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Supermodel Adut Akech has a few choice words for Australian publication Who magazine after they wrote an article about her but used the photo of an entirely different Black model to go along with it.
According to PEOPLE, the 19 year old took to social media to share the spread that was published as promo Melbourne Fashion Week, which clearly shows a picture of fellow model Flavia Lazarus instead of her.
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Akech explained to her followers on her Instagram that she had spent several days meditating on the best way to approach the awkward slight and decided she couldn’t keep quiet any longer.
“I’ve have given some deep thoughts the past few days on how to approach this situation that isn’t sitting well with me,” the post began. “For those who are not aware, last week @whomagazine (Australia) published a feature article about me. In the interview I spoke about how people view refugees and peoples attitude to colour in general. With the article they published a large photo saying it was me. But it was of another black girl.”
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“This has upset me, has made me angry, it has made me feel very disrespected and to me is unacceptable and inexcusable under any circumstances,” she confesses. “Not only do I personally feel insulted and disrespected but I feel like my entire race has been disrespected too and it is why I feel it is important that I address this issue. Whoever did this clearly the thought that was me in that picture and that’s not okay. This is a big deal because of what I spoke about in my interview. By this happening I feel like it defeated the purpose of what I stand for and spoke about. It goes to show that people are very ignorant and narrow minded that they think every black girl or African people looks the same.”
“I want this to be somewhat of a wake up call to people within the industry it’s not OK and you need to do better,” she clarifies towards the end of the lengthy post. “Big publications need to make sure that they fact check things before publishing them especially when its real stories and interviews and not just some made up rumors. To those who work at shows and shoots it’s important that you don’t mix up models names. Australia you’ve a lot of work to do and you’ve got to do better and that goes to the rest of the industry.”
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