Actress On ‘A Black Lady Sketch Show’ Calls Out The Fashion Industry For Using BLM As A Trend On Social Media

Fashion consumers are calling out designer brands for their recent displays of Black imagery on their social media pages in light of the Black Lives Matter protests. Of course, representation is appreciated, but a recent post about “Shrill” actress Niccole Thurman is pointing out that such displays should not be treated as Fashion trends.

In a series of tweets shared with her Instagram page, Thurman held the fashion industry accountable.

Calling out the fashion industry for their past exclusion of Black people and people of color, Thurman tweeted a string of emojis, featuring white faces. Sparsely sprinkled into the white faces were a few images of Black emojis and other emojis representing people of color. Thurman captioned the image writing “every Fashion Instagram page looking like.”

Speaking about the fashion industry’s current display of Black models in their social feeds in relation to the global protests that have broken out across the country in response to the recent death of George Floyd. “Feel like this tweet will get me yelled at somehow, so let me just say I’m GLAD to see more beautiful black women in my feed,” Thurman followed up her tweet writing. “It’s just THEY’VE BEEN THERE. THEY’VE *BEEN* BEAUTIFUL. Why’re brands just now seeing them? Don’t think we’re not going to check in on you a month from now.”

Users on Twitter and Instagram were quick to applaud Thurman’s point.

Many people who saw Thurman’s emoji illustration agreed with its sentiment. “Yeees!! And every goddamn photographer (nature photographer aside) I follow probably frantically searched their picture archive for that one shot of a black model they have to post last week, like “Look! I’m good! I take pictures of black people once in a while!!” a user by the name of @LoveCrimeCat wrote in response to the tweet while another remarked that ‘It’s only a matter of time until they go back to regular programming. I hope not but for some of these brands, it’s all performance.’ 

Another user took the time to lambast the fashion industry for “It’s the truth. Half the time the clothes are cut to fit white model better. The only one who really had more models of color on their runways shows was people like Thierry Mugler before he became Manfred.”

In regards to this story, Mitú has reached out to Thurman and is waiting for a comment.