NEW YORK - In an internal email to staff on Thursday (June 4), US Vogue's editor-in-chief Anna Wintour apologised for "mistakes" in her 32-year tenure, reported The Guardian.
They include not doing enough to promote and elevate black voices, as well as publishing images and stories that have been racially and culturally "hurtful or intolerant".
In the company-wide memo which was first released by the New York Post this week, Wintour wrote that she bore " full responsibility for those mistakes".
She referenced the "historic and heartbreaking moment" that was the death of George Floyd at the hands of police brutality, as well as the subsequent protests, both in the United States and beyond.
She wrote: "I want to start by acknowledging your feelings and expressing my empathy towards what so many of you are going through: sadness, hurt, and anger too. I want to say this especially to the Black members of our team - I can only imagine what these days have been like. But I also know that the hurt, and violence, and injustice we're seeing and talking about have been around for a long time. Recognizing it and doing something about it is overdue."
Calling for a "time of listening, reflection, and humility for those of us in positions of privilege and authority," she also called it a "time of action and commitments".
Wintour pledged that "on a corporate level, work is being done to support organisations in a real way. These actions will be announced as soon as possible."
Wintour's email comes on the heels of the resignation of Adam Rapoport, editor-in-chief of Bon Appetit, another Condé Nast title.
Rapoport had resigned on Monday (June 8), after a photo of him in brownface from 2003 surfaced, which led to discussion and criticism on how the food magazine treats their employees of colour.
The same day, Christene Barberich, editor of lifestyle site Refinery29, also resigned after staff members spoke out on the racial discrimination they had faced while working at the company.
Meanwhile, fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar has appointed a black editor-in-chief for the first time in its 153-year-history. In an announcement on June 9, the magazine's publisher, Hearst, shared that Samira Nasr would be heading the title's US edition from July.
