Ajak Deng has modeled for Valentino, Marc Jacobs, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Jean Paul Gaultier, and most recently, Maison Margiela. (Though she left the industry in February due to severe colorism, she recanted her retirement a week later feeling it more purposeful to “fight the war” for dark-skin models.)
Being an international model did not matter when she was stopped by police, two years ago, in what she describes as a nearly fatal experience. Had a neighbor not filmed what the officers were doing to her, Deng says, she believes she would have been another black life lost. In an emotional series of videos posted to Instagram the high fashion model shared about the encounter — and the loneliness of battling anti-black American racism — with her followers:
Part I: “Two years ago I was almost killed by two white officers”.
After the incident, Deng calls her agent, who tells her:
“White people love black people. It is all in your head. Relax. Breathe. Let it go.”
Part II: Deng says she is still heartbroken today.
… I can never really speak to the same people I thought loved me.
Part III: Deng says her Sudanese parents don’t understand because they’ve never been to America.
I had to go through this alone. I have to be the strongest black woman I can be by myself…
Part IV: “I had to learn to defend myself”
Will you [protect me] as a white friend? No. Will you protect me as a black friend? No….
