Vogue Disrupts Normal Publishing-Industry Segregation: Plans To Put Black Woman on Cover of March Issue

By Anna Holmes | February 13, 2007 | 12:31am

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Color us floored. (Actually, we’re part black, so color us Mulatto). We’re late to this story, but the news that Vogue magazine’s Anna Wintour is putting Jennifer Hudson on the cover of her upcoming “Power” issue has us stunned. The actress/singer, reports E! Online’s Marc Malkin, will appear — apparently alone — on the magazine’s March cover, with an added seven pages about the actress inside to boot. We’re shocked for a couple of reasons. First off, Vogue has put an African-American woman on its cover only a few times before, and those women — which include Oprah Winfrey and Halle Berry — appeared in the magazine’s wafer-thin January issue, which is the publishing industry’s go-to ghetto for cover girls of color. [See Beyonce Knowles, InStyle, January 2007]

But secondly (and, admittedly, less importantly)…Jennifer Fucking Hudson??? Were we the only ones who saw Dreamgirls and thought her acting skills were subpar? Sure, we were willing to overlook the predictable Golden Globe win, and we didn’t flinch when she scored an Oscar nomination. But of all the powerful black women in the world for Vogue to feature on its cover why pick one with such a thin resume? Did Oprah turn down a second cover? Were Tyra Banks and Beyonce Knowles not available? Even Condi Rice would have been understandable. Oh wait, that’s right: some people say she’s not really black.