Days after L'Oreal roped in its first transgender model Munroe Bergdorf to promote diversity campaign #allworthit, the French cosmetic giant has dropped her over her racist post on Facebook. Bergdorf who is a British was recruited as one of the five fresh faces to introduce five new shades of its makeup product. However, she was sacked over her statement which the company found "at odds" with its values.
Bergdorf reportedly wrote on social media that all white people are racists following incident in Charlottesville. In the US city, a white man rammed his car into the group of protesters rallying against white supremacy in which one woman died. After the incident, she wrote a lengthy Facebook post slamming racial violence by whites which has now been deleted, reported media. "Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people. Because most of ya'll don't even realise or refuse to acknowledge that your existence, privilege and success as a race is built on the backs, blood and death of people of colour. Your entire existence is drenched in racism. Come see me when you realise that racism isn't learned, it's inherited and consciously or unconsciously passed down through privilege. Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth… then we can talk," she wrote. Separating itself with the model, the company took to Twitter to announce, "L’Oréal champions diversity. Comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with our values and so we have decided to end our partnership with her."
Later in an attempt to clarify her words, she wrote that by saying all white people she meant to address the entire western society. She said today white people get all privileges because of their lighter skin tone and if L'Oreal seriously wants to empower underrepresented women then they firstly need to acknowledge the reason behind it.
In an another post, she asked people to boycott L'Oreal as it is only concerned about money. "Sit still and smile in a beauty campaign 'championing diversity'. But don't actually speak about the fact that lack of diversity is due to racism. Or speak about the origins of racism. It'll cost you your job". This makeup brand cares about nothing but MONEY. I urge you to boycott L'Oreal Paris . I can't express how disappointed I am in the entire team in dealing with misquotes that were entirely placed out of context," she wrote.
In a new initiative, the True Match face makeup launched by the company has 28 different shades ranging from light to dark brown according to varying skin colours of people across the world.
