Naomi Campbell, 50, sat down with Afua Hirsch from Vogue and talked about her Jamaican roots, racism, reparations, and her new docuseries.
While in quarantine, Campbell found comfort in things that she learned from her grandmother during her childhood.
“Grandma was six feet tall, from a farming community in Jamaica,” Campbell said. “I don’t know those families where they put a man at the head. Grandma was the head of our family,” Campbell told Vogue.
“A lot of the things Grandma taught me as a child came into play in lockdown,” Campbell says of the months she spent alone in New York. “I was quite happy to be on my own. I know how to cook. I know how to clean. It’s actually good to get to really know every nook and cranny of your home. I mean, I have to be really honest,” she proclaimed.
During the interview, the trailblazing supermodel spoke about her experience with racism.
“I never used to say the word racism; I just used to say, it’s territorialism,” she said. “I never wanted people to say that I used that as an excuse, that I was throwing that word out.”
For Campbell, things remain the same.
“But for me, nothing’s changed. I’m going to speak the same way.”
“I think as a generation, as a whole, can we get reparations for our culture, for what we’ve been through,” she said. “I absolutely believe we are going to get the positive outcome we deserve. But we have to do our work in making sure we get it. I think reparations are important for the people to really see that this is something that’s been taken seriously.”
The Supermodels is directed by Barbara Kopple and will debut on Apple TV+. The docuseries will capture Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, and Campbell musing about their legendary reign during the 1990s in fashion and culture.
“Linda, Christy, and Cindy, these are my sisters. The four of us tell it. I wasn’t going to do it any other way,” Campbell said.
