When I was younger, I remember always idolizing some character I watched on television and they all had one common theme: they were white. Blossom from the Powerpuff Girls, Kim Possible, Hannah Montana, these characters were just a few examples of the girls I looked up to and aspired to be. Every Halloween, I would dress up like the character I was currently obsessed with and every year I felt very odd in my costume. Despite my efforts, I just didn’t look like them. I always got upset over this fact and hated my dark skin and hair for it. Instead of questioning why all of my favorite leading ladies were white, I deeply wished I was white so that I could look like them. Before I was even a teen, I adapted this mindset of lighter skin being beautiful …show more content…
Light-skinned women are predominantly featured in media as the beautiful, successful leads which result in an internalized racism within dark-skinned girls. This just furthers the stipulation that light-skinned people are better and more desirable. This leads to many dark-skinned girls never feeling comfortable in their own skin and taking part in dangerous practices such as skin lightening as a desperate attempt to fit in. Dark Girls, a documentary Sanchez 2 directed by D. Channsin Berry and Bill Duke, addresses these issues stemmed from colorism and the impact it has on women.
As I touched on in the first paragraph, determining what we think is beautiful starts at an early age. In Dark Girls, Viola Davis, an African American actor, recalls “never seeing any examples on television or in film of anyone associated with beauty...that looked like me.” (00:08:07-00:08:17) Like Viola, many have noticed the lack of black
…show more content…
Children need to learn at a young age how to have race pride and parents need to love them unconditionally regardless of what their skin color is. Many argue that colorism and racism no longer exist, although they have decreased a lot, this is simply not the case. You cannot deny colorism when millions of girls look at the TV screen and see people who look nothing like them. You cannot deny colorism when billions are being spent on skin lightening creams and treatments. You cannot deny colorism when so many women hear men say they would never date a dark girl. Yes, more black actors are being hired and more beauty campaigns are highlighting black beauty, but that is not where it stops. We need to continue progressing until we reach somewhat equal representation break away from eurocentric standards of
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
‘For Colored Girls’ directed by Tyler Perry is an adaptation of a Tony Award nominated choreopoem written by Ntozake Shange. Clint O’Conner a reviewer for the Plain Dealer writes about Tyler Perry, “He has taken Ntozake Shange’s 1974 choreopoem ‘For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf’ and both condensed and expanded it into a big-screen extravaganza assessing the black female experience in America” (O'Connor 1). ‘For Colored Girls’ is an emotionally charged drama about the struggles facing the modern-day black women finding their voice in America. This master piece with an all-star cast of African-American women will be talked about for years to come. Tyler Perry is at his finest and the ensemble of African-American actresses that he has brought together to portray Ms. Shange’s original cast is amazing. I agree with Peter Debruge when he speaks about Mr. Perry’s work, “ In adapting Ntozake Shange's Tony-nominated play -- a cycle of poetic monologues about abuse, abortion and other issues facing modern black women, rather than a traditional narrative -- the do-it-all auteur demonstrates an ambition beyond any of his previous work” (Debruge 1). Tyler Perry’s film tackles every issue from rape to post traumatic stress disorder with a rhythmic flare that honors the original work by Ms. Shange.
As time goes on, people have gone to great lengths to try to improve relations with blacks, and to fix the errors of the past. Laws have been made to try to give African Americans the same opportunities as whites, but as hard as people try, there is always going to be some ignorant people who will not obey these laws and make no efforts to be friends with them. If parents teach their children at young ages about racism, there might be a chance for the upcoming generations to live in a society where people are not judged by the color of their skin.
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
Ruiz, Delia. Women of Color in Modern Society. New York, NY: Harper and Row Press,
The ideal female beauty in American culture is predominately white (Bankhead & Johnson, 2014). Throughout U.S history, women’s mainstream beauty ideal has been historically based on white standards such as having blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skin, a thin ideal body, straight hair, and thin lips (West, 1995; Yamamiya, Cash, Melynk, Posavac, & Posavac, 2005; Leslie, 1995). Therefore, the features of African American women tend to be viewed as undesirable and unattractive compared to the European standards of beauty (Awad, Norwood, Taylor, Martinez, McClain, Jones, Holman, & Hilliard, 2014). According to Ashe (1995), “African beauty, body and hair have been racialized, with slim/”keen” European features being the accepted standard of beauty since enslaved Africans was forcefully brought to the Americas.” The physical characteristics of Black women such as having broad noses, brown skin, full lips, large buttocks and course hair has been looked down upon throughout United States history (Byrd & Tharps, 2001). In effect, the standard of beauty of European features that were forced on slaves are internalized and currently seen in the standard of beauty of African Americans (A.A) (Chapman, 2007). These standards include African Americans perceiving light-skinned as being more favorable than dark-skinned (Maddox & Gray, 2002; Perdue, Young, Balam,
Over the past 150 years people have changed. The human ways have changed. In the 1800’s anyone who was not “white” was considered not worthy or unequal to the “white” race. Now everyone in the United States is to be treated equal and they are all given equal rights. With each generation, kids are being taught not to see color, but to see everyone as humans just like they are. People’s human nature on how to act on these things have changed.
...nd attractive. It creates a double consciousness that is difficult to reconcile. Carla Williams argues that “given the legacy of images created of black women… it is an especially complex task for contemporary black women to define their own image, one that necessarily both incorporates and subverts the stereotypes, myths, facts and fantasies that have preceded them. (Wallace-Sanders et.al, 196) The root of the problem lies within our society. While very culpable, mainstream music and advertisements are not the only promoters of female objectification; the key is unwinding the inner tensions between these two groups. There is a need for the promotion of female solidarity, regardless of their skin color. We need to rid society of the evil of racism—only then will conceptions surrounding African Americans parallel and be as positive as those surrounding white women.
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.
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 of racism within the same race. In the black community, it is said that if a person has a lighter skin complexion, then they are superior to those with a darker skin complexion.
It is unfortunate that we live in a society that places such a great emphasis and consideration towards the aesthetics of beauty. What is more unfortunate is that beauty itself is not defined by any realistic qualities or pragmatics. Rather it is defined by society and what the particular or dominant class in society feels beauty is. In today’s society in order for a woman to be looked at as beautiful she must posses a combination of qualities, such as, a slim body, straight hair, fair skinned, full lips, straight sort of raised nose and so on. In the society that the Breedloves lived in, beauty had a lot to do with racism and the dominant class that influenced it. To be a woman of beauty in that society you had to be blond hair, blue eyed and fair skinned. If you couldn’t exactly look like that the closer you came to it the better you were viewed. You also had to behave in a certain manner i.e. well groomed, soft spoken, and have high morals. In other words you had to look like a stereo typical European and for colored women loose all the funky things that made them who they were: “The careful development of thrift, patience, high ...
Skin complexion is a physical feature of an individual that cannot be changed. For example, Emma is very unsatisfied with her skin complexion and she internalizes her pain very deeply. She feels she could escape the pain she experiences at home, school, and in her neighborhood if she finds a way to lighten her skin. As a result, Emma uses products such as cream and ointment to bleach her skin in hopes of having a lighter skin complexion. However, she is unsuccessful with lightening her skin and continues to encounter negative experiences of discrimination. Skin color is different than other physical features such as hair which can be straightened, curled, or styled in a variety of ways. The reasoning behind Emma’s motives for lightening her skin is the perception and value of lighter skin in
Black is beautiful. Skinny is beautiful. A lack of knowledge is beautiful. The world that we live in is indulged with the concept of what people find beautiful. From the color of skin to the idea of what weight is the most attractive, we have taught ourselves to judge others based upon what we believe is ideal. This concept varies across the world, as is discussed within the novel Scheherazade Goes West, as well as within different upbringings and cultures, as discussed in Adios Barbie.
It shouldn’t matter what you look like or where you are you from. You have to think of something positive to do and make fun of it in a good way. Show people that you aren’t turned down by what they say and do to you. For example, I read an article about a young dark skinned man who kidnapped, raped and murdered a young light skinned woman and thought he could get away with it because he had the most expensive lawyer that his parent provided him and he always thought that he could keep getting off the hook, but after a while, after his parents didn’t have enough money to afford the lawyer, the lawyer didn’t care what happened to him at all. So after some time, he was charged with first degree murder, arson, kidnapping, and rape of a young light skinned woman. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Tracy E. Ore (October 7,
Introduction The movie I have chosen for this assignment is “The Color Purple.” In this film, we follow the story of a young black woman, Celie, as she endures racial profiling and gender expectations during the early nineteen hundreds. This is a film, based off a novel written by Alice Walker, that portrays not only the oppression of one group, but also three (women, blacks, and black women). I have seen the workings of status, gender stereotypes, body image, and sexuality within this film as I watched this woman mature in mind as well as spirit. Movie Summary Raised in an abusive household with her mother and stepfather, Celie gives birth to two children fathered by her stepfather and each is taken away from her soon after their births.