Essay On White Beauty

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Throughout history, Black women in the U.S have been challenged with the Western standards of beauty that negated any natural beauty of blackness. During slavery, blacks with Caucasian features such as light skin and straight hair often received preferable treatment (Neal & Wilson, 1989). This behavior continued after slavery within the African American community. Light skinned black men continue to obtain higher status positions, receive better opportunities and higher educational advantages (Neal & Wilson, 1989). This experience reinforced the importance of the White standard that sadly still exists today. Individuals are being evaluated based on physical characteristics in a society that assigned whiteness with intelligence, beauty and higher status, whereas dark skin and Afrocentric features became associated with lower status. This has triggered women to aspire to the white standard of beauty. White became associated with good features, such as straight long hair, a small nose and thin lips, while bad features were associated with black features (Neal & Wilson, 1989). The notio...

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