Outrage as Race Ignored in Hiring Decision

The new fashion director of the black lifestyle magazine Essence has plenty of qualifications:

[Elliana] Placas’ resume is impressive since moving to the US from Australia, working on a mix of mass-selling American publications including 0: The Oprah Magazine, Us Weekly, New York, More and Life & Style.

[…Essence editor-in-chief Angela] Burt-Murray said Ms Placas [who had been working freelance for Essence] showed “creativity”, “vision” and “enthusiasm and respect for the audience and our brand” while the reader response to her work had been positive.

But she lacks the one qualification that counts the most for some in “post-racial” America. Placas is (gasp) a Caucasian. By winning her job on merit instead of skin color, she’s sent feathers flying. Moans former fashion editor Michaela Angela Davis:

“It is with a heavy, heavy, heart I have learned that Essence magazine has engaged a white fashion director. This hurts, literally, spiritually.”

While Ms. Davis clutches for the Advil, others gripe that they’ll never get ahead in the fashion industry if they can’t get jobs on the basis of race.

Come on, ladies. We picked our President based on race. But for the fashion editor of Essence, deeper qualifications have to take priority.

elliana-placas.jpg
Elliana Placas: unfashionably pale.

On a tip from Aussie-John. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

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