Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Racial Discrimination in the Movies
Essay on black beauty
Essay on black beauty
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Racial Discrimination in the Movies
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. Unfortunately, we look up to celebrities to make us feel pretty. We feel the need to copy what they are doing, so we can feel the same. They are really poisoning us to make us want to fit in with the whiter group of women. Celebrities similar to Beyonce continue to tell us to feel good about our skin, own our heritage, and conquer the world as a proud black woman. However, behind closed doors, they do not really want to be black. Because being black causes too much controversy. During the commercial in 2008, Beyonce described …show more content…
herself as African-American, Native-American, and French. Not completely black, but she had to be mixed with something. By contrast, Jennifer Lopez’s True Match commercial describes her as “100% Puerto Rican.” Popular bloggers have led discussions about the perception that Beyonce’s True Match commercial intentionally attempts to highlight her non-black heritage in order to distance the star from African-Americans. Beyonce is not the only celebrity to deny her beautiful black skin. Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Lil Kim, and Keri Hilson have all been said to use skin lightener. I do not believe we should bleach our skin to meet ‘Eurocentric’ beauty standards or make anyone else happy. We should all be happy and comfortable in our own skin. We were born to be different we have to accept it. My question now is, can we all be fair colored? How would it have been in this world if everybody was fair? If you walked out of the house and each person was white skinned bearing the same faces how would it have been? Would that not have been boring? The most interesting thing about this country is that we have a variety. Some are black, white, Hispanics, and others are Asian. That is what makes the world unique and beautiful. We can make a difference in this world when we begin changing our mindset. Black becomes beautiful when we accept to be black and appreciate being black. Indeed, being black is beautiful. Moreover, I do not agree with some celebrity’s choice to deny their blackness.
We all need to come together and stop giving into the white standards. The phrase “My Black is Beautiful” has to be said more so that they understand that it is okay to love your skin. It may be hard for some people to do, but it will take time. Our beauty has become a battleground, and this comes from years of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. The unprocessed collective pain from these destructive social experiences has been passed down through generations. As a result, there is so much pain living on our skin and we are trying to escape
it. In conclusion, even though others do not accept the color of our skin, we should never deny our heritage. We do not have to me the “Eurocentric” appearance to feel beautiful. Lightening your skin does not make things better, it only creates more racial tensions in the world. When you look different they gossip, when you look the same they get bored. To all black women not feeling accepted by mainstream America, your black skin is extremely beautiful and you should never forget that. To everybody else criticizing the black skin, should immediately change their mindset because no one has to please you. Although I may not agree with Beyonce using skin lightener, I do believe she does these things because she feels pressured to appeal to everyone. Maybe one day she will grow to understand it is okay to be you regardless of color like she preaches in her songs.
As a group, we believe that popular culture does in fact perpetuates stereotypes. Television is a main source of information of popular culture. Television has forever changed how humans have interacted with another and introduce a world of diversity and knowledge. But with this profit, television has also harbored negative aspects. As a group, we studied how racial stereotypes are portrayed in television. In the history of television, different racial and ethnic groups have been widely underrepresented and television itself has been overwhelming represented by white figures. And when racial groups are presented on TV, the characters are often played in limited roles based on stereotypes. A stereotype isn’t necessarily untrue, but it is an assumption based on an incomplete and complex ideas that are oversimplified into something that isn’t what it meant to be, and it’s usually negative. For example, African Americans are often depicted as violent or involved in some kind of criminal activity. Their characters often portrays a person who is always sassy and angry or that isn’t intelligent and won’t succeed in life and inferior to whites in some manner. Asian characters are
Oscar Wilde once wrote: “It is only shallow people who judge by appearance. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible” (qtd in Davis 1). Obviously, humans have all been created differently. That is why we all do not look alike. But now, the idea of having the ideal shape and look is one of the issues everyone has to deal with. Some want to get thinner, while a few do not care about it. Others even change the color of their skin. The desire to be like someone else is getting bigger and bigger for so many reasons that cannot be completely explained. This is due to the fact that people are different and think differently about their own image. But most of the time, they are filled with a desire that Delia, a senior in college expresses well enough in Am I Thin Enough Yet?:“ I always wanted to be the thinnest, the prettiest. ‘Cause I thought, if I look like this, then I am going to have so many boyfriends, and guys are going to be so in love with me, and I will be taken care of for the rest of my life” (qtd in Sharlene 7). According to Richard Rodriguez, there are complexions because the persons, who care for us like a family, are usually the ones who explain us that we have something to be ashamed of (441). On the other side, Bell Hooks thinks that all these complexions take their origin in the historical supremacy of the white race toward the black in particular (446). These are only a few examples of the probable reasons why people decide to change their look. But I personally think that people change the way they look in order to be attractive and appreciated. They believe that this issue can help in their search for happiness.
RaStereotyping is a way of thinking about groups of people. It ignores the differences of the group, while emphasizing its similarity. One belief, that is a stereotype, is that red-haired people are hot tempered. Another belief is that Scottish people are stingy. Such thinking ignores many even-tempered redheads and generous Scottish people. Stereotyping emphasizes many differences between groups while ignoring their similarities to other people. It ignores that many blond and brown-haired people also lose their tempers. Stereotyping overlooks the fact that many American, Brazilians and French people are stingy.
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
It is sad to know that we cohabit a nation where you are frowned upon because of the content of your skin. This documentary depicts adolescent Black/ African American girl and boys, and women talking about their melanin. Society imposed on us that to be beautiful you must be of a fairly light complexion, have a sculpted body, perfect bone structure, and have nice non-kinky hair. This image has been imbedded in our society, and resulted in those in the Black/ African American community feeling as is they are ugly, non lovable, unwanted, not smart, less than, lacking self confidence, and wishing that they can change their skin tone (by bleaching) to be accepted and to be considered beautiful.
Have you ever been discriminated against simply because your skin is darker than the next person? Have you ever been told by someone that “your pretty for a dark skin girl or boy?” Have you ever been racist toward your own race? Since long before we or our parents were born, the black community has faced this problem with racism within the same race. In the black community, it is said that if a person have a lighter skin complexion, than they are superior to those with a darker skin complexion. Racism within the black community is a serious issue that needs to be addressed.
Pretend you are driving along on the highway. You see a person on the side of the road having car problems. This is person is wearing an Armani suit and driving a Porsche. The next day, you encounter the same incident but, this time, it is a man wearing baggy jeans with holes in them, a dirty shirt and he looks very unclean. Would you be more likely to stop for the man in the Armani suit, or the the second man? I know that I would stop for man #1. The reason I and most of our society would do so, is because we have a horrible habit. The habit is unintentional and we do it not meaning to hurt anybody This habit is stereotyping people by the way they look or talk based on what society considers normal. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Scout, Atticus and Tom Robinson are victims of being stereotyped by others. Each has to cope with being stereotyped. Scout and Atticus have the ability to change their ways in order for people to respect them, unlike Tom Robinson, who is stereotyped as a mutant to the town of Mayberry simply because he is black. For example people are preaching to Scout that she should act like a typical girl. Atticus is stereotyped as a traitor to his people, the white race, because he stands up for a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a young woman. Last but not least, Tom Robinson is stereotyped as being a flaw in the human race because he is black. When he is accused of committing a rape, he is not given a fair tr...
In life, we are often confronted with boundaries created by society and ourselves. In our limited understanding of what those boundaries represent, we find ourselves confined by our ego. Racism and prejudices have plagued society for many years, and many of us have been judged and condemned for expressing our true selves. How long must it take for us all to be accepted as beautiful beings, all perfectly capable of greatness and joy?
Roma are a cultural group whose life revolves around the stereotypes which have followed them throughout time. They are not accepted in society due to stereotypes nor is an attempt to understand them as a culture made today. Roma are a nomadic group who rely on travel to survive. They have no set home land, or origin, which is a source to many of their problems. This single fact alone is what has produced the hurtful stereotypes in which follow them and they face daily. Development of conclusions made from living a nomadic lifestyle is a direct reasoning to many of the stereotypes one may think of when Roma are mentioned. One moment in history for Roma has never been happy because they always faced some sort of discrimination. Though hate crimes still do occur to this day, government officials do little to nothing to stop them. In many instances, Roma are not treated equal which all goes back to the idea of prejudice. People tend to hate what they can’t understand and Roma are an example of that. Resorting to hate crimes and discrimination has also resulted badly on Roma as well. They’re population overtime has even decreased over time because of the high level of discrimination and the resorts people will go through to rid the world of Roma. Ultimately, stereotypes of Roma, a nomadic European population, have resulted in them facing prejudice actions which then have led to them being unaccepted and unemployable due to their nonexistent acceptance in society.
The effects of colorism on black women are well-documented in the music industry from Lil Kim’s transformation to Azealia’s skin bleaching. Lil Kim once said “Guys always cheated on me with women who were European looking. You know, the long-hair type. Really beautiful women that left me thinking, ‘How can I compete with that?’ Being a regular Black girl wasn't good enough.”
Blackness has more face value than just the amount of melanin in one's skin. The culmination of my people's songs, dances, hairstyles, clothes, slang, etc created a force that extends far beyond the domain of the favorable reception that it actually receives. Blackness, it seems, is a cultural phenomenon. It's "trendy." It's "cool." Cultural appropriation will never sit right with me. When I see Eurocentric models strutting down high fashion runways with cornrows in their hair, I grow more disheartened with society. Black hairstyles, like dreadlocks or cornrows, on the heads of Black people lead to no jobs and prejudiced stereotyping. Black hairstyles on the heads of white people lead to New York, Paris, and Milan Fashion Week. Why is my Blackness acceptable only for people who are not Black? Miley Cyrus dances provocatively and plunges the world into the era of dancing sexually, freely and carelessly. Nicki Minaj performs in a similar fashion and is condemned for her actions. Kylie Jenner receives lip fillers to achieve fuller, poutier lips; takes the world by storm. An internet trend is even created to mimic her borderline exasperating
Stereotype is a belief, judgment, or idea based on a generalization, and mostly it is unfair or untrue. People can be stereotyped based on their ethnicity, appearance, and gender. Brent Staples, the author of “Black Men and Public Space,” wrote about his experience and how he was inaccurately stereotyped as a criminal because he is a young black man. Some stereotypes could be true, but it is not fair to generalize it. I have had a similar experience to Staples because I am from Saudi Arabia. I have got picked on twice in airports and got locked in a room for three hours, and dogs were involved for nothing. I believe everyone has had an unfair experience with stereotypes, and it is normal. I have been incorrectly stereotyped in many aspects.
Every skin color is as beautiful as another. We are all humans and we should all love each other regardless of the color of our skin. It also is not just about loving each other but, also loving ourselves and feel beautiful. We need to spread and accept that the color of our skin does not tells us whether we are superior or inferior. Rapsody says “I love myself, I no longer need/ cupid” in this we learn that in adulthood Rapsody learns to love herself and she doesn’t need anyone to tell her. That is what we all need to do is accept who we are and love
Most people find stereotypes to be obnoxious, especially when they have to do with sensitive subjects like gender or race. “Stereotyping is a generalization about a group or category of people that can have a powerful influence on how we perceive others and their communication behaviors” (Floyd, 61). Because they underestimate the differences among individuals in a group, stereotyping can lead to inaccurate and offensive perceptions of other people. Although stereotypes are prevalent in almost every society, becoming aware of our perceptions of others, as well as differentiating between both positive and negative stereotypes can help us overcome those stereotypes.
This question I had little insight about, but learned more about it through this course. “She’s pretty for a dark skinned girl”, “Light skins are winning” and “dark skins females look like burnt French toast”. These are a few examples I found while doing research, of what black men, say about their own black women in society. Not only do whites make blacks feel less, but individuals in the black community put each other down as well, by failing to realize being black is one. Being black should not have its own racism of light skin and dark skin.