BLACK MODELS STRIP TOPLESS TO PROTEST IN RIO DE JANEIRO

About 40 black models, most of them women, staged a topless protest in Rio de Janeiro against the low presence of Afro-Brazilians on fashion catwalks.

“What strikes you, your racism or me?” one of the female demonstrators wrote on her chest during the protest late Wednesday timed to coincide with Rio Fashion Week.

The demonstration also coincided with the signing of a deal between the Fashion Week organizers and the Rio ombudsman’s office setting a 10 percent quota for black models in fashion shows, the G1 news website reported.


“This agreement crowns a joint initiative that can open a space that does not yet exist,” said Moises Alcuna, a spokesman for Educafro, a civil rights group championing the labor and educational rights of blacks and indigenous people.

More than half of Brazil’s 200 million people are of African descent, the world’s second largest black population after that of Nigeria.

But Afro-Brazilians complain of widespread racial inequality.
“If we are buying clothes, why can’t we parade in the (fashion) shows,” asked a 15-year-old model taking part in the protest. “Does that mean that only white women can sell and the rest of us can only buy?”

“Claiming to showcase Brazilian fashion without the real Brazilians amounts to showing Brazilian fashion (only) with white models,” said Jose Flores, a 25-year-old former model who now works in advertising.

Source:eurweb.com