Eva Longoria and Kerry Washington in a L'Oreal advertisement

L’Oréal, the French cosmetics giant, whose advertising campaigns proclaim “because you’re worth it”, was found guilty of racial discrimination for considering black, Arab and Asian women unworthy of selling its shampoo.

France’s highest court was told that the group had sought an all-white team of sales staff to promote Fructis Style, a haircare product made by Garnier, L’Oréal’s beauty division.

The word went out that Garnier’s hostesses should be BBR — “bleu, blanc, rouge” — the colours of the French flag. The expression is widely recognised in the French recruitment world as a code for white French people born to white French parents, a court was told, in effect excluding the four million or so members of ethnic minorities in France.

La Cour de Cassation, the equivalent of the US Supreme Court, said that the policy was illegal under French employment law, upholding a ruling given by the Paris Appeal Court in 2007.

That image already suffered a battering when L’Oréal executives were forced to deny claims that they had lightened the singer Beyoncé Knowles’s skin for a campaign last year. The ruling also hinted at widespread prejudice among French shoppers since L’Oréal believed that they were more likely to buy shampoo from white sales staff, the court was told.

The ruling will fuel anger among black and Arab French people, who complain that they face widespread discrimination when seeking employment.

The court ruled that Adecco, the temporary recruitment agency whose Districom division hired the hostesses, was also guilty of racial discrimination. The Paris Appeal Court had fined both L’Oréal and Adecco €30,000 (£25,500) and ordered them to pay a further €30,000 each in damages to SOS Racisme, the anti-racist campaign group, which brought the case. The court upheld the fines but told the appeal court judges to reconsider the damages.

L’Oréal expressed “disappointment” at the judgment, which ends three years of legal wrangling over the discrimination claims. Adecco declined to comment.

Samuel Thomas, the vice-chairman of SOS Racisme, described the ruling as a “very great victory”. He said: “Whatever the size of the company, none is able to escape prosecution.”

The court was told that a Districom executive had sent a fax to its headquarters in 2000 saying that Garnier’s hostesses should be aged 18 to 22, wear size 38 to 42 clothes (British sizes 8 to 12) and be “BBR”.

Prosecutors said that Garnier wanted to exclude members of the ethnic minorities on the ground that they would be less likely to sell its shampoo in French shops. The court was told that only 4.65 per cent of the hostesses hired for Garnier’s campaign were black, Asian or Arab.

Before the BBR fax went out, the agency had been offering a pool of candidates in which 38.7 per cent were from ethnic minorities, suggesting that they had been blocked during the final stages of recruitment.

Districom employees said that they were given oral instructions to favour white sales staff. But Thérèse Coulange, the deputy managing director of Districom, who sent the fax, said that she had merely wanted hostesses able to “express themselves correctly in French”. She said that the fax had been a personal initiative and not the implementation of company policy.

Laurent Dubois, Garnier’s former managing director, told a lower court that he had “never given the slightest order to discriminate against anyone” and described racial prejudice as “foreign to L’Oréal’s genes”.

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Attention people: STAY FAR AWAY FROM L’Oreal products. Even if you cut down your use by half. Show them they will suffer greatly for their ignorance. I am no longer using Feria for my hair coloring..which sucks because that is a great product, but there are hundreds of other options nowadays and I am going to take advantage of them. You guys should do the same. This is a great protest for all people of all colors including white to participate in, because I am sure knowing something like this would piss anyone off who believes in equality.

There are countless of light skinned beauties with long hair in hip hop that are by definition simply beautiful..but Tiny is NOT one of them….Toya is clearly the hotter of the two..easily.

"It has to be true love. That's the only explanation..." -harlemenglish.com staffer

Yes she has a lot of money, but she only has money because she guaranteed herself a paycheck by having TI’s babies. So being jealous of her because she has money isn’t something no strong minded independent woman need to worry about because finding a rich guy and getting knocked up for him takes no brain power, ask Kelis. Besides, that isn’t her money , it’s his.

I try not to criticise peoples looks, especially when they are good people and cannot help it. But Tiny loves shoving that horrendous looking man faced mug in front of cameras 24/7..and it’s starting to offended me.

What perplexes me is how she is relevant in any way shape or form. So your baby’s daddy is TI? Now you and Lil Wayne’s ex-wife are starring in a reality show? Why? What is it that Tiny & Toya have to tell the world that we couldn’t google ourselves? Neither clearly have anything else to do but show off their countless illegitimate children and over the top cars and homes to the naive young black youth who I am sure will be eagerly watching this ghetto display of stupidity.

Are any of these “ladies” working? Do they have any ambitions others than being the baby’s mama to rich rappers who are currently in or was previously behind bars? Why won’t they just give R. Kelly a show too so he can show the world how great the life of a pedophile can be?

Anywho..I will add a video clip preview of Tiny & Toya’s “fascinating” new reality show appearing on that “groundbreaking” network BET.  I will let you judge for yourself the true ugliness of Tiny’s mug.  Afterwards, please fill out the poll and give me your opinion on Tiny’s looks. Show description taken from Tiny’s Blogspot (low budget free hosting) blog.

TINY AND TOYA is BET’s provocative, new half-hour docu-drama chronicling the lives of Tameka “Tiny” Cottle and Antonia “Toya” Carter – two dynamic, young women immersed in the craziness of the hip-hop world, but striving to find inner-strength, peace and purpose. On the surface, their real-life story plays out like an urban fairytale – both women falling in love with two of hip hop’s most successful princes (T.I. and Lil’ Wayne) and living the life of the rich and famous.
Watch the sneak peek Sunday, June 28 immediately following the BET Awards.
Set in the heart of Atlanta, against the backdrop of the multi-billion dollar music industry, TINY AND TOYA follows the journey of two best friends overcoming their struggles to discover who they really are, from the inside out. They are tired of being defined by others (in the shadow of their high-profile men) and are determined to rely on each other and the strength from within to find their purpose and build a brighter future for themselves and their families.
Each episode will give the audience an inside look into Tiny and Toya’s lives. They take us on an exciting roller coaster ride in search of independence and a quest to set the record straight. We watch them flip the script and create new business ventures of their own. They will be faced with real choices that will potentially change their lives and the lives of those around them forever. We learn why this magnetic and mesmerizing duo won the hearts of T.I. and Lil’ Wayne, as they win over ours.
Though the stakes are high, it’s their unique bond as women, mothers, “sisters” and friends that will ultimately pull them through.
Catch the sneak peek Sunday, June 28 following the BET Awards.Tune in Tuesdays at 10 PM/9C, starting June 30.

Here’s yet another “promotional” video clip I found for this “groundbreaking” show.

Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, let me make it clear that I am not hating on her or her obvious beauty..it’s Playboy I just can’t figure out. In the the fashion world, when they use an actual African model they use someone who looks African in most cases, because besides the image of  saggy breasted woman with bones through their nose that media likes to showcase African women as, most people who know anything knows that there are tons stunning dark skinned African women all over the world.

Does she not look like a typical super hot playboy type of African-American model next door? Where is the sizzle? Where is the African appeal? Just imagine if Playbody decided to name it’s first real Indian Playmate and when you see her pic she looks more like Cameron Diaz than Padma Lakshmi, it would make you wonder wouldn’t it? Especially if your Indian (from India)

It’s a shame that Playboy wasn’t brave enough to find an authentic looking African model to give this historic moment too. I guess I shouldn’t expect Hugh hefner to have the balls that the rest of the American mainstream media doesn’t have.. Here is the actual story and video

Many puns can come into play with the news of Playboy magazine czar Hugh Hefner selecting a naturally born African woman as his latest “Playmate of the Year,” but we will refrain.

On May 2, Tanzanian-born Ida Ljungqvist was named the 2009 Playmate of the Year at Las Vegas’s famed Palms Hotel & Casino. Our pals over at HipHollywood.com was there to catch all the happenings as it went down.

When I saw these recent photos of Stacey Dash  I was speechless. We all remember Stacey as Dionne the rich girl sidekick to Cher Horowitz in the 1995 mega hit and cult classic Clueless. This beautiful actress seems to almost be frozen in time.

She has always played charcters that were much younger than her actual age, which is 42! Yes, she is 42. From the natural look of her face and body it doesn’t appear that she’s had any plastic surgery and is aging quite gracefully.

This just proves that women over 40 are no longer limited to short soccer mom hair bobs and 90’s looking mom jeans. Way to girl girl! Enjoy the pics!

Stacey Dash in Playboy

Stacey Dash and her fine agless butt on the cover of ghetto King Magazine

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