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The identical twins Karen and Karina Ferreira Flores, black girls, have the prospect of starting a career βin the commercial markets of Germany and Greece,β says Juliana Rife, International Mega Model booking agent and a modeling agency in Brasilia. That means being able to work in photos, catalogs and showrooms. Despite their beauty, height (5β10β), weight (110 lbs.) generous breasts, fleshy mouth, slanted eyes and being very young, maybe they wonβt manage to get to the catwalks easily. The one explaining the reason is the owner of HDA Models in SΓ£o Paulo, the largest agency specializing in black models in Brazil. βWhoever promotes the fashion show catwalk thinks black people donβt wear clothesβ, says Helder Dias, speaking of the prejudice that still persists in the fashion universe.
Last year, the Public Ministry of SΓ£o Paulo forced the organizers of theΒ SΓ£o Paulo Fashion Week to include in shows at least 10% of black models, people of African descent or indigenous or, but it was left alone. βThe fashion events in Brazil are not for my black models. They do not hire blacks and, when hired, is no cache. Or not to participate does not change much, βsays Helder Dias. It is in the advertising campaigns that skin color is changing the Brazilians. βThe black started to have purchasing power, then the market has woken up to the inclusion of dark skin,β said Helder, whoΒ directs 250 black male and femaleΒ models. βPrejudice is not just racial, it is economical too,β says the businessman.
There is one more complication for Brazilians of African descent who wish to embark upon a career as a runway-model, be it on the runway, in advertising or marketing. If the skin of the candidate falls toward the black side, the funnel (of opportunity) is narrower.
βThe demands are much greater. They have to be beautiful, stylish, have a good body, and an impeccable catwalk. White women also need it all, but the rigidity is not so greatβ, says Juliana Rife. Still, the market has grown for models of African descent in Brasilia. For every ten white models, there are three black models in the agency of Juliana. Until recently, the proportion was much lower: nine to one. As the requirements are so great, is not easy to overcome them.
The twins have been able to overcome the rigidity of the market for black models, but they remain the exception of the exception. βEven with all the advances of recent years, it is rare to see black people working in the shopping malls, appearing on TV. They appear in numbers that are much lower than that of the Brazilian racial realityβ, says the businesswoman Maria das GraΓ§as Santos, owner of the first salon specializing in ethnic hair in the Federal District, Afro NβZinga, who worked for many years in Conic* and is now in VenΓ’ncio 2000*. βIn late 1970s, and early 1980s, it was hard to find someone who knew how to cut black hair. We found in a UnB (University of BrasΓlia) a student who taught us the African method [for braiding hair] and we started out with a hairdresser and a manicurist.β It was a success, but the Afro NβZinga was not just a salon. βItβs a business, but so far today it is seen as a movement,β says GraΓ§as, a pioneer in the advocacy of racial issues in the capital.
A bit later after the emergence of Afro NβZinga, appeared in the Centro de Ensino MΓ©dio de Taguatinga (CEMTN or Taguatinga High School Center) a movement for the affirmation of black beauty started five years ago and is celebrated every year in the month of November, the month of Zumbi. In the late afternoon of one particular Friday, the official jury chose the 12 most beautiful black teenagers (and not all of them were really black) among the roughly 1,500 students at the school. In previous days, the popular jury had made its own choice.
The most beautiful black students of CEMTN in the judgement of the jury were, amongst girls: Sayonara, Ana Alice and Leticia. Amongst the boys: Paul, Benedito and Hendrix. The official jury chose Ana Alice, Sayonara and Gilead. And Raniere, Luiz Henrique and John Mark. Although it might appear to be exaggeration, the lives of these boys and girls in the school and the community will change from now on. βWe realize that there is an improvement in their self-esteem, other students start to see them differently and they come to be seen as some of the most beautiful boys and girls in the school. Everyone wants to date them after the contests [laughs]β, says teacher Elidete Teixeira da Silva, the organizer.
When white-skinned students complain about the lack of a promotion for the choice of the most beautiful among them, the teacher explains that whites do not need encouragement to recognize beautiful. βNobody questions the beauty standard, the blonde, the white girl. Black people are the ones that people donβt know are beautiful. We want to extend the concept of beauty. Weβre not saying that white is ugly, we are saying that black is beautiful.β The CEMTN beauty pageant is one of the educational activities of the Sankofa Project coordinated by Professor Elidete Teixeira. Sankofa is an African ideogram meaning βit is never too late to go back and take what was left behind.β
*Two shopping centers located in the exclusive Asa Sul neighborhood of the Plano Piloto region of the Federal District
Source:Β Correio BrazilienseΒ
Source:Β Correio BrazilienseΒ
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