L'Oreal drops transgender model Munroe Bergdorf after comments about Charlottesville

Model and DJ Munroe Bergdorf was reported to be the first transgender woman to be featured in a L'Oreal Paris campaign in Britain.
Model and DJ Munroe Bergdorf was reported to be the first transgender woman to be featured in a L'Oreal Paris campaign in Britain. PHOTO: MUNROE BERGDORF/ INSTAGRAM

PARIS • French cosmetics giant L'Oreal has confirmed that it has dropped a British transgender model over comments the company deemed not compatible with its beliefs after she was hired as part of a diversity campaign.

"L'Oreal champions diversity," the beauty brand said on Twitter.

"Comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with our values and so we have decided to end our partnership with her".

L'Oreal had tapped the 29-year-old model, DJ and trans activist as one of the five newest faces of its #allworthit campaign to introduce the five new shades of its True Match face makeup.

The foundation make-up boasts 28 shades - from very light to dark brown - in a bid to match the myriad skin tones and textures of people worldwide.

According to British Vogue, Bergdorf was the first transgender woman to be featured in a L'Oreal Paris campaign in Britain.

But controversy erupted when she took to Facebook in a now-deleted post to react to events in the American city of Charlottesville, where a woman was killed on Aug 12 after an avowed white supremacist rammed his car into a group of anti-racism counter-protesters.

"Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes all white people," Bergdorf wrote, according to copies posted in British media.

"Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth... then we can talk," the model reportedly wrote.

L'Oreal told British media it "remains committed to celebrating diversity and breaking down barriers in beauty".

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 04, 2017, with the headline L'Oreal drops transgender model Munroe Bergdorf after comments about Charlottesville. Subscribe