Chasity Samone Is Changing The Game For Dark-Skinned Playmates

In March 1965, model Jennifer Jackson became Playboy's first black Playmate of the Month. At just 18 years old, she was the youngest to be hired at the Playboy Club in Chicago before being approached to pose for the magazine.  “I didn’t show what they show now,” she shared with The Hollywood Reporter in 2017. “Just the top. But still, it was risque.”

Jackson’s milestone would set the stage for other black playmates to take the centrefold, from Darine Stern — who became Playboy’s first solo black cover girl in 1971 — to the legendary Naomi Campbell, who graced a 14-page pictorial in 1999. But while Playboy has featured a number of black playmates over the years while advocating for racial equality (during the Civil Rights Movement, the magazine published Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s longest interview, which was conducted by Roots author Alex Haley), the publication just named its fourth black Playmate of the Year (Jordan Emanuel) in 2019. And of those black women who have appeared in the magazine, very few have been dark-skinned.

In a 2008 interview with The New York Times, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner acknowledged the disparity.

“We try to get some ethnic diversity, but we do seem to lean in the direction of blondes.” 

Which is why Chasity Samone’s feature in the magazine’s February 2020 Equality Issue makes quite a statement. 

“The Winter 2020 PLAYBOY is dedicated to equality,” the publication describes. “In this issue you’ll meet people who are shaping culture and leading the charge for change, people whose work gives us hope that in this next decade we will all enjoy a more equitable society.”

Not only does the 28-year-old model — who is also an army veteran and aspiring politician — join an impactful roster of black women to break ground throughout the magazine’s history, she’s also one of the few dark-skinned women to do so. Samone, who has modelled for top fashion designers like Michael Costello and worked with music artists like A$AP Ferg and Pusha T, cites not feeling represented when she was growing up. 

“I never saw myself in music videos,” Samone shares with R29Unbothered. “Pharrell always had the dark-skinned main girl. But I felt like ‘Wait, do people in the world not think I’m beautiful?’”

Because of this, Samone has made it her mission to be an example to young women that look like her. “That is not a good feeling for a little girl to feel,” she continues. “That’s my whole point: for little girls who look like me to feel represented and know they’re beautiful.”

We caught up with Samone to talk about her groundbreaking Playboy feature, diversity in the modelling industry, and her plans to run for city council in her hometown of Dallas.

I’m super excited. I’m having a huge party tomorrow. I’m from Dallas and everyone is excited for me, so I feel really good.

So I grew up in Dallas. My mum and my dad had 11 children. I’m number 7 out of 11, so I grew up around a big family. My dad worked for the army and the government, so I’ve always been involved in military life. I was in ROTC in high school, so right after graduation I enlisted in the army. After that, I stayed in the army for 3 years and then I did one year inactive. I didn’t enlist again. Right after that, a woman named Ashley Williams — who was looking into getting a modelling agency at the time — found me and posted my picture on Facebook and asked her friends who I was. People tagged me and she allowed me to do my first photoshoot and I didn’t stop after that.

I know, right? I love the internet! Sometimes.

I’ve been modelling for 7 or 8 years, I believe. Something like that. I think 7 years.

In 2016, someone reached out to me to do a Playboy feature for their online platform. It was for a feature called “Playboy Muse of the Week.” Somehow I found the casting director for Playmates. I found her Instagram, and I DMed her and she replied back to me and told me to email her. I did and now I’m a Playmate!

Yes, of course. When I started modelling, that was my long term goal. Even as a child, when I first saw Playboy, I knew that Hugh Hefner was huge and it just always resonated with me and who I am. I love being naked. [Laughs] My family knows that about my sexuality and how I feel about my body. It’s like divine. It was [destined] that I would be a Playmate.

The day of the shoot, I still was not believing what was happening. I couldn’t believe the day had finally come. It was amazing. It was a huge production. They literally shut down a whole movie theatre, an old movie theatre, and it was all for me. It was surreal honestly.

Yes! The photographer, her name is Adrienne Raquel and she is amazing. I worked with Adrienne maybe five years ago in New York City. We did a campaign for Rue 107 about five years ago. So when they told me I was gonna work with Adrienne, I was excited because her work is impeccable. Also, my makeup artist, Sparkle — she’s a phenomenal makeup artist. She works a lot with Fashion Nova and Pretty Little Thing, and she does an amazing job on specifically dark skin. She made me feel so comfortable. She was amazing.

Exactly. So you have to understand how blessed I feel, and how blessed I am to collaborate with these girls. They were amazing.

I feel like black women with darker skin don’t get the accolades or the representation that we do deserve, and I feel like obviously colourism is a huge issue in the world and the industry that I work in. For me, to be able to be in Playboy and have small girls [that are] looking to see themselves, I feel honoured and I feel accomplished.

My mission is representation, and my mission is to let little girls know that they can do whatever they want to do and there is no standard to what they wanna do. I want them to break barriers. I feel like Playboy — even in the black community a lot of people have said to me: “I didn’t know black girls could be playmates!” And I’m like “I’m a Playmate!” I’m so proud.

My advice is to do it. Use Instagram. Use the hashtags. Find local photographers in whatever city you’re in. Reach out to them, start doing photoshoots and build your portfolio, and don’t stop.

I always wanted to be affiliated with or do something for the people. That’s why I went to the army. My dad worked for the federal government after he retired from the army, but he’s always been hands-on with Dallas and whatever the government was doing. It’s always been instilled in me. The reason why I want to run for city council now is because my passion for children and education, and me looking at how I grew up and how the neighbourhood that I grew up in and the schools haven’t quite changed. I want people in the ‘hood — I grew up in the ‘hood — I want them to have better access to education.

I grew up in Oak Cliff [Texas] and I graduated from Carter High School.

My next goal is acting. I want to build onto my acting reel. I want to be in movies, and I want to do TV shows and things. 

Regina King, Regina Hall, Lupita Nyong’o. I love comedy actors and actresses.

If they live in Dallas, when I run for city council, please go out and vote for me. [Laughs]