Images show Donata Meirelles, who is white, sitting on a throne-like seat flanked by four black women dressed in white

By Anna Jean Kaiser from Rio de Janiero @ TheGuardian.com, Feb. 15

[....] Critics compared the women’s clothes to the white uniforms worn by house slaves, and pointed out the chair’s similarity to a cadeira de sinhá, an ornate chair for slave masters [....] The day after the party, Meirelles responded on Instagram, saying that the chair was actually an artifact from the Afro-Brazilian folk religion candomblé, and the clothes were traditional Bahian party attire. “Even so, if I caused any different impressions, I am sorry,” she said.

On Wednesday, Meirelles announced that she would resign from her position at Vogue. In a statement on Instagram, the magazine said: “Vogue Brasil profoundly regrets what happened and hopes that the debate that has been generated serves as a learning experience.” Vogue said it was creating a panel of activists and academics to help create content to combat inequalities.

But the move was dismissed by Ribeiro. “They should just hire black people to work at Vogue Brasil, not create a forum for black activists to act like babysitters telling them whether something is racist or not,” she said.

More than half of Brazil’s 200 million people identify as black or mixed race [....]