In lieu of honoring the late André Leon Talley, Vogue's editors chose to put Kim Kardashian West on the cover of its most recent issue, whose release date coincided with the beginning of Black History Month. Talley worked at Vogue for 27 years and, over those nearly three decades, helped bolster the magazine's status as the "Fashion Bible." I'm aware that covers are planned months in advance and news of Talley's untimely death on January 18 of this year would have required the staff to rearrange their editorial calendar on short notice. However, Ebony Magazine managed to do so, by virtue of its longstanding mission of honoring and foregrounding African American excellence. Vogue, on the other hand, has a mission of upholding aesthetic values rooted in whiteness. Despite Talley's years of service to Vogue and his name being synonymous with the brand, he was still a black man and, in their eyes, not worthy of being memorialized with a cover—not yet at least. Once again, Vogue's editorial leadership has showed how much it values black contributions to the fashion industry.
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