For years in the African American Community, there has always been a debate over the distinction between light skin and dark skin, good hair and bad hair, what's hot and what's not. About two years ago, I remember watching a reality show called love and hip-hop; when a rapper said, “light skin is the right skin” on TV. I was quite intrigued about it and I figured I would write about this when I was thinking of a topic. This paper is not aimed at proving what skin looks better but to discuss this issue.
My parents are African immigrants and I had it bad while growing up. I remember being taunted with terms such as: shadow, darkness, and the most dreadful one, African booty scratcher. Within the black community, there are some who prefer light
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It seems with ease that if you look like Halle Berry, Beyoncé or Mariah Carey, the roles are endless. When was the last time you have seen a lead role given to a dark skinned woman, which didn’t pertain to slavery? On the male side Wesley Snipes had great success. It seems like in the movie New Jack City, he reinforced this stereotype when he stabbed Christopher Williams in the hand and said, "I never like you light skinned ass anyway pretty mother F***". This movie was viewed by people all over the world and set the tone for many of the trends in the 90's. It is my belief that this condition goes all the way back to slavery and imperialism.
During slavery, the blacks that worked in the fields were typically dark skinned and the blacks that did not work in the fields were the light skinned ones. They were the offspring of mistress/concubines of the white slave owner. In Kevin Johnson’s book, Mixed Race America and the Law: A Reader, it stated that the light skinned slaves worked in the house of the slave owner and they got more privileges than their dark skinned slaves in the fields. It's clear that in that moment in time, it was a privilege to be a biracial offspring and get more freedom and work inside the
In the reading it had mentioned about how Blacks were inferior, which I believe they are seen that way when whites are seen as superiors. On page 60, it also mentioned that the planters had a choice between expanding opportunities to whites or solidifying the line “based on class and race” and exploiting workers from Africa. Blacks were punished more harshly, and were not afforded the opportunities of future freedom, as many of the whites had. There was also a law that made it illegal for white women to be with black men, and the women would be punished. The mixed race children were called mulattos, and were eventually forced into slavery. In Rethinking the Color Line by Charles A. Gallagher it had mentioned how we cannot conveniently racially categorize someone who is racially “mixed” or of an ethnic racial group with which we are not familiar. According to Charles A. Gallagher, there was legislation put in place to decide whether these children were considered "black" or not. Initially, it was to be that a child was considered black or white based on the "condition" of their
Society puts a lot of pressure on a African American women to look and act a certain way to gain acceptance from the rest of the world. Like Janie and other women in the story , African American women tend to have to deal with the opinions of society as a whole; which includes jobs for employment, music, television shows, magazines, and men (both black and white). They have to compete with other women who aren 't African American and when it comes to African American women competing against one another, darker skin toned females get the shorter end of the stick when it comes to most
According to PBS.org,”12.5% of film actors were black in 2014.” Only 12.5% of all actors!You would think it would be a lot more in a developed and liberal country like America. On the contrary, it's a lot more compared to the 3.2% it was in the 60’s.Dorothy Dandridge being part of that percent. Dandridge was a black icon in the 60’s starring in many films but, most notably, Carmen Jones. Where she is a seductive factory worker, who falls in love with a soldier after he kills his sergeant.She was so famous in the 60’s but in present times, she's unknown. She should be as famous as other icons in the 60’s such as Audrey Hepburn or Marilyn Monroe but she’s not since being black in the 60’s put you at an automatic setback. It caused her to be
By the twentieth century, slavery had damaged black pride, and made it known that black features were inferior. When it came to black women and their hair, black women desperately wanted to match the standard of “white” beauty. Walker’s solution to this was to create a look that was Afro-American without trying to imitate whites. Walker spoke about beauty emphasizing that to be beautiful does not refer to the complexion of your skin, or the texture of your hair, but having a beautiful mind, soul, and character.
In the beginning they laid a solid foundation of how color played a large part in African-American history back to the days of slavery. Giving that history is critical to understanding how colorism started within the culture. Continuing on, the documentary build a story line of the impact in society to how the issue is dealt with within the family structure. They spoke to men on their views of dark women and women on their views of dark men. One of the interesting segments was the global impact of colorism. The director’s ability to show examples of colorism in the Korean and Thai culture shed an additional perspective on the
Rodriguez, Richard. “Complexion”. Good Reasons. eds, Lester Faigley, Jack Selzer. Boston: Longman Publishers, 2001. 441-443.
There is a consensus that hair types are another way that colorism–the preference for lighter skin‒permeates the community. Women with a 3b/3c hair texture have a loose, ringlet, or spiral curl pattern and are often praised and more widely accepted in comparison to women who have a 4b/4c texture with a coarser, kinky, or zig-zag curl pattern. This notion highlights how Eurocentric standards of beauty can still influence pro-black spaces like the natural hair community, but it also shows how there is a pressure within the black community to adapt and conform to whatever style or aesthetic is deemed as “acceptable” at the time. This is where the “good hair” controversy comes into play. Whitney Bellinger studied a group of young African-American women to talk about their sentiments towards their hair in her piece WHY AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN TRY TO OBTAIN GOOD HAIR. When she asked the group of women to describe good hair, terms like “long”, “silky”, “fine”, and “healthy” were commonly used (Bellinger 68). While these terms are not exclusive to one hair type or texture, it doesn’t specifically describe a kinky or curly hair type and in turn alludes to a favorability towards non-black textures. Also in the interview, the young women discuss how their mother 's decisions on hair styles growing up impacted their current hair preferences (Bellinger 69). There was a direct relationship between the women who had relaxers growing up and who are still relaxed, as well as the women who were natural growing up and are currently natural (Bellinger 70). On the other hand, there was a smaller group of women who had switched their affiliations on the matter. It is interesting to note that there seem to be feelings of guilt evident with women who went from being natural to being relaxed. The women almost felt like they were denying some of the “racial pride” they previously held and that
Colorism in the United States is a result of the history of people being discriminated based upon one’s skin tone. For many years, the European standard of beauty has been set forth and pushed upon mainly young men and women of many backgrounds
African American women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair.” The article opens with a paragraph about African American challenges with beauty throughout history and present day. This article also compares beauty standards between African American and Euro American women. On page 26, Patton states, “During slavery, Black women who were lighter-skinned and had features that were associated with mixed progeny (e.g., wavy or straight hair, White/European facial features) tended to be house slaves and those Black women with darker-skin hues, kinky hair, and broader facial features tended to be field slaves. This statement shows how the physical features of Black women have always impacted them. On page 27, She also speaks about the state of African American women and the problems that surface when it refers to employment. She states, “When hair must be straightened for employment or for social mobility, it can be seen as assimilationist—subscribing to dominant cultural standards of
Racial stereotypes have always invaded films, from the earliest silent film, to the most modern film production. Stereotypes in early America had significant influence over how other viewed African Americans, Latinos, Asians etc. The most stereotyped race in history is the black male. In most early films, they were portrayed as simple minded and careless individuals, but when African Americans started to stand up for themselves films portrayed them as more savage and bloodthirsty.
“I have a foolproof method for controlling your black slaves…it will control the slaves for at least 300 years…I take these differences and make them bigger…you must use the dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves and the light skin slaves vs. the dark skin slaves. William Lynch 1712¹.” During the time of slavery African Americans were segregated by their white masters based on the color of their skin color. I found out that there were two kinds of slave’s back in the days, the house slaves and the field slaves. Most of the field slaves would have a darker skin tone and would be the ones working outside picking cotto...
Through her search for her identity, Irie fears that she does not fit the traditional white beauty standards of England. Across cultures, the desire for light skin and a westernized appearance seems to be universal (Ramsey and Harcourt 205). Irie, as well as most people, views beauty through the lens of her ethnic features. Being biracial and living in England, her Jamaican physical characteristics stand out. Although Irie is a mix of both black and white; her shapely figure, skin color, and curly afro make her more visibly recognizable as a person of the black heritage. When a person is biracial “There is a sense of being ‘both yet neither’. At this stage…ambivalence usually takes the form of white preference and black rejection…” (Harris, Howard, and Ezra 80). As one might imagine, it seems like a difficult task to embrace half of a person’s racial background while rejecting t...
There’s a mounting inclination for people to revise their racial topographies from double eyelid surgery, to chin grafts, to skin allaying or obscuring. In some cases, patients undertaking such ethnic cosmetic surgery say they are doing so to achieve a more exotic look. While others claim the process is not intent on looking more Caucasian but it is just about being more striking. Insight looks at the budding number of folks who are keen to modification of their racial sorts in the quest for beauty, what is prompting them to go to such extents, and what is regarded beautiful currently
Today, we live in a world where every skin tone is not always accepted. Many African- American celebrities have been accused of whitening their skin. Several of them say they lighten their skin because the darker shade of skin is not accepted by everyone. The larger the more in the spotlight you are, the harder it gets to be accepted and the more the media talks. In 2008, Beyonce posed for L’Oreal and her photos were published in a few high-end magazines like Allure and Elle. Beyonce’s fan, in particular, the African-American fan base, immediately took notice of her lightened skin. Outraged with L’Oreal, the public demand answers. The answer we got: we did not lighten Ms. Knowles skin, and Beyonce agreed. Many African-American women felt betrayed by the star. Now the black community is questioning, is black really beautiful.
Often times there will be harmful stereotypes perpetuated through the characters that we are shown, and although it is improving over time it is still rare to see people of various ethnicities shown as main protagonists in large scale movies even when they take place somewhere it would make the most sense. A study done from 2007 to 2014 showed that out of 700 popular mainstream movies, 73.1% of the characters were white, and that “[o]nly 17 of the 100 top films of 2014 featured a lead or co lead actor from an underrepresented racial and/or ethnic group.” In the same way that women are often depicted as sensitive and emotional, you will frequently see people of different races put into roles that play into common stereotypes surrounding them. Having these images shown not only to the people not represented, but also to young people looking for themselves in shows and movies and all things of the sort, can negatively influence the way that people see and act towards themselves and