I don’t often share other content across the web, but I couldn’t not share this video with you. Porter Magazine, the print offshoot of online fashion Mecca Net-a-Porter, recently interviewed heavyweight women in Hollywood—Ellen Pompeo, Gina Rodriguez, Gabriella Union and Emma Roberts—about the price of commercial success, why actress don’t talk more about their worth and how we can all use our power to empower each other.
It’s an eye-opening 25 minutes, with enough soundbites to fill your twitter feed for a week. One bit really struck a chord with me though; at one point, Pompeo calls out the magazine itself for the lack of diversity in the crew, though she does commend it for being largely women. It’s a bold move, but Ellen does it with the utmost respect and I commend Porter for keeping it in the final edit and actively pushing it and its message that we can all do better and that white people especially must take charge with highlight inequality, it can’t only be up to the minority to fight for it.
This really touched home with me. As many of you know, I work in the fashion industry. It’s an industry that is heavily, heavily white and I’m constantly aware of it. This is actually a conversation I have had in the office before when hiring new writers—I’ve pushed recruiters to put people from diverse backgrounds in front of me, to look further than the obvious and to open up opportunities for those who don’t normally have them. It’s made me realised that the problem is deeper rooted in that ethnic minorities aren’t even getting a foot in the door in the first place in order for me to be able to see their CVs or the experience they need. They aren’t getting the enter jobs, or progressing through the ranks, which is why when I’m flooded with CVs, it’s predominantly white women, followed by white men.
It’s definitely something I’ve charged myself with in in my career, and in the companies, I work for; to curate opportunities for diversity and for growth for BAME candidates. I’m still working on exactly how I’m going to do that, but I want to make it a personal mission to do what I can.
Read the full article here and check out more form the shoot below.
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