Sudanese model Alek Wek, who graced the cover of
Ebony magazine's September '07 issue along with Tyra Banks, Kimora Lee Simmons and Iman, who to me is
the supermodel of all supermodels,
is calling out an Italian coffee maker for using her in a photo which she now views as racist in her new biography, Alek: From Sudanese Refugee to International Supermodel (Amistad $24.95).
Wek, a member of the Dinka tribe who now resides in Brooklyn, New York compares a calendar photo she did for famed Italian coffee company Lavazza to a number of notorious racist ads.
In excerpts provided by the
New York Post's Page Six, the 30 year old supermodel writes how she was photographed naked inside a
"gigantic white espresso cup bigger than a car...My skin was to be the espresso."She says the images were "beautiful," but adds, "I can't help but compare them to all the images of black people that have been used in marketing over the decades. There was the big-lipped jungle-dweller on the blackamoor ceramic mugs sold in the '40s; the golliwog badges given away with jam; Little Black Sambo, who decorated the walls of an American restaurant chain in the 1960s; and Uncle Ben, whose apparently benign image still sells rice."
Lavazza CEO Ennio Ranaboldo told Page Six: "A great artist photographer, Albert Watson. A great model, Alek Wek. A great calendar. That's all there's to say."
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