L'Oreal Fires Transgender Model Who Called Out Racism

Munroe Bergdorf was L'Oreal's first transgender model to appear in a British advertising campaign, but she's been fired after a Facebook post from last month. In the Aug. 27 post, which appears to have now been deleted, Bergdorf reportedly said, "Honestly I don’t have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people." After the post started making headlines, the French cosmetics giant released a statement saying it was cutting ties with Bergdorf, Reuters reports: "L'Oreal champions diversity. Comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with our values and so we have decided to end our partnership with her." Bergdorf herself, as well as a host of supporters, are hitting back. "When I stated that 'all white people are racist,' I was addressing that fact that western society as a whole, is a SYSTEM rooted in white supremacy," Bergdorf says.

In a lengthy post on Facebook Friday, Bergdorf also slammed the Daily Mail, one of the first to report her original post (or, in its words, her original "rant"). That post was a response to the Charlottesville white supremacist rally and ensuing violence, she wrote, but more importantly, there's no denying the role white supremacy, slavery, and colonialism have played in "shaping the United Kingdom and much of the west, into the super power that it is today" or the fact that white people are afforded more privileges than people of color. Fader calls L'Oreal's firing of Bergdorf "unacceptable," while the New Statesman says this proves "brands want our brown skin but not our blackness" and Metro advises, "stop kidding yourself, white people are racist." Mic rounds up outraged reactions on Twitter and elsewhere, and the Huffington Post is pushing the hashtag #IStandWithMunroe. (More L'Oreal stories.)