Remember Vanity Fair's 2010's "Young Hollywood" cover, which outright overlooked that year's African-American standouts and featured only white actresses? This year the magazine has actually included a few women of color, but it has kept up with its unfortunate tradition of making them second-class stars by shoving anyone with more than a smidge of melanin to the right and off of the main panel.
Jezebel explains how this is nothing new for the publication:
The 2012 Hollywood Issue cover of Vanity Fair — shot by Mario Testino — features 11 "starlets" shot in satin and feathers for a "'20s and '30s boudoir feel." The ladies on the power panel — the left third, aka the actual newsstand cover — are Rooney Mara, Mia Wasikowska, Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain. Pariah's Adepero Oduye and Mission Impossible's Paula Patton are the only two ladies of color, and they are not on the power panel, but on the right two-thirds of the cover, which is folded up and tucked away when on newsstands.
It's impossible to deny the pattern, after reviewing Jezebel's timeline of Vanity Fair covers and their placement of women of color. Next year, maybe a token? We won't get our hopes up.
Read more at Jezebel.
Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.