Argumentative Essay On Black Beauty

As stated above, African-American women have been subjected to measure themselves against white women. White women are viewed, in this society and since the beginning of the concept of race, as the epitome of beauty. Logically, African-American women attempt to emulate the white standard. This creates an inferiority complex, because the epitome of beauty is white woman, than any other race can be deemed as inferior; this deteriorates African-American women’s self-worth. To remedy worthlessness, many body modification techniques have been made to fully mimic white women in terms of beauty. This emulation still is being done and it is continuous, because of the psychological ‘white fantasization .

If a black woman had dark skin she would resemble a man, therefore making her ugly in society’s standards. This pressures black women to constantly be "compatible with the white female standard of beauty" (Ashe 580) in order to be socially accepted in society. Intuitively black women understood that in order to be considered desirable, the less black they had to look. This unfortunate perception of beauty stems from a long pattern of "sociohistorical racial injustices" (Bealer 312) towards darker skinned African Americans. Maria Racine states in her review that since slavery black people who approximated closer to whites were sexually sought after by black slave men and white plantation owners and were considered to live a somewhat "easy coexistence" because of their appearance (Racine 283). Since it’s start, colorism laid the pathway of racial prejudice towards dark skinned individuals. The result of treating dark African Americans as subhuman beings led to the altering of the black psyche by creating a "pervasive hierarchy" of beauty that black woman constantly combated or were forced to accept. (Bealer 312).

In the context of physical appearance, black woman are only featured with body parts- mainly their “large, rotund behind” (Perry 137). The presentation of the face is mainly limited to white or lighter-complexioned women. The highest idealization of women is one that possesses a “‘high-status’ face combined with a highly sexualized body read by the viewer as the body of a poor or working-class woman” (Perry 137). Perry further substantiates her claim by stating that “women are created or valued by how many fantasy elements have been pieced together in their bodies” (137). She debunks the opposition arguing that the bodies of black women are appreciated by pointing out that only a minority of black women have such attributes, and those without are pressured and struggle to achieve such proportions.

“The double jeopardy of being black and female in a racist and sexist society may well make one less afraid of the sanctions against success. A non-subservient black woman is by definition a transgressive - she is the ultimate outsider.” This quote was written by Mrs. Mamphela Ramphele, a South African politician, who identifies the pain and troubles of Black women. Black women for centuries have been treated unfairly and belittled by their race and sex. Black women are the outsiders of America. They are a minority inside a minority. Black women are mistreated by individuals of society in social media and the workplace.

Black women are always the leading role and image of negative identity. With the many amounts of stereotypes and verbal imagery, people will remain persuaded across the United States to believe such biased standards. They are persuaded to view Black women as characters in storytelling about incapable gender, race, and social class. Being slandered by the same oppressors who statistically rates them highest amongst all other races of women, also strips them morals, worth, and labels Black women destined for drug-abuse and incarceration.

Gerald Early, the author of the essay Life with Daughters, describes the hardships of being African American especially when trying to raise two daughters who don’t believe they are beautiful . Early’s purpose is to inform the reader of all the difficulties that black girls face growing up in a society who has defined beauty with the image of a white, skinny blonde. He adopts a bitter tone in order to point out all of the difficulties these girls face in order to appeal to similar feelings and experiences of other African American girls their parents.

n 1619 a Dutch ship brought 20 slaves to America and it took nearly 240 years for slavery to end in 1865. In the absence of rights or freedom, my ancestors were put to work growing anything from cotton to tobacco. For centuries, my people fought for equality. Although we are “free” the fight has still remain. As a black women raised in America, I was hit with some harsh realities at a very young age.

The State House in Atlanta, Georgia was very busy, lots of people coming and going. They were there to meet with Parliament members and the Prime Minister. After the event there was a lot of upheaval and chaos in the former southern states. Quite a few people, primarily activists of various origins, mostly race related, didn’t see the night the lights went out as the end-of-the-world, like many people did. They saw it as a new beginning, an opportunity to redefine their world, to escape the shackles they believed that held them back previously.

Can you imagine living in a world in which your beauty is not seen as beauty at all? Many black women wake up to this reality every morning. Living the life of an African American female is difficult because you do not fit into the Eurocentric paradigm in which you are forced to be reminded of daily. Media shows us as a people who we are and how we are supposed to be. Media affects black women in a negative way because it portrays black women in a negative way.

Back in the early 1800’s, the color of one’s skin mattered amongst African Americans and Caucasian people. There was infidelity between the Caucasian slave owners and the African American slaves. Of course, the outcome of that produced a fairer toned child. In most cases the child could pass as white. The mixed toned kids got to be inside doing housework, while the dark Negroes worked in the fields, under extraneous work conditions,”their dark-toned peers toiled in the fields”(Maxwell). From the early 1800’s to modern day, there is controversy that light or bi-racial African Americans are better than dark colored African Americans. African Americans had to go through tests to see if they were able to receive priviledges

Not only was I seen as lesser because I was black, but my darker than most skin left me vulnerable to the torment of others. Throughout high school, everywhere I would look; social media, television, magazines, and film, I would see dark-skin women being represented as lesser beings. In entertainment we were always the characters that were aggressive, high-tempered, “ghetto”, sassy, uneducated, ugly, and the list goes on whereas light-skin women were put on a pedestal. It made it seem that if you weren’t mixed, you were automatically not worth anyones time or effort. The representation of dark-skin women presents us in a permanently negative light and destroys the self esteem of thousands of young girls. When I was young, I always told by my classmates “you would be pretty if you weren’t so dark.” This was extremely detrimental to my self confidence as a young girl and led to the festering of insecurities I still haven’t completely recovered from today. As a society, we need to work towards presenting dark-skin and light-skin women in a more equal

In recent years, historians and scholars, specifically Susannah Walker, Noliwe Rooks, and Amoaba Gooden, have begun to assiduously examine African American beauty culture from a racial and gender perspective. Accordingly, these historians and scholars now suggest that African American beauty culture was profoundly influenced by the racial and gender politics of the early twentieth-century time period. For example, in her book titled Style & Status: Selling Beauty to African American Women, 1920-1975, historian Susannah Walker asserts that African American beauty culture was distinctly unique from other forms of beauty culture because it “explicitly reflected and articulated twentieth-century racial politics in the United States.” Similarly, Amoaba Gooden, a pan-African studies professor at Kent State University, surmises that racialized notions of feminine

Many black girls go thru social identity issues on a daily basis. Skin color has created division even within black people because fairer skin tones are highly praised in the Negro community. Discrimination is used everywhere against black girls with a deeper skin pigment per example, makeup brands neglect the commercialization of darker shades of foundation, hair products for women of color

As a darker-skinned African-American, I am told every day that my shade of color is not beautiful in society. Social institutions such as my peers (classmates and sometimes friends), school, media, etc. have all had some influence on my perceptions on what is/is not beautiful. There is a lack of diversity in film, T.V. shows, music videos, music, social media apps, etc. If there is a black woman publicized she is of lighter skin, sexualized, and exhibits European features. Globally, there is a

Throughout many decades, African American women have been able to set their own standards of beauty. Lonnae Parker, a writer for The Washington Post, states in her article Black women heavier and happier with their bodies than white women, poll finds, that “Freed from that high-powered media gaze, generations of black women have fashioned their own definitions of beauty with major assists from literature, music, and help from their friends” (Parker, 2012). The importance of this quote is that they were getting help from their culture, the music and literature is essentially the culture that helped them to define their own standards of beauty. By being isolated