You started off the thread saying “So where was the outrage when the entire cast wasn’t present on the cover of Essence?” but agree that “There’s a lot of white people in them and not a lot of Black, Asian, everyone other than white people” ...and now you’re talking about some wonderful utopia where we all claim…

Has anyone suggested that Vogue should be 100% black women, all the time? No. Nobody has suggested that. White people are not at risk of losing our representation any time in the forseeable future. What are you even talking about, trying to call out the idea of an all-black Vogue cover lineup as some instance of…

Tell me one f*cking reason why Essence needs to be called out. It’s a magazine for black women, and they put black women on the cover. Rolling Stone is a magazine for everyone, and they selected only the white women, of a diverse cast, to put on the cover. If you can’t see the problem with Rolling Stone without…

One thing I do want to point out, I certainly don’t advocate ignoring race and heritage. If we do that, we only increase the likelihood of repeating the same mistakes we’ve made in the past. Learning that history, understanding it and embracing the cultural differences is the only way to begin changing things. I do…

Essence, the magazine founded for and by black women, because there specifically WERE no magazines to serve the interests of black women at the time?

But I disagree that having only black women on the cover of Vogue would be equality, how about interesting people no matter their race, heritage, creed, orientations whatever be on the covers of magazines.

And if we can’t rise above it, how do we change it/fix it/move past it/ and just become people?

My point is that the situations are different. Essence is serving a specific purpose: to correct an injustice and an inequality. Because of that, it is OK for Essence to feature only black people on their cover. They are attempting to right the wrong that magazines like Rolling Stone have created. Rolling Stone is…

Neither history, nor equality started when you woke up this morning. There is a history to people’s comments vis a vis representation in mainstream media.

You’re taking issue with us calling out Rolling Stone for putting white women on the cover, and followed that up with a statement on how racism persists because of everyone keeping score all the time. What else was I supposed to get from that?

You really have to cut it out with this one-for-one, point-counting version of equality that you have, and consider the context. There are very good reasons for us to have a black history month, black TV channels, black magazines. When we have really, truly, HONESTLY neutralized the effects of slavery, denial of civil…

I wish that people who are so focused on equality would focus more on bringing up the people who are oppressed, and less time focusing on what they think are the special perks of being a minority.

doesn’t having a magazine specific to a certain race simply promote the racial problems this country was facing?

That might be true if it weren’t for the fact that most mainstream media is broadcast to and about white people. Rolling Stone disproportionately features white people on its cover. Having magazines like Essence allows there to be at least SOME people of color on magazine covers - although the fact that Essence isn’t…

When black people are equally and fairly represented in mainstream media, your point will be valid and I will lead the charge to get white people represented in Essence. (Well, not really.) Until then... why is it that we can only count on them being well-represented on magazines with an intended target audience of…

Except Essence is a magazine specifically for black women. Rolling Stone is not supposed to be a magazine specifically for white people.

Yes but that’s not what equality means, though. Equality would be putting the black cast members on the cover of a mainstream magazine like, say, Rolling Stone. Instead of only on the cover of a magazine specifically published for and marketed to black women. Even just speaking in terms of magazine covers, when we’ve…

somewhere in the corner of the internet where they celebrate white history month, i imagine

No harm, no foul. To the first part of your comment, it IS absurd that so many American’s first thoughts about healthcare hang heavily on cost and personal means. It’s gross. Just pointing out that many of us are aware of how gross it is but don’t see a way out anytime soon. :( The thread was an interesting…