“We were there laughing, talking, having a good time and taking pictures, which was what quite a few groups of tourists were doing,” Morrison said. “Out of the blue, a woman who was pushing a baby stroller — we’re three Black women and she was a white woman walking with another white woman — came up to us and interrupted our conversation and said, ‘Are you lost?’ And my sister and I looked at each other, and my girlfriend immediately was like, ‘No, we’re not [expletive] lost.
“The show was about to start, and so I went up to the makeup artist that I had actually met earlier that day as we were talking through our inspiration for the team and for the models. I went up to her and asked her, ‘Could you give me a quick lip?’ because that was really all we had time for, and her response to me was ‘No, like, not even a little bit.’ It was really snarky, really rude. And initially, I thought maybe she was being sarcastic,” Williams Eke said.
Pamela Zapata, who identifies as Afro-Latina and is the founder of talent agency Society 18, recalled how a first-time face-to-face meeting resulted in an assumption of her status.
Stick to fashion. Please?