As if Kamala Harris doesn’t have enough to deal with already…
The Vice President-elect is on the cover of Vogue‘s February issue, but her team claims “the cover photo of the country’s soon-to-be No. 2 leader isn’t what both sides had agreed on,” according to the Los Angeles Times. The first African-American woman to be elected vice president is on the cover in a casual black jacket and Chucks that she occasionally wore during the campaign. That image was supposed to appear inside the issue, with this photo of Harris wearing a blue suit in front of a gold background on the cover; instead, Harris was “blindsided” and it’s led to a backlash against the publication.
“Kamala Harris is about as light skinned as women of color come and Vogue still fvcked up her lighting. WTF is this washed out mess of a cover?” one Twitter user wrote, while another added, “Folks who don’t get why the Vogue cover of VP-elect Kamala Harris is bad are missing the point. The pic itself isn’t terrible as a pic. It’s just far, far below the standards of Vogue. They didn’t put thought into it. Like homework finished the morning it’s due. Disrespectful.” Many even questioned if the cover was real.
Wait that Kamala Vogue cover is real?! I thought it was fake—that’s how bad it is.
Did they just ask her to send them photos her husband took or
— Imani Gandy (Orca’s Version) ⚓️ (@AngryBlackLady) January 10, 2021
wait the Vogue cover is real???
— Molly Lambert 🦆 (@mollylambert) January 10, 2021
IS THAT KAMALA VOGUE COVER REAL YES OR NO!? pic.twitter.com/vnz2Uo9EVc
— Homo Honey (@DixPeyton) January 10, 2021
In a statement, Vogue representatives explained that they “loved the images Tyler Mitchell shot and felt the more informal image captured Vice President-elect Harris’s authentic, approachable nature — which we feel is one of the hallmarks of the Biden/Harris administration. To respond to the seriousness of this moment in history, and the role she has to play leading our country forward, we’re celebrating both images of her as covers digitally.” But it’s the image with the black jacket that appears on the more-prestigious print cover, which as the Washington Post‘s Robin Givhan notes, doesn’t “give Kamala D. Harris due respect” for making history. “It was overly familiar. It was a cover image that, in effect, called Harris by her first name without invitation.”
Harris styled herself. She chose her ensembles. But it was ultimately Vogue and its editor in chief, Anna Wintour, that selected the cover… A bit of awe would have served the magazine well in its cover decisions. Nothing about the cover said, “Wow.” And sometimes, that’s all Black women want, an admiring and celebratory “wow” over what they have accomplished.
The reactions continued to roll in:
People, I'll shoot shots of VP Kamala Harris for free using my Samsung and I'm 100% confident it'll turn out better than this Vogue cover. We can shoot it in my yard using natural sunlight and it'll still be better.
— Wajahat Ali (@WajahatAli) January 10, 2021
https://twitter.com/PTA_Daddy/status/1348103228152557569
https://twitter.com/corbin_dewitt/status/1348118940799660032
RE: The Vogue Cover
1) Kamala Harris is a boss
2) This photo doesn’t capture her spirit or do her justice
3) It’s fine because we get the real thing on Jan 20 and we’re going to see some amazing things from her
4) I’m done thinking about it now. We just had an attempted coup.— Words are cheap 🐑 (@words_are_sheep) January 10, 2021
The photo on the left is what Vogue agreed to publish as their February cover with @KamalaHarris’ team.
Without her knowledge, Anna Wintour switched it out for the photo on the right.
Please make it make sense. pic.twitter.com/cOVRddEUBS
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) January 10, 2021
(Via the Los Angeles Times)