Tracey 'Africa' Norman: The Trailblazing Model | LGBTQ+ Elders Project

LGBTQ&A

Jeffrey Masters

Society & Culture

4.7 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2022

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After being discovered at a casting for Italian Vogue, Tracey "Africa" Norman's modeling career skyrocketed. In 1975, she memorably appeared as the face on a box of Clairol hair dye sold in drugstores across the U.S. In the middle of this formidable rise, Tracey was outed while on a shoot for Essence magazine. "And that's the day my career ended," she says. "Because the next day I called my agency and there was nothing." Tracey joins us to look back on her legendary modeling career, talk about how being outed affected her relationship with both the Black and LGBTQ+ communities, and says the fashion world has still not fully embraced women of color. "I'm not seeing anyone of color do the things that I have done and sign contracts. It's only been my white counterpart who are working, who are doing the shows, who are on the covers of major magazines." This is part of our new LGBTQ+ Elders Project. Click here to listen to our recent interview with the 87-year-old trans elder, Barbara Satin. LGBTQ&A is hosted by Jeffrey Masters and produced by The Advocate magazine, in partnership with GLAAD. A condensed transcript of each week's interview is posted on The Advocate's website. Follow us on Twitter: @lgbtqpod [This interview was originally recorded in December 2020.]

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the mid-70s, Tracy Africa Norman was discovered at a casting for Italian Vogue,
0:07.0	and from there, her modeling career just skyrocketed.
0:11.0	She even appeared now famously as the face on a box of Clareol hair dye.
0:16.0	This was one of their best-selling colors, and it was sold in drugstores across the US.
0:22.7	On that box, under her picture, and I think this is amazing.
0:26.3	Under her picture were the words, born beautiful.
0:30.3	There are so many messages in our world telling us that trans people are not beautiful.
0:35.8	And yet, here is an example from recent history in direct opposition
0:40.4	to that. It is Tracy's face, and then the words, born beautiful, there in all caps. It gives me chills
0:48.7	that think about. Now, the other part of Tracy's story, which is famous, is that while her career was in the
0:54.6	middle of this formidable rise, she was on a shoot for Essence magazine and she was outed.
1:00.8	Her career completely stopped after that.
1:03.3	I've always heard this story talked about, and when we tell it, we tend to stop at the outing.
1:08.9	She's outed and that's it.
1:10.9	So I wanted to talk to her about this whole experience,
1:14.1	but also what happened next?
1:16.6	Where does somebody go from there?
1:19.4	And then before we get started,
1:21.0	just to let you know what's going on scheduling-wise,
1:23.7	we were supposed to release our interview
1:25.7	with the great Olympic diver Greg Laganis today,
1:29.1	but due to me being under the weather last week that has messed up our schedule since really I am a one-man band.
	...

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