Munroe Bergdorf race row incident information

Munroe Bergdorf is a British model who came to public attention in August 2017 when she was employed as the first transgender model to front a L'Oréal campaign in the United Kingdom. Bergdorf attracted further public attention following an article in the Daily Mail highlighting Facebook comments that she—a mixed race trans woman of white English and black Jamaican heritage—had made about white people. These comments—which included the claim that all white people were guilty of "racial violence" and that the white race was "the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth"—generated accusations that she was racist against white people. In response to her comments, L'Oréal fired her from its campaign and Facebook removed her posts from their website, regarding them as being in contravention to its rules against hate speech. Bergdorf said she also faced online harassment, much of it of a racist and transphobic nature.

Other commentators argued that the Daily Mail had quoted her out of context, and that her wider point about white supremacy and white privilege in Western societies was valid and needed wider dissemination. Claiming this to be the case, the Illamasqua beauty brand employed her to front its campaign and her supporters followed her suggestion to promote a boycott of L'Oréal.