to protest munroe bergdorf’s firing, l’oréal model clara amfo asks to be removed from the campaign

When L’Oréal Paris U.K. tapped British model Munroe Bergdorf to be the first transgender person to star in a campaign, they momentarily basked in the faux light of being a “champion of diversity.” But when said diversity was actually put to the test after Bergdorf posting a nuanced take on all white people being implicated in racism, the reality quickly became clear: all that talk of diversity was just for show.

L’Oréal Paris U.K. quickly fired the outspoken model, claiming “the recent comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with those values (of diversity).”

To reiterate, a Black trans woman speaking out against white supremacy in the aftermath of Charlottesville is at odds with L’Oréal’s ideas of diversity.

Fortunately, at least one person involved with the company is now seeing this idea as the sham that it is, and is cutting ties in support of Bergdorf. As Mic News reported, model and DJ Clara Amfo, who starred in a campaign similar to Bergdorf’s last year, broke off with L’Oréal in solidarity with Bergdorf in an Instagram post over the weekend:

Not even a week ago I was proud to announce that I was to be in the same campaign as Munroe. A trans woman of colour who @lorealmakeup hired to sell make up because of who she is. Who she is, a woman who wrote a nuanced post on institutional racism and white supremacy in relation to Charlottesville and how the foundations of those heinous ideals trickle in to every facet of our society. A newspaper took her post out of context and span it as “a rant” 🙄 with the most basic of dog whistle politics to rally people against her. She has now been dropped from the campaign because L’Oreal feel that she is “at odds with our values”…..If she’s not “worth it” anymore, I guess I’m not either. #IStandWithMunroe

A post shared by Clara Amfo 💛 (@claraamfo) on Sep 1, 2017 at 4:36pm PDT

“Not even a week ago I was proud to announce that I was to be in the same campaign as Munroe,” Amfo wrote. “A trans woman of color who [L’Oréal Paris Makeup] hired to sell makeup because of who she is. Who she is, a woman who wrote a nuanced post on institutional racism and white supremacy in relation to Charlottesville and how the foundations of those heinous ideals trickle into every facet of our society.”

Ending the message with the hashtag #IStandWithMunroe, Amfo continued, “[Bergdorf] has now been dropped from the campaign because L’Oreal feel that she is ‘at odds with our values’…..If she’s not ‘worth it’ anymore, I guess I’m not either.”

In a follow up statement to Mic, Amfo said, “I can confirm that I have requested to be removed from all L’Oréal campaign artwork at the same time as Munroe.”

Now that’s solidarity!