Wake-up Call for Fashion Industry: Black is Beautiful

Ariel Binns is cute, smart, outgoing 6-year-old model. And she is getting jobs because she looks remarkably like first daughter Sasha Obama. This similarity has not gone unnoticed by the fashion industry. The first-grader and model Tyra Banks were cast by Harper's Bazaar magazine in a photo showing a Black family in the White House. I wonder where they got that idea? In the photo the child model from Brooklyn, New York was peeking out from under a big wooden desk.

Yes, the fashion world is realizing that there is noting like a dynamic first family to boost sales. The fashion market is finally waking up to the fact that Black is beautiful. Branding expert David Rogers predicts Black models will play a more prominent role in fashion photography as a direct result of the Obamas. At Wilhelmina Kids, a modeling agency in New York for kids and teens (which represents Ariel Binns), agents say there is increased demand for first daughter look-alikes.

The public loves the Obama girls and they are definitely marketable. After the first daughters appeared in their J.Crew outfits on Inauguration Day, the company's Web site got so many hits, it crashed.

The most visible and most exciting family in America is a beautiful Black family and the fashion industry is looking for those kinds of images. And to the surprise of the industry a lot of Americans who don’t necessarily look like them want to identify and find some sort of connection with this family.

Of course in everything there is a downside. First Lady Michelle Obama was not happy when toy manufacturer Ty Inc. came out with Black dolls named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia even though the company said the dolls did not look like the Obama girls. Many famous families face similar problems and don’t want their children exposed to the public, because once the child is exposed to the public image, because then they could become owned and could be used in many different and negative ways. It also takes away from the child growing up is a relatively normal way.

And yet the celebrity of Sasha and Malia has a positive effect by presenting a positive and prominent image of young Black girls and Black children in general. And it could take diversity in the fashion industry to a whole new level.

BET Honors

The first annual celebration of the BET Honors, which aired this passed Friday night, was truly a celebration. The event was hosted by Cedric “The Entertainer, and included an all star line-up including such notables as Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Gladys Knight, Wyclef Jean, Jill Scott, Brian McKnight, Ne-Yo, Raheem DeVaughn, Blair Underwood, Danny Glover, Kerry Washington, Idris Elba, Hill Harper, Vivica A. Fox and Kiesha Cole.

Friday’s broadcast showed the inaugural celebration of the BET Honors, which was held on January 12 at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. The show recognized six honorees across a range of achievements. The honors went to Dr. Cornel West, (noted Princeton University professor at the Center for African American Studies), for education; Tyra Banks, (producer, reality-show host, talk-show host, model, actress), for media; Janice Bryant Howroyd, (the chairman, chief executive officer and founder of Act 1 employment services corporation that she started out of a storefront and now has 90 offices across the nation and $500 million in 2007 revenue), for entrepreneur; Alicia Keys (musician, actress AIDS/HIV activist), for entertainment; Richard Parsons (Chairman of the Board of Time Warner), corporate citizen; and The Honorable Maxine Waters (who is serving her ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives), for public service.

It was a wonderful event but while they were having fun inside, on January 12, the date of the actual taping, a crowd of a couple hundred protesters shouted from behind police barricades across 14th Street. A group called Enough Is Enough led the protest saying the show was an expensive fig leaf to mask the corporation’s sins of exploitation. Signs in the crowd read “I Am Not a Pimp” and “I Am Not a Gangster.” I wonder if “The Boondocks” creator Aaron McGruder, who over the years has had his comic-strip characters ridicule BET for its programming content, most notable for its habit of profit-pushing thuggish rap videos. The protesters have to admit that BET has aired much more family oriented programming lately.

Each honoree received an introduction, then a video bio and then a musical tribute. Wyclef Jean pitched in a foot-stomping take on "She's a Bad Mama Jama." Brian McKnight crooned "One." Wonder came out and ripped up "As," dedicated to Keys. It had the horn section dancing, the ushers keeping time in the aisles and the crowd rocking. Debra Lee, BET's chairman and chief executive, pointed out that each recipient has also "given back to the community in a significant way."