rustons:

Did you ever hear about the difficulty of a Black model succeding in the fashion industry of recent years? Did you ever hear about anything like that?

Uh no, I actually didn’t know how hard it was because you know I watched all the interviews with Naomi Campbell and stuff like that. And they asked the same question and she was just like, “It is hard being a Black model knowing that you’re not gonna get a job but you still have to be out there.” And in Australia too, when I go casting, they ask me “Why did your agency send you here and I’m like because this is casting and they just go “We don’t work with Black models.” 

They say that when you go casting in Australia?

Yeah, like the big names. They’ll be like “We don’t work with Black models, so, sorry. Sorry they have to send you all the way here.” And I’m just like ‘No it’s okay, thank you for letting me know.” So yeah, it is hard being a Black model because it’s just impossible but at the same time I don’t wanna think about it as impossible. I want to think about it as possible because we can turn the impossible into possible!

Ajak Deng interviewed by Bethann Hardison