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Just in time for Black History Month

VFhollywood2004.jpg
(MOSTLY) WHITE PRIDE:Vanity Fair‘s “Hollywood 2004” cover. (Not pictured: Black Actresses)
While the cover may lack diversity (yes, I am aware that Salma Hayek and Lucy Lui Liu aren’t white, but that and a token will get ya’ a ride on the subway), the magazine is positively bursting (like a dried up cactus) with African Americans.
Aside from some ads that feature Black models (Naomi Campbell and Tyson Beckford are still workin’ it after all these years!) or deeply-tanned white ones, there’s Brett Brooks, the DJ at Fred Segal (and Winona Ryder‘s old roommate—he works at a deparment store, she loves department stores, together, they’re a sitcom!) on page 192, Jamie Foxx done-up as Ray Charles on page 220, a caricature of Rudy Ray Moore, aka, Dolemite on page 332, Janet Jackson as Lena Horne on pages 322-323 (Black performers dressed as older Black performers= hot!), and Janet’s beloved and besieged brother, Michael (save your jokes: Michael Jackson is Black), is featured in several photos (one even show’s him wearing a trucker hat that appears to say “Black Man”) accompanying Maureen Orth’s examination of his child molestation charges beginning on page 384.
But by far, the part of the magazine that reflects the greatest diversity is Graydon Carter’s editor’s letter in which he lists the names of every U.S. armed forces member to die in Iraq. Of the 502 people listed, I’m betting a large percentage were African American.
Well, that’s one way to slip some Black folks into the “mix.”

10 replies on “Just in time for Black History Month”

Actually, the percentage of minorities that have died in the war is very close the percentage of minorities that are in the armed forces.
So yeah, 502 people died, but at least the ratios are on! WE WIN!

Excuse me, but I think it’s Lucy Liu, not Lucy Lui. My last name is also Liu, and it gets butchered all the time. I think it’s time people stopped making this mistake.

what’s the fuss all about? we’re talking VF here. it’s not the Source; it’s not Ebony. It’s g-d damned Vanity Fair and if they feel inclined to put white people on their cover, more power to them. I think this is a really silly and shallow topic you guys chose to write about.

You’re right, Brain, attacking Vanity Fair’s lack of diversity is shallow. I just wish there was some way we could label the post as such: you know, some category or section heading that indicates quite clearly that this post is Shallow.
Damn, if only there was a way!
PS. Liu, thank you. The mistake has been corrected, and I apologize: I’m sure it sucks to have people misspelling your name all the time.

Cuz, you know, EBONY is really the only appropriate place you’d expect to find black people, not in, oh, say, a magazine covering the entertainment industry.
GODDAMMIT MATT THEY’RE A PRIVATE CONCERN. And if they wanted to only eat with their own, hire their own, and drink out of dadblameit water fountains with their own, that would be NO one’s business but their own.
Speaking of which, I don’t have this issue. They didn’t even give us some back-flap action?

Yeah, Gretchen Mol. She sure turned out some great performances, didn’t she? If anyone truly deserved a cover, it was her. Thanks Vanity Fair, they all look ready for the casting couch debutante ball. Hurry girls, Jack, Hef, and Bob Evans are waiting.

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