Queer Eye's resident fashion expert Tan France has launched a powerful new Instagram account aimed at "celebrating the beauty of people of colour".
The account, called Shaded, sees France shine a spotlight on the beauty, desirability and achievements of people of colour in the entertainment industry - drawing attention to the importance of visibility and representation both on screen and in the media.
"Here to champion and celebrate the diverse beauty of people of colour, where every shade is beautiful and where we get to be complete...not just a fun friend," France writes in a post about the new venture.
He adds: "Not just a great academic. Not just a wonderful colleague, but someone desirable as a partner, a sexual partner, a whole person with the same needs, wants and desires as every fair skinned person out there.
"Time to be the desirable leads in our own lives."
In one post celebrating YouTuber and TV host Lilly Singh, France explains: "The importance of @lilly having her own late night? It shows so many millions of poc around the world that they, too, can achieve their dreams, no matter how unlikely they might seem, in this ‘fair-skinned’ dominated industry."
He continues: "Lilly having this show is a step in the right direction, but there’s so much further to go. Let’s not let the powers that be pat themselves on the back quite yet.
"We have too much work to do, to waste time praising folks for ‘just getting started’."
“I longed for the day when I’d see a bunch of South Asian and Middle Eastern men and women on TV and in movies, but it never came,” he writes in his memoir, Naturally Tan.
“Where were their stories? Where were our stories? Had we been forgotten? Did no one want to hear what we had to say?”
He has also expressed his frustration about the double standards so regularly faced by people of colour.
“People of colour are frightfully aware that one person’s actions represent the actions of all of our community," he told National Post.
"A white person can shout and kick and scream, and people will say, ‘Gosh darn it, this is why we don’t like Jack,’ but they aren’t going to say, ‘This is why we don’t like white people.’ On the other hand, if I did that exact same thing, it would be, ‘This is why we don’t like brown people. Brown people are always so temperamental. They really should go back to their own country.’”
