Our neglecting of black staff is so hurtful, admits Vogue’s Anna
DAME Anna Wintour has apologised to staff for ‘hurtful’ and ‘intolerant’ behaviour at Vogue – acknowledging that she hasn’t done enough to champion black employees.
The 70-year-old editor-in-chief said she had made mistakes during her 32-year reign at the magazine and that change is ‘long overdue’. Writing in a memo to Vogue staff in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, Dame Anna said: ‘I want to say this especially to the black members of our team – I can only imagine what these days have been like.
‘But I also know that the hurt, violence and injustice we’re seeing and talking about have been around for a long time. Recognising it and doing something about it is overdue.’
Dame Anna said the US is going through a ‘historic and heartbreaking moment’ and that ‘it should be a time of listening, reflection, and humility for those of us in positions of privilege and authority.’
And she said Vogue has not done enough ‘to elevate and give space to black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators’, adding:
‘We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes.’
She said there are ‘too few’ black employees at the fashion bible, which employed its first ever black editor, Edward Enninful, in 2017.
She asked for feedback and ideas from employees, adding: ‘I know that it is not enough to say we will do better, but we will – and please know that I value your voices and responses as we move forward. I am proud of the content we have published on our site over these past few days but I also know that there is much more work to do.’ Her memo was sent three days before Adam Rapoport, the editor-in-chief of fellow Conde Nast publication Bon Appetit, resigned after a photo surfaced of him in ‘brown face’ in 2004.
And it comes after Andre Leon Talley, a black former editor-at-large for US Vogue, painted a scathing picture of the fashion doyenne, who is known as ‘nuclear Wintour’.
He claimed he has ‘huge emotional and psychological scars’ and said he was branded ‘too old, too overweight and too uncool’.