzy Chen, Benetton, H&M, Banana Republic, Free People, Selfridges, Neiman Marcus, Pepe Jeans, Liu Jo and Saks Fifth Avenue, and was the face of Rihanna’s collections for River Island. In 2015 Jourdan Dunn had her first solo vogue cover which brought a lot of attention that there are not enough black models featured on the cover of vogue.

The modelling world does not seem easy, a lot of effort and hard work is put behind it. Jourdan Dunn spoke about how difficult she found to make it into the fashion world; she had many rejections some due to the colour of her skin. I feel like the fashion world is not diverse and united as I thought it was, we are still challenging equality and racism. And I hope to see more of Jourdan Dunn in vogue.