- My name's Munroe Bergdorf.
You probably know me from being
the first transgender model to model for L'Oréal.
Also to be the first trans model to be sacked after a week.
(soft music)
When I first really started working it was around
the transgender tipping point.
Trans was starting to be seen as unchartered territory
by the media.
Caitlyn Jenner had just come out.
Transparent had just kicked off.
There was a very big interest in trans bodies.
And obviously 'cause I work within the fashion industry
and the makeup industry there was a glamorous side
so I guess it was kind of the accessible version
of a transgender person.
In the beginning of my career I was just hired
on a tokenistic basis.
I think that people wanted my look,
but they didn't necessarily want what comes with it.
And then when I started talking about race,
I think people realized that,
"Oh, OK, she's not really that accessible
"because race makes people feel uncomfortable."
And then you see what happened with the L'Oréal thing,
it just kind of blew up.
(piano music)
I knew that the article was gonna come out
a day before it did because the Daily Mail contacted
L'Oréal's publicist.
And then L'Oréal contacted me.
And then let me know the Daily Mail
has been sent this post and this screenshot.
So it wasn't the full article, it was a screenshot
of what you've said on Facebook.
And I was like, "OK, yeah, sure.
"But I said this a month ago
"and it was in response to a terrorist act."
So of course I was impassioned, of course I was enraged,
we should all be angry about terrorism.
You know of course I was annoyed
because it was taken out of context
and the screenshot that they had
only showed a small part of what I actually said.
So it just made me look like I was having a rant.
I felt really let down by L'Oréal
that they didn't listen to me
and that I explained how I felt
and I explained why I wrote what I wrote.
And also the fact that the campaign
was celebrating diversity and celebrating women
of all colors and it was a response to lack of diversity,
lack of inclusivity with in the beauty industry.
I was acknowledging why there's a lack of diversity
and lack of inclusivity,
but then that's also why I was sacked.
The response was probably the most difficult thing
that I've had to deal with in my life to date.
When it first broke, I was receiving countless amounts
of abuse, it got to about 2,000 abusive comments
every half an hour.
I had death threats, I had people threatening to rape me,
smash every window in my house.
I had people contact my employers to try and get me sacked.
I had to leave my full time job
because it became unworkable.
It just kind of ruined my life for a good amount of time.
And forced me into a corner.
It was just very very difficult.
I had to renavigate my life.
Aspects of safety.
Aspects of privacy.
Aspects of even just personal friendships.
Everything just kind of changed from the things I would do
just by being like a carefree person.
I can't really do that anymore
because I've got people knowing who I am.
And having a prejudged idea of who I am
before they've even met me.
But on the other hand the support
from a lot of women of color
have just really rallied around me.
Also queer people of color.
The way that people just said no, this isn't anything new.
We all kind of feel like this.
I think that people had a problem with me
speaking about racism
because I don't think necessarily people understand
what racism in a modern day context is.
White people who never experience racism
they are taught that racism is dead on
just calling someone the N-word,
being verbally abusive to somebody
which is just one little nuance of racism.
There's so many different facets to racism
and it's very complex method of repression.
I just wanted white people to open up
and try to understand how we feel rather than just saying,
nope this doesn't exist, I've never seen this.
We're living in an age where calling somebody racist
is more offensive than actually being racist itself.
People don't want to have their behavior called out.
If you've never experienced racism,
you do kind of just need to take people
of colors life experience and word for it
because this is happening
and this has always been happening.
And up until now people have been scared to say anything.
You're speaking about your lived experience
and speaking about oppression with relations
to that lived experience and you have done nothing wrong,
I think the main thing I want people to take away
from this is just not to be afraid to speak about racism.
All people need to not be afraid.
My hope for the world is just
that we start to listen to each other.
And also I want other girls to feel
like they can make a difference.
I just feel like we're in a real tipping point
of women's voices.
I think people are starting to realize,
women especially, that the more of us that talk
and realize that if we tap into that sisterhood,
if we come together as women then we can enact change.