Monday
Feb162009
Marlene Wallach: There are No Cute Little Black Girls
Monday, February 16, 2009 at 2:22PM The Blogmother
Apparently Madison Avenue can't find any adoreably cute little Black girls to be in ads. They seem to believe that once God made the weeMichelle's he threw away the mold. Now isn't Madison Avenue in New york City? NYC is supposed to be the most diverse city in America. If you can't find adoreable little Black girls in NYC, then you aren't looking:
The fact that they would feel comfortable saying this openly just shows you how silly they are. HOWEVER it points out a common pitfall when African American's acheive a certain amount of success, the foolish belief that they are the "exception".The Black Snob was supposed to be starting a campaign about this.
Madison Avenue is scrambling to adjust to a new era, when the most admired people in America are a black family. To reflect this reality, talent scouts are on the hunt for models who look like the Obama children, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10. “People are looking for girls who resemble them,” says Charlie Winfield, the head booker at FunnyFace Today. Tali Lev, an agent with the Gilla Roos agency, keeps links to her “Sasha” and “Malia” model lists on her desktop for easy access. “Photographers even want them for their portfolios.” Marlene Wallach, president of Wilhelmina Kids & Teens, says the First Daughters are tough subjects to match. “It’s a very specific age and a very specific ethnicity, so there aren’t that many girls that would necessarily fit the bill.” NY Magazine.
The fact that they would feel comfortable saying this openly just shows you how silly they are. HOWEVER it points out a common pitfall when African American's acheive a certain amount of success, the foolish belief that they are the "exception".The Black Snob was supposed to be starting a campaign about this.
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Reader Comments (23)
Thanks for keeping me in the know as I chill hard in my pjs...
The comments not only show how silly they are, but how unwilling they are to go outside of their comfort zone to find beautiful black little girls. They are too lazy to call a black-owned modeling agency like Bethann Management.
This is funny. But I like the scrambling being done. They'll probably find a cute black girl when they adjust their eyes. And brain.
(when and if they do, I must check mark this as a good Obama by-product lol)
NYC's diverse but not necessarily with respect to palate. They're simply not looking because they don't want to. I guess we're still living in invisibility because they only seem to recognize the Obama girls because of their popularity.
This is crazy. The ignorance shown us sad. There are too many people out there who believe that the Obama family is an anomaly.
We must educate everyone we come in contact with who perpetuates this backwards thinking.
what is this very specific ethnicity they are talking about? I know "regular" black American kids that can do. What not good enough? Fine I know some African kids and carribean kids, I can even find you some kids that are a quarter white like they are. Are they saying right in NYC they can't find a Malia and Sasha type black kid. We have a black person from every corner of the world here, but they might actually have to leave Manhattan (gasp!!) to find them.
Madison Avenue is just trying to make excuses for their extreme laziness. I see beautiful black children everywhere, every single day. If the agencies don't see them, they need to get glasses or hire some new sets of eyes.
@Naima. That was my questions too? What exactly is that “specific ethnicity” they’re talking about? Last time I checked they are black. I think I can speak for most black folks when I say we have a Malia or Sasha in our families or at one time was a Malia or Sasha ourselves. The truth is they don’t even have to step of Madison ave. to find them. You can find a black person on any corner of this city. This is a perfect example of why diversity in the workplace matters.
These agencies are not looking for black kids and they’ve never been interested in looking for black kids. It’s sad that it took having a black president for little black girls to get some work. The last prominent little black girl I remember was Rudy and that was a loooong time ago.
"Specific ethnicity" = a half-black daddy and a full black mommy?
Whatever. There is an adorable little black girl in Target ads and she also does the band-aid commercials - she'd be perfect to play the little one. I also see dozens and I mean DOZENS of adorable black girls at castings every damn day that could play either girl or give off the same "vibe".
What they REALLY are trying to say is:
"It feels weird looking at little black girls as adorable and innocent and able to sell a lifestyle, we don't know how to do that. We are looking for the exact thing we want to come walking into our offices as opposed to actually going out and having to interact with them."
maybe I should send a pic of my daughter.
As Marlene Wallach's competition discovers they can find several black girls for their clients, she will start singing a different tune.
One thing about the marketplace is that it does get morons with calcified brains to change when their bottom line is severely impacted.
How is it that Wallach claims she can't find the girls she's looking for, while the two girls used for Tyra's fake Obama spread (where Tyra portrayed Michelle) were mentioned in the article? That makes no sense. Maybe if she looked past the two feet of space in front of her she'd find girls.
another absurd thing to laugh and shake my head at
Greetings,
Some of us delude ourselves into thinking that 'we've made it'. How utterly ridiculous. While we pride ourselves on being clothes **ores, nails and hair never out of place, we allow our children to be ignored. Madison Avenue ignoring them I can live with right now.
What I can not live with is the fact that NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, FOX & others IGNORE missing black children; missing black females while giving non stop coverage to innocent white children who are missing: Caley Anthony, Maddie, Haleigh, Lori Peterson, etc., etc., Tell me, if you can, why we tolerate this? I write and send emails. What can we do as a whole.
I find that this generation; my generation do not possess 1/3 of the spine that our ancestors possessed. What say you?
My 10Cents,
Exactly! When will LaToyia Figueroa, Nailah Franklin, the victims of serial killer Henry Louis Wallace, Sherrice Iverson, Latasha Norman, Cynteria Phillips, Riyla Wilson, Divina Genao, Niqui McCown, etc ever got any press from the national media while the same venue can go all night discussing the details of any nonblack person's life and disappearance/death of Laci, Nixzmary, Calee Anthony, Natalee, etc.
The media, society in general, and may I add, the Black community don't care about Black female life period.
Amanda
first let me say that Obama is not Black. we can disregard his mother altogether and his father is African. he is the truest epitome of an AfricanAmerican. nowhere up his family tree is there any slavery, lynching, or jim crow. nobody up his family tree ever knew the terror of the klan, nor did any woman up his tree ever have to scrub white womens floors for a dollar a day to feed 4 kids. the horrific history is what makes me Black. that and the determination to thrive under severly adverse circumstances.
the legacy of slavery is something that is in my blood. being told for generations that you aren't good enough, or that you are only 3/5 human definetly had a tangible effect on my grandmother and my mother psychologically. obama doesn't have the inherited legacy and for Blacks to identify with him as one of us is absurd.
as for his daughters... why are you offended that this woman said something so stupid? white folk have never wanted Black women to be looked at as beautiful since time began. and truth be told, michelle is watered down, anyway. so get over it and move on. sistahs who are secure in their Blackness know that it makes white folk uncomfortable, and now i make it my job. fuck trying to fit into what the dominant paradigm sees as beautiful. i'm gonna rock what God gave me and make if FABULOUS!!!
dude, i'm black and i'm mad cute, i'm telling you. go on facebook and add black girls, you'll see, by the way rihanna is black, and ciara is too. rocsi is, and i am too, then why do you focus on color, it's not important. we are all people!!!
Um - I see at least 5 cute little Black girls every day.
If she really wants to find them, they're out there.
What an ignorant buffoon!
I'm a white male but I just wanted to say:
WTF?!?!?!?
What the hell is this nutball talking about? I see pretty little black girls (and boys) every freakin' day just riding the subway to work in Brooklyn! Plenty of them look like they've got the telegenic chops to make it in front of the cameras. It's astonishing that this woman would say such a clueless thing, in NYC at that. Some of you appear to be right---it's nothing but a bizarre excuse for laziness.
By the way, blackbuttafly, while I get what you're saying about Obama not having the legacy of slavery in his psychological makeup, I see that as a pretty narrow and self-defeating definition of what "black" has to mean. Why would you WANT to impose that on someone?
hey i found the perfect little black girls who match the obama girls where can i send a picture
i impose nothing but truth. i wouldn't expect you to understand, marbles especially since you didn't even mention that slavery was the biggest imposition known to amerikkka. but I'M imposing. whatever.
I read this in essence magazine and it really pissed me off. There are more than enough beautiful black little girls that resemble the Obamas in the US.
Also Blackbuttafly you are seriously tripping. Obama is defintely Black. There are "Black" people of African descent from all over this world. From Afrovenezuelans, to Afrobrazilians, to African Americans to Garifunas, within these groups you have people who did experience slavery like the majority of African Americans and you have people who did not experience slavery like "Garifunas."
But for you to assert that Obama is not Black because he did not have ancestors that experienced slavery is very ignorant of you.
This article wasn't even about Obama it was about his kids, who certainly are Black considering Michelle's ancestry.
Expand your mind, please. It is a disservice to yourself and the Diaspora.
Marlene is actually a nice person, but very nieve. She hardly has any black children because their parents won't tolerate the evil woman who runs the chilrens division for her agency.