Why I Disagree With Naomi Campbell’s Euphemism For “Racism”

Recently, Miss Campbell granted an interview to British presenter Alan Carr on his chat show “Chatty Man.” The Independent Newspaper published excerpts from the interview. She discussed her struggles as a black model and how she was paid less than her white counterparts. She praised her friend Christy Turlington and credited her modelling career to her. Miss Campbell went further to say “Christy would say to designers ‘If you aren’t using Naomi in the show, you aren’t using us’, because some designers wouldn’t use black models, and she would be saying ‘If you don’t use her, you don’t get us’. Not many people would do that and put themselves in jeopardy. We were not rivals and we were very supportive of each other and still are.”

I was just tucking into her amazing story when the newspaper quoted her as saying: “I never use that word ‘racism’. I find it a cliché word and I don’t want to use it as an excuse.” She went further to say “for me it was, I call it territorialism – where there are people that have that certain territory and they stand their ground and they are not going to change their mind and that is their opinion.”

My first thoughts were; what the f- -k is territorialism? So there’s a contemporary alternative to the word “racism.” I didn’t realise urban conversations have moved on, and here I was, left behind in historical lexicon. So I promptly searched the dictionary for the meanings of the words “racism,” “cliché,” and “territorialism.” I felt an overwhelming need to find justification for Miss Campbell’s perceived urban twist.

The Oxford English Dictionary (online) gave eight meanings for “territorialism,” and the one closest to Miss Campbell’s definition is:

“Association with a particular geographical area; loyalty to or defence of one’s own territory or region, especially as considered more important than the larger nation, state, etc., of which it is a part.”

Racism:

“Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.”

Cliché:

“A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought…”

My interpretations, Miss Campbell’s Word, and the dictionary…

I am led to assume that Miss Campbell using “territorialism” as an euphemism for “racism” means that the racial discrimination she faced in her career was because “there are people that have that certain territory and they stand their ground and they are not going to change their mind and that is their opinion.” So Christy Turlington fighting against Naomi’s racial exclusion from the modelling world was as simple as wanting Naomi to break through these protected territories? So designers opting not to use her because she’s black does not imply “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior?” Does it mean that identifying racism and calling it just that means using “a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought?”

I’m perplexed about Miss Campbell’s use of words. Perhaps it is her effort to not annihilate some of her fans. Whatever it is, I hope that contemporary use of urban interpretations will not in future, trivialise the efforts people put in the fight against racism. I hope that our need to be politically correct does not alter parts of earth’s heritage. Although I admit that territorialism has elements of racism in it, I refuse to use it as the replacement of the word “racism.”