March 2013: Commentary

Before I begin my new A-Z round of beautiful women, I'd like to make additional comments about the popularity of Kristen Welker on this blog, as well as some comments on a semi-related story that has only now grabbed my attention.

I was going over my earlier statistics, and I noticed how much time I let lapse at one point in checking my statistics. In May 2012, the last time I reported statistics here before October 2012, my original post of Ms. Welker wasn't even in the top ten; by October, it was in second place, quickly taking the lead thereafter. So, even though it appeared that she came out of nowhere to become the most popular subject on this blog, my post of her more likely made its way up the stats chart more gradually, and that its rise in popularity was not so meteoric.

Be that as it may, I'm now keeping close tabs on my daily, weekly, and monthly statistics to see if posts depicting anyone else might break into the top ten and possibly be contenders for the number one spot. (Numbers for posts in the lower five positions on the all-time top ten list appear to have stagnated, while posts not yet on that list are showing strong activity.) But I have to say once again that I'm very pleased that a post of a biracial woman, at a time of increased racial animosity in America, has gotten so much attention. Not just in pageviews, but in comments; my original post of Ms. Welker has received ten comments, all favorable (adjectives used to describe her have included "hot," "smart," "beautiful," "knowledgeable," "articulate," "focused," "elegant," and "professional"). Her transcendental quality as a woman of black and white origin proves that racism is slowly dying.

But it's dying too slowly. Once, the modeling trade was dominated by the likes of black superstars such as Naomi Sims, Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn, Iman, the two Johnsons - Beverly and Sheila - and Louise Vyent, all of whom have appeared on this blog. (Not to mention that hot VW from Detroit, Veronica Webb. :-D) Inexplicably, however, black models have slowly been disappearing from the scene since the mid-1990s, and to the point where they're few and far between these days. So I was shocked when an international fashion magazine recently printed pictures of a white American female model posing as an "African Queen." The pictures (which I won't show here) in Numéro magazine show model Ondria Hardin, 16, wearing bronze makeup and darkened hair to make her look "black."

As a white man who has always been attracted to black women (I had severe crushes on some of the women mentioned in the previous paragraph), I was appalled by this blatant racism and outright mockery of the black race, particularly at a time when few of today's black models seem to be able to cultivate a high profile, and I wasn't happy with Numéro's non-committal apology that expressed regret "if" anyone was offended while defending the artistic expression of the folks involved. Disgusting. Anyway, I certainly have no intention of ever featuring Ondria Hardin on this blog once she turns eighteen. And when I found out that Constance Jablonski, a French model of Polish descent who was to appear in my next A-Z round, did a similar fashion editorial in brown makeup and an Afro wig, I decided not to feature her, either. They're both banned for life here. I'm not going to endorse any model who engages in such minstrelsy. These young women are old enough to know better and refuse such assignments. Beverly Johnson, remember, famously decided to stop accepting assignments for cigarette and liquor ad assignments because she no longer wanted to be associated with ad campaigns that promote smoking and drinking. She gave up a lot of lucrative assignments, and her agents were unhappy about it. She may have lost work, but she kept her principles. Too bad today's Caucasian models can't do the same.

All right, time to get off my soapbox. The next post will feature a woman I haven't featured before. I promise. :-)