It's OK to be Black!

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Here is the article where South Sudanese Model, Nykhor Paul, says it is OK TO BE BLACK! Here is the article;

South Sudanese Model Nykhor Paul: ‘It’s 2015 — It’s OK to be Black’

Noël Duan

Assistant Editor

Yahoo Beauty

July 29, 2015

Model and activist Nykhor Paul. (Photo: Instagram)

26-year-old South Sudanese model Nykhor Paul went viral last week 

with her bold Instagram post calling out professional makeup artists at 

fashion shows for not having makeup that matched her skin color. 

“Why do I have to bring my own makeup to a professional show when 

all the other white girls don’t have to do anything but show up?” she 

wrote. “A good makeup artist would come prepare and do their research 

before coming to work because oftentimes you know what to expect 

especially at a show!” With 10 years of modeling under her belt, Paul is 

using social media and modeling as platforms to get the message out 

about discrimination in the fashion industry.

“Where I come from, we’re, like, the darkest people in the world. After 

years of dealing with that, you get tired,” she tells Yahoo Beauty, noting 

that her lips are naturally pitch black and don’t require lipstick — just a 

touch of gloss. “Why am I part of fashion if I’m not a priority? If I’m a 

burden, why am I part of it?” Paul is a big part of it, modeling for a host 

of global outlets including Elle South Africa, Flaunt, i-D, and Glamour 

Italia, along with campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Desigual, and on the 

runway for Balenciaga, Calvin Klein, Dennis Basso, Diane Von 

Furstenberg, and Issey Miyake. Paul is intent on using modeling as a 

platform to promote dark-skinned beauty beyond just Lupita Nyong’o 

and Alek Wek, and to also raise awareness for Sudanese refugees in 

Ethiopia. Her mother, father, and little sister still live in daily fear of 

conflict in refugee camps, and she wants to use her platform to spotlight 

the problems of that part of the world.

Nykhor Paul on the cover of Elle South Africa. (Photo: Isiko Media)

Paul was born in Sudan but fled to the Ethiopian border at an early 

age to escape the North-South conflict. She left her immediate family 

around age 10 when she moved to the United States with her aunt and 

uncle. “After all that struggle with starvation and sickness and war, my

 family decided that it was best for me to come stateside without 

knowing what it would entail or mean,” she tells Yahoo Beauty. “We 

can’t all die in the refugee camps, so they thought, when she grows 

up, she can either help us or help herself.” The childhood stay with her 

aunt and uncle didn’t last long, from seventh grade until high school 

graduation, Paul went through a total of six foster parents.

She did not become reunited with her parents until 16 years later, when 

she, as an ambassador for humanitarian nonprofit International Rescue 

Committee, went back to Ethiopia and found her parents living in one 

of the refugee camps. Now that she’s finally an American citizen, 

she’s hoping to bring them back to the States.

Paul was scouted as a model at age 14. “When I was learning English 

in Nebraska at 12 years old, everyone was like, you need to be a 

model!” she says. “I was like, what is modeling? I’m trying to learn 

English!” Paul got a partial scholarship to university, where she studied

 psychology and biology, but tells Yahoo Beauty that she dropped out

 after financial hardship, even after working two part-time jobs.

Nykhor Paul pictured in back of this Steven Meisel-shot campaign for Louis Vuitton Spring 2013. (Photo: LVMH)

In 2008, after leaving school, she moved to New York City to pursue

 modeling full-time — where she discovered that work was sporadic due

 to the ebbing popularity of her self-described “blue black” skin color.

 Makeup artists were not welcoming with their prepared kits, either.

 “I was encountering this problem right away,” she tells Yahoo Beauty.

 “I couldn’t go to the drugstore for a brand.” Some of the issues 

involving her skin including inconsistent castings during seasons when

 darker skin was deemed “unfashionable,” imperfect makeup 

applications due to makeup artist not having the right shades, 

and having to pack her own makeup kit to compensate. “Even the 

powder they use is too light for me,” she says. One time, she even 

needed to mix black eyeliner with the foundation to get the right shade.

 “I don’t need to wear a lot of makeup — I have gorgeous skin,” she 

tells Yahoo Beauty. “But that doesn’t mean it’s okay for makeup artists

 to not carry my skin color when I’m cast for a show.” Paul recommends

 brands like Giorgio Armani, Bobbi Brown, Iman, MAC, Makeup For 

Ever, Black Opal, Lancôme, and Clinique. The selection is readily 

available, but many makeup artists are still not prepared to work with 

skin as dark as Paul’s.

“It’s 2015. It’s okay if you’re blue black. It’s okay if you’re purple black,

 It’s okay if you’re midnight black. It’s okay to be black,” she tells Yahoo

 Beauty. “I’m caught between the modeling industry and the conflict in

 Sudan, two different worlds that are ugly. I’m not afraid of speaking 

out because these two worlds are all I know.”

Disclaimer: Bobbi Brown is the editor in chief of Yahoo Beauty.