Ashley Graham Says Her Husband Was Spit On For Being Black In Italy

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Ashley Graham Speaks On The Racism She Witnesses Toward Her Husband

Ashley Graham looks gorgeous gracing the cover of Allure for their July issue.

In her cover story, the model gets real as she reveals the racism she witnesses happening to her husband, cinematographer Justin Ervin, every single day. The 31-year-old model–who married Ervin in 2010–told the magazine about an incident during the couple’s vacation to Italy, a trip the pair took just last summer.

“They’re touchy subjects, and ones that are close to home for Graham, who is married to a black man (cinematographer Justin Ervin), champions the body-positivity movement, and has balanced on the knife’s edge between empowered and objectified throughout her modeling career, the success of which she still credits to her first Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue cover. But she’s ready to take the questions head-on. ‘I see what my husband has to go through every day. We had gone to Italy, and a man spat on him.’ Graham says. ‘It’s heartbreaking. It can make you really angry. But it’s like, how are you going to change that anger into a teachable moment?'”

Beyond touching on the inequalities she sees in the real world happening first hand, Ashley also wants to bring that knowledge and understanding to her future children.

Graham clarified in her interview that she’s not planning on having children right away, but she is taking the opportunity to learn how to navigate difficult conversations about race now.

“Read books; have conversations. Educate yourself. The more you have conversations with people around you that are different than you, [the more] you’re going to learn and you’re going to grow. No one who isn’t black is going to understand a black person’s life, but they don’t have to be ignorant toward [what it’s like]” she explained.

She goes on to say, “I want to know as much as I can as a white woman who is going to be raising black children. We’re going to have to have that conversation of ‘Mommy’s white, Daddy’s black,’ and I want to be prepared.”

You can read the rest of Ashley Graham’s Allure cover story here.