Think about how much fashion profits from black culture and how underrepresented we are in the industry. If you insist on using black celebrities to peddle your merchandise and add a cool factor to your front row, it is indecent to not care about the plights of that person's community.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and supporting black culture within the fashion industry.
Kerby Jean-Raymond highlights the paradox of the fashion industry profiting from black culture while failing to adequately represent and support black individuals and communities. He argues that using black celebrities for marketing without considering their communities' struggles is not only hypocritical but also morally questionable.
In practice
In a panel discussion on diversity in fashion, this quote can highlight the need for greater representation.
The work of black creatives seems to always get undermined in one way or another, and that's what this new generation is actively changing by speaking up. We aren't accepting group categorization and group classifications to describe our work anymore - it just leads to group dismissal.
Is the 'black designer' label there to warn everyone not to have the same level of expectations for me, or is it some type of prize? I just want to work in an even playing field where I can get press for my work and not just my race and my personal views on it.
When I was growing up, the Spanish-speaking world was Balkanized. We were isolated. We didn't know what was happening in cultural terms in Ecuador, Colombia and Chile. Nowadays, this has changed a lot - fortunately for writers and readers. There is much more integration.
People ask me in Europe, when they do interviews... they ask me, 'Well, how does it feel to be a cook in a country that doesn't know how to eat?' It always touches a nerve, because Europe and the world think that America is no more than bad hot dogs and bad burgers.
Sports is like rock 'n' roll. Both are dominant cultural forces, both speak an international language, and both are all about emotions.
We know so much about the European food story, and we're getting to know about the American food story; but we know so little about the African food story.
Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game - and do it by watching first some high school or small-town teams.
When we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop those structures that will present and circulate our culture.
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