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‘Cosmopolitan’ calls the Kardashians, not the Obamas, ‘America’s First Family,’

Posted byBy Zellie Imani | Published on: CommentsComments (5)

Last night, Cosmopolitan unveiled their November issue with the Kadarshian-Jenner women calling them, “America’s First Family”, and many were not pleased.

To some on social media, the cover, which features sisters Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, Kendall and Kylie Jenner and mom Kris Jenner, and not the Obamas, was a disrespectful act towards the real First Family.

According to USA Today, the magazine emailed in a statement, “We are teasing!” Spokeswoman Lauren Demitry also wrote, “”They are a huge cultural phenomenon. What we do know is there is nothing like the cover of a magazine to provoke a national conversation.”

Yet, this was was not the first time the magazine was criticized for its disrespect of Black people. In April, the magazine’s “Beauty Trends That Need to Die in 2015” only showcased Black women for out going fashion trends, but captioned “R.I.P”, while their white counterparts were labeled, “Hello, Gorgeous”.

The magazine at that time issued a similar statement downplaying its disrespectful captioning. An editor’s note explained: “Some images have been taken out of context, and we apologize for any offense. Celebrating all women is in our mission, and we will continue to work hard to do that.”

Unfortunately, Cosmopolitan and other mass media outlets catering to white audiences continues to fall short. Black people, and Black women in particular, have consistently been attacked and disrespected by the media. Many magazine’s social media accounts routinely post articles and pictures that erase Black women’s contributions to style and culture. Last year, beauty magazine Marie Claire posted:

While just this summer, Elle UK deemed “baby hairs” as the newest trend.

The only trend we see is using Black culture to market white companies and individuals, but erase the Black people behind it.

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We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

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