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The mixed-heritage model and activist Adwoa Aboah, adorns the front cover of the new Vogue magazine. She is not the only woman of colour featured in this edition; there are also articles on two of Britain’s leading black supermodels: Naomi Campbell and Jordan Dunn. Clearly, the magazine’s new editor has made a strategic decision to foreground exceptional black women, and make a strong statement on talent. In contrast to the models, the names of the 26 African women, some as young as 14, who may have been abused and murdered while attempting to cross the Mediterranean this week, are not known. These black women are one of the waves of thousands of vulnerable and impoverished people who risk everything they must to escape poverty, war and disease in their own countries. These two recent events, I think provide important examples of the ongoing struggle to value the lives and experience of black women. Professor Angela Davis, the radical, black feminist activist inspired one of my theology research students at a conference in the US this week. Davis is best known in political circles for her black power activism in the 1960s, but in higher education, she is a feted matriarch of black feminist thought. Her claim to fame is a piercing analysis which examines how the forces of race, class and gender conspire to disadvantage black women. Davis believes that if we understand the interplay of discriminatory forces, we can challenge and undermine cocktails of bias. For instance, Davis’ work has highlighted disparities in opportunity between black and white women in the employment market and how affirmative action and equal opportunities might combat inequality. I think that Davis’ method still has importance for today. Despite the small yet significant gains made by some black women in the west, such as the supermodels, multiple disadvantage is still a reality and potentially deadly. If loving one's neighbour is a central message of Christian faith, then allowing millions of women of color in other parts of the world to live in conditions that are so violent or economically precarious that they are willing to risk their lives through escape is I believe incompatible with love. Perhaps it is better to view Davis not merely as a politics icon but as a prophet whose message encourages people of good faith to acknowledge and confront interlocking forces of injustice that imperil our neighbours.