By: TJVNews.com
It appears that the penchant that Vogue Magazine has for celebrities who grace their covers has taken on new meaning. Now that the United States is welcoming the very first female vice-president, Vogue Magazine will be featuring Kamala Harris on their cover in February.
An issue with the cover photo has now placed the iconic fashion magazine in a “whitewashing” controversy. On Sunday, it was reported that the two cover photos of Harris were tweeted and many folks were more than outraged.
According to CBS News, the cover photo showed Harris wearing a dark suit and a pair of Converse sneakers. She is standing in front of a pink and green backdrop which signifies the colors of Harris college sorority. According to a report in Vogue, the sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded in 1908 and is the first historically African American sorority. Its official colors are salmon pink and apple green. Vogue reported that they were chosen by educator Beulah Burke, one of the group’s nine founding members. The combination has remained the same for more than a century and is instantly recognizable to members and anyone with knowledge of the Greek system of sororities and fraternities. Over the years, they’ve been donned by women such television legend Phylicia Rashad, mathematician Katherine Johnson, and Nobel prize winning author Toni Morrison, according to the Vogue report.
CBS reported that the magazine then released a second photo. It was a portrait of Harris wearing a powder blue suit. A source familiar with the photo shoot told CBS News that it was this particular photo was the one that has been agreed upon by the Harris camp as the featured photo on the cover of the magazine.
The source told CBS that, “Aides to Harris and Vogue had the understanding that the blue suit/gold background would be the cover photo. Without telling Harris’ team, Vogue changed it to the pink/green photo which the Vice President-elect’s team did not agree to.”
The source added that the image of Harris in her sneakers and standing in front of her sorority colors was originally intended to be used as a photo that would be used inside the magazine as part of the story about Harris.
The Guardian of the UK reported that one user called it a “washed out mess of a cover”. The observer wrote, “Kamala Harris is about as light skinned as women of color come and Vogue still fucked up her lighting.
New York Times contributor Wajahat Ali wrote, “What a mess up. Anna Wintour (the editor of Vogue) must really not have Black friends and colleagues. I’ll shoot shots of VP Kamala Harris for free using my Samsung and I’m 100% confident it’ll turn out better than this Vogue cover.”
“The pic itself isn’t terrible as a pic. It’s just far, far below the standards of Vogue. They didn’t put thought into it. Like homework finished the morning it’s due,” the LGBTQ activist Charlotte Clymer tweeted.
Both photos were taken by 26-year old photographer Tyler Mitchell. CBS reported that Mitchell became the magazine’s first African American photographer to shot a Vogue cover in the magazine’s 125-year history.
“Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate or give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers, and other creators,” Wintour wrote. “We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I want to take full responsibility for those mistakes.”
According to the Post, Harris and her team had control over her clothes, hair and makeup. She chose her own casual black jacket and pants and a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor boots for one photo, a powder blue Michael Kors pantsuit for the other.
