Miss France is too white
Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:36 pm
A newly crowned Miss France beauty queen has become embroiled in accusations of racism and a catfight between previous winners just days into her reign.
The Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN) denounced medical student Marine Lorphelin, 19, for being 'as white as snow' and criticised the lack of black and Arab contestants.
The organisation labelled the contest outdated and an insult to the country's ethnic diversity - but the attack has prompted an angry backlash from Miss Lorphelin's supporters.
CRAN president Louis-Georges Tin said in a statement jointly issued by Miss Black France creator, Fred Royer: 'The failure to represent the contemporary French population in an event such as this is obviously serious.
'It amounts to denying the very existence of French people of African origin.'
But Didier Maisto, editor of Lyon Capitale, a website based in Miss Lorphelin's home region of Burgundy, told The Times: 'These types of comments, which are violently anti-Republican, seek to set French people against each other.'
Miss Lorpehlin was instead interviewed by presenter Isabelle Morini-Bosc, who asked her guest about a small scar on her nose.
She replied: 'You noticed it. It was plastic surgery. I had a little crust on my nose when I was adolescent and it wasn't very beautiful.'
Miss Lorphelin saw off competition from 32 other finalist - eight from ethnic minorities and six of those from France's Pacific and Caribbean territories - to win the crown last weekend.
