Jada Pinkett Smith: Black Magazines Should Put White Women on Covers, and Vice Versa
Jada Pinkett Smith’s latest Facebook rant went in an unexpected direction.
Jada argues that if black women want to be featured on the covers of mainstream publications, then black magazines should return the favor and feature white women on theirs (see above for Jada’s homemade examples).
According to Jada, women of all colors must work towards being able to “see each other beyond race, class, and culture.”
As she fleshed out her response, Pinkett Smith then seemed to go in on Black women inquiring why we ask to be featured on White publications when we don’t return the favor:
“There is a question I want to ask today. I’m asking this question in the spirit of thinking outside of the box in order to open doors t…o new possibilities. These possibilities may be realistic or unrealistic. I also want to make it clear that there is no finger-pointing here. I pose this question with the hope that it opens a discussion about how we can build a community for women based upon us all taking a deeper interest in one another. An interest where skin color, culture, and social class does not create barriers in sharing the commonality of being… women.
With love and respect to all parties involved, my question is this…if we ask our white sisters, who tend to be the guardians of the covers of mainstream magazines, to consider women of color to grace these covers, should we not offer the same consideration to white women to grace our covers?
Should women extend their power to other women simply because they are women? To my women of color, I am clear we must have something of our own, but is it possible to share in the spirit in which we ask our white sisters to share with us? I don’t know the answer and would love to hear your thoughts.”
If women of color want to be featured on mainstream magazine covers, should they return the favor and feature white women on theirs?
Does Jada have a point, or is she off base?
Sound off below!