Vogue Italia has come under fire for a controversial article covering “slave earrings” as fashion accessories.
The fashion magazine’s Italian version features a controversial article titled “Slave earrings Hoop earrings: a classic always in evolution.” The article reads:
Jewelry has always flirted with circular shapes, especially for use in making earrings. The most classic models are the slave and creole styles in gold hoops.
If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern United States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom. Source
Furious readers have taken to social networking websites to voice their displeasure about the article’s wording which is surely designed to bait and inflame its African readers.
This latest furor about insensitivity in marketing comes on the heels of a disastrous marketing campaign by body care giant Nivea which featured a black man in a magazine ad accompanied with the text “Re-civilize yourself.”
But unlike Nivea, which later apologized for its insensitivity, Vogue has yet to release a statement.
Do yt womens attempts to imitate have no limits?
Vogue probably won’t issue a statement and if they do it’ll be something along the lines of “At Vogue we believe in diversity and had no idea that our article referencing “slave earrings” would be offensive. We apologize to all those who may have been offended by our wording”
I personally can’t stand Vogue but it’ll be interesting to see if any of our black “leaders” will call them out on this or if they’ll just passively sit back like they’ve been doing lately.
@Man no
I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to make shackles fashionable complete with an article featuring pictures of black women in chains and then a white woman with her shackle bracelets 
“If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern United States during the slave trade…”
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Don’t they mean:
“If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the black women who were brutally raped and abducted to the southern United States during to be slaves for the next 400 years and that continue to endure inferior treatment in all levels of society to this day…”
IM STILL HERE


THE KIM K POST… THA HAIL
smh…just smh
hey Cha

@MS. EVERYTHING
I too have noticed a lot of prominent blacks have had their mouf shut since Obama has gotten into office.
But let somebody offend, discriminate, hell tell a joke, about any other minority (real or perceived) in this country and everybody’s up in arms ready to protest
but blatant racism and discrimination towards us gets overlooked, passed by and explained away and the people in charge just accept it (and yes I know this is Vogue Italia and not a US magazine but still chit they’re talking bout us)
just wow
@Ms. Everything the sad part is when African Americans themselves excuse or justify it. Saying ish like “slavery doesn’t exist anymore, people need to get over it”. Why should vogue, nivea or anyone else give a damn when the main people who should be offended don’t
The mobile site is just…ugh…
Anywho, *sigh* again I just don’t see what others see. Sometimes stuff just ain’t that deep. I guess
maybe I’m just not that sensative.
Don’t they mean:
“If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the black women who were brutally raped and abducted to the southern United States during to be slaves for the next 400 years and that continue to endure inferior treatment in all levels of society to this day…”
___________________________________________________
THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As a country I think we are back sliding into slavery days…..the uneploynment rate for AA is at 16% and steady rising….
We are letting them take back this country that we built with blood sweat and tears….. smh…
Mamacita no offense but you really can’t see the problem here?? They’re categorizing a type of earring as a slave earring, they have a picture of black woman sitting in the dirt next to a picture of a model with the same earrings all in the name of “fashion: and this this right here: “If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern United States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom”… You don’t reference the slavery of hundreds of thousands of people who were tortured, abused, raped, stolen from their home, mutilated and degraded to no more than property and make light of it in an article about fashion, period
Ms Everything & Man.. Ya’ll betta say it!
@Ms. Everything
and
to everything you said. Couldn’t have said it better myself. On another note when they start to use the holocaust or the Vietnam war to sell clothes, earrings or anything else then I’m all game for watching my “sensitivity”
Naija nobody would dare use the holocaust like that cause the Jews would have their azzes out of business so fast their ignorant heads would spin, same thing with any of the wars, you’ll have the vets up in arms but when it comes to us… anything goes cause too many of us just sit back and take it
@Ms. E I get what you’re saying but what I got from it is that fashion statements can come from anwhere and anyone regardless of class or color. Again, to me, it just wasn’t that deep.
Man, Ms. Everything, and Naija —>
and 
I think MANY blacks have been so brainwashed believing that we “scream racism” or “play the race card” too much. There are some black people that wouldn’t see it if a Klan member took his hood off and slapped them in the face with it. I guess it’s all about perspective :shrugs:. I think it’s because we just don’t care. We’ll take up the battle for everyone else (including Kim K, of all people!), but God forbid we do it for ourselves.
@KrazyKat
:waves;
@his
@man
@chi
@mrs
@mama
@cfree
@krazykat
oh well
I think it’s because we just don’t care. We’ll take up the battle for everyone else (including Kim K, of all people!),
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was they not goin’ thru on the Kim K thread or what?
Slaves were the only ones who wore hoop earrings in the past?
they issued an “apology” blaming it on a bad translation… the editor said it should’ve said ethnic (like that makes it better) and now the website has been updated to reflect the original meaning
smdh
Sandra I’m scared to post a link so here is the statement:
The Italian edition of fashion magazine Vogue has apologised for a feature it published on “slave earrings” which it said were “worn by women of colour … during the slave trade”.
Vogue Italia found itself at the centre of a race row on Monday after the feature, published earlier this month, was shared by outraged readers on Twitter.
The article, headlined “Slave earrings”, read: “If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern Unites States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom. Colored stones, symbolic pendants and multiple spheres. And the evolution goes on.”
Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief of Vogue Italia, sought to defuse the row in statement that described the article as a “really bad translation”.
“We apologise for the inconvenience. It is a matter of really bad traslation from Italian into English,” Sozzani said.
“The Italian word, which defines those kind of earrings, should instead be translated into ‘ethnical style earrings’. Again, we are sorry about this mistake which we have just amended in the website.”
The online-version of the article was amended on Monday to remove all references to the slave trade, and with the headline “Ethnic earrings”.
The amended article read: “If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of colour who were brought to the southern Unites States during the late 18th century, the latest interpretation is pure freedom. Colored stones, symbolic pendants and multiple spheres. And the evolution goes on.”
However, commenters continued to protest at the magazine’s use of the word “ethnic”.
One commenter, dubbed Alli cat, wrote: “Riiight. Now they’re ‘ethnic’?! My Italian may be a bit rusty, but I don’t remember slave (i.e. Schiavo in Italian) being anywhere even roughly translated to ‘ethnic’ (Etnico). if so then you are implying that any person of ethnicity darker than white is un schiavo. Please don’t act like we’re stupid. This is insulting.”
Another poster, named Janeo, added: “How extremely distasteful. Whoever approved this should be sacked immediately.”
Three years ago Vogue Italia caused a sensation in the fashion industry with its “black issue” featuring only black models. It went on to become the magazine’s biggest-selling issue ever.
Ok…… I am about to preach………
We ARE NOT back sliding to the days of salvery. OMG it makes me soooooo mad when people say chit like that! Yes AA unemployment is up DUH because AA graduation rates are DOWN for people of working age!!! The young punks are not finishing school they are trying to come up off of some “dope boy magic”. These young girls are having 3 and 4 kids by the age of 20. If you were the head of a company and you see a nice 20 year old female with 1 or 0 kids and a 20 year old female with the same qualifications but 4 kids who the hell would you typically hire? I know every case is different but in general i am just saying. A life style that reflects poor judgement speaks volumes. And if you go to a job invertue and annuciate with your best ebonics who is going to hire you? You SHOULD HAVE SEEN the idiots they interviewed on the local news here in Atlanta lined up for the job fair last week. No wonder they “done been wit out jobs fereva”
People need to take accountability for their own culture. Referring to those earrings as slave earrings was wrong and ridiculous and I know that was the subject of the post but these ridiculous people who don’t see the truth and take such offense when AA’s are portrayed in a negative light due to their own stupidity piss me off. And they are a big part of the f=&$ing problem. Don’t get mad about the truth. CHANGE IT OR SHUT UP.
……end sermon……
@ms everything
no mdubya… slaves weren’t the only ones who wore hoop earrings
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Didn’t think so vogue be trippin. don’t read it and now i have reason never to read it.
@sugar
“these young girls are having 3 and 4 kids by the age of 20. If you were the head of a company and you see a nice 20 year old female with 1 or 0 kids and a 20 year old female with the same qualifications but 4 kids who the hell would you typically hire”
Until you are hired, an employer is not supposed to even ask you if you are married, have children or are planning to have children.
If you go in there volunteering that info then that person should not get the job anyway
“People need to take accountability for their own culture. Referring to those earrings as slave earrings was wrong and ridiculous and I know that was the subject of the post but these ridiculous people who don’t see the truth and take such offense when AA’s are portrayed in a negative light due to their own stupidity piss me off. And they are a big part of the f=&$ing problem. Don’t get mad about the truth. CHANGE IT OR SHUT UP.”
What you say is true but there are enough well spoken clean cut hardworking black people for white people to know every black person is not like that. Problem is with racists…they ignore the good and concentrate on anything no matter how small that will confirm there stereotypical prejudices.
Now I agree that there are alot of people in our community using the recession and loss of jobs as an excuse to not work and not improve themselves, but for every 1 that’s a lazy good for nothing uneducated bum, there are 2 more who are working their ass off daily trying to find gainful employment and continually coming up short. That’s not an excuse it’s an unfortunate reality in this country right now that’s affecting not just us, but a larger percentage of African Americans than any other racial group. Why? Well why do you think? We have to work harder, be better and be smarter in order to get ahead in this country. Now as far as the number of uneducated blacks in this country, that problem can be summed up to parents not doing their jobs, teenage pregnancy to some degree(a poor decision but it doesn’t have to ruin lives and every black teenage mother I know finished hs, many finished college, can’t say the same for those I know from other races), but also the fact that too many of our adults, leaders and so called role models aren’t stepping up to the plate and drilling into these young people that they need their education, they need to stay off the streets, they need to pull their pants up and talk like they have some sense. Too many of us are brushing it off and saying well kids will be kids or they’re not my kids it’s the parents fault and a million other lazy ass excuses but then those who complain, those who see fault and try to speak up and make a difference get told to shut up or change it, well chit maybe we are trying to change it but a few people can only do so much. Black folks used to live by the it takes a village saying, everybody had a part to play, I can remember being a kid ditching school and getting stopped by crackheads on the street telling me to take my fast ass to school… how often do you think that happens now? And yes, we should take offense because this right here, what we were discussing in this article, is offensive and it’s wrong. And we should take offense over other stuff too even if it’s our own stupidity causing the stereotypes just because it’s wrong but at the same time we also need to check the idiots doing the stupid stuff and let them know the chit isn’t cool and encourage and push them to do better vs turning a blind eye and then calling them stupid later
Sorry for the long ass rant
@Ms.
I hear you but people are not perfect. I’m not defending any foolishness but it will never be stamped out totally. I just hate when something vicious and racist is directed at us..we turn on each other and start blaming baggy pants and terrible hair weaves and OOW births. When we really should stay on the subject and confront the racism WHILE AT THE SAME TIME working to address the shortcomings we all have as human beings.
If somebody calls a white person a Krakka azz Krakka he doesn’t blame hillbillies or trailer trash or Sarah Palin. He blames the person who called him that. he doesn’t say “well if the hillbillies in Appalachia would get jobs and dental work and stop driking Mountain Dews all the time….other races wouldn’t be so racist toward us” He puts the blame on the racist. We should do the same. I promise you every dude could pull up their pants and get out of jail and be law abiding and women and girls could stop having OOW babbies and everybody could get a degree but some white folks will still be throwin racial bombs.
I’m not saying we as community don’t have a lot of work to do but i’m not accepting no racist bs from no white person because of Ray Ray and them in the hood. I’m not internalizing any of that . I’m not a “hood rat” but I would defend a so called hoodrat to the end if somebody calls her the n word. She’s still my sista.
I love all my brothas and sistas even the ones who seem like they don’t love themselves.
@Ms.
We up late tonight huh?
It’s not how many kids it’s how they are raised. I feel from reading your posts (not just from today but all of the time) that you are raising your kids. I feel that about most of the posters here. Yes having a lot of kids is a strain financially but it was strain back in the day when our grandparents and great grandparents had 8, 10, 12 or even more kids. They still didn’t let them run wild. It didn’t always make them perfect human beings and it didn’t insulate them from racism but the parents and the community did their best.
I just want us to come together as a people and not separate ourselves out and imply that maybe some people deserve racism directed at them or that we can’t fight back because we have problems in our community.
Is this a slick attempt trying to talk ish about black women wearing large earring? Are they saying it’s in our DNA?
i don’t see a problem with it. why do we complain when they don’t give us props but then, when they do, we complain still? they acknowledged the origin of the hoops and how they have made their impact on fashion. damn!
@Sandra just looked it up and they changed the name to ethnic earrings. Now will they release a statement…hmmm idk
What is wrong with them saying African inspired or something to that nature? What is their Marketing Dept. doing?
There is an issue with Vogue and their “wording” every year in some issue!
As far as Nivea goes, that was the creation of one of our own (just as one of the SR bloggers said it would be), or they got one of our own to take the downfall for it.