The And Consumption Of Skin Lighteners By Evelyn Nakano Glenn

Black women’s exclusion from the Eurocentric beauty standards as a conscious effort to suppress the sociopolitical and economic power of black women, fat black women in particular, reveals a greater truth of the role of beauty in society. Beauty is the most overlooked symbol and source of power and is perhaps the most consequential and dangerous, because of its profound political, social, and economic implications. Because beauty is power, both as a manifestation and a source of power, the creation and maintenance of Eurocentric beauty standards, which continue to exclude fat black women, function as a means to keep this subset of citizens from achieving advancing in any of these areas. Beauty has the power to include and exclude, not just within the confines of beauty, but in broader society as well. For example, one’s physical appearance can have a profound effect on who chooses to interact with them. A person more conventionally attractive, according to Eurocentric beauty

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).

White companies and white faces with white products…white. With the population of America containing thirty-seven million African and African-Americans, racism is not only discriminatory but also is socially submerged within the terms of “beauty” (Bureau of labor statistics). Women in history have been seen as inferior to men; now, in the twenty-first century, women have been subcategorized in racial boundaries including color being the most prominent divider. As the famous Shakespeare said, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” In most 21st century companies the owners of major cosmetic brands such as Too Faced and Benefit are owned and founded by white individuals, which makes sense because the promotional models are mostly white.

According to McIntosh’s suggestion, “we should acknowledge enormous unseen dimensions, talk about the obliviousness advantages, and raise our daily awareness on the perquisites of being light-skinned.” McIntosh’s approaches are characterized as reasonable to resolve the issue. By listing down every advantage she takes for granted, she is raising awareness in the society. By

Dina Gerdeman’s article discusses how the cosmetic industry in India has created a stereotype in which individuals with lighter skin tones are more acceptable and successful in comparison to those with darker skin tones. The media has portrayed this image persistently despite social activists arguing against the implications. Even though many campaigns have been created to combat this stereotype, the March 2016 case author of “Fair & Lovely vs. Dark is Beautiful,” Rohit Deshpande says, “…if you look at whether it’s done anything to affect the sales of the product category, the answer is no. This is a big market by any standards, and it’s growing exponentially” (para. 12). By the cosmetic industry’s perspective, “The government

As the research continues it becomes ever more important to discuss how exactly the differing pigmentation of one race of people actually occurs, because I feel that it has an effect on the way colorism is handled throughout the African American community. There are two ways in which a person of African descent can be of a lighter complexion; the first being amalgamation, which is the coming together of both the black and white races and reproducing to make a mulatto or mixed race child and the second is the use of cosmetic creams in attempt to bleach one’s skin until they too appear mulatto (Dorman 48). This is relevant because, it shows the extremes that people are willing to go to reach the highest plateau of social acceptance. Many of these creams were painful acidic chemicals slowly burning away the pigmentation as people slept, while others were considered mild abrasive materials used to “gently” scrape away dark pigments (Dorman

High minority male imprisonment contributes to high minority child poverty several years later. There are two main mechanisms for this. The first is lower family earnings, especially in two –parent household with little to no education. Poverty poses a serious challenge to a child's ability to succeed in school. Research has suggested that living in poverty in the early childhood years can lead to lower rates of school completion (Brooks-Gunn and Duncan, 1997). Further, growing up in poverty can negatively affect a child's physical health as well as his or her working memory, due to the chronic psychological stress of living in poverty (Evans and Schamberg 2009). According to Brooks Gunn and Duncan, some 18 percent of minority children under age 18 were living in poverty. The percentage of these minority children living in poverty ranged from 5 to 52 percent depending on race/ethnicity and living arrangement.

Within the inner cities of America, it appears the ages of most parents in the inner cities are becoming younger and younger. With nearly 40% of Black men incarcerated, the women-to-men ratio is unbalanced (Bureau of Prisons, 2012). According to the 2010 Census, Black single mothers with children account for a staggering seventy percent of households within urban cities. These mothers are far more likely than married mothers to be poor, relying on governmental assistance, with no father figure to help raise their children to be upstanding citizens in society. “Even after a post-welfare-reform decline in child poverty, they are also more likely to pass that poverty on to their children” (Hymowitz, 2005).

Growing up, my family lived in a inner-city, working-class neighborhood. While my neighborhood had its many issues, it was still a safe and supportive place in which to grow up because I was surrounded by others who looked like me. However, in

For low-income students and minorities, their upbringing and their current socioeconomic status can and will factor into their perseverance and motivation due to the structural barriers they possess. Students’ of low-income families often come from working class homes who help their child to understand what their unavailability to balance work and go to school might be. Often times for minority and low-income students’ they reach an age (often times being the age of 18) in which they have to decide which path they will decide to take, take on work and go to school often times to support the family, or work full-time with the possibility of “growing within their work” with the basic knowledge they acquire once they graduate high school (assuming they do). The Los Angeles Youth is subdivided between the rich and the

Although African Americans make up merely fourteen percent of the U.S. population, thirty-seven percent of people who are homeless are African Americans. Forty-two percent of African American children are educated in all high-poverty schools. In 2012, the mean critical reading SAT score for college accepted students was 428 for African Americans and 527 for whites. For mathematics, it was 428 for African Americans and 536 for whites. For writing it was 417 for African Americans and 515 for whites (National Center for Educational Statistics). These staggering data manage to encompass just a few of the issues that are prevalent among African Americans in the United States. However, people may find themselves wondering how these figures came to be; who is responsible and what can be done? Many will begin turning to stereotypes for justification of this issue: African Americans are lazy, African Americans are criminals, African Americans are indifferent towards education. Indeed, that shallow assumption can be made made based on sole observation, but further research unveils an extraordinarily different conclusion. In order to understand this, one must dig deep into the history books and study the turbulent past of African Americans. Doing so, I was able to form a deduction that shows the origin of so many issues that the African American community is pressed with. African Americans experience the ramifications of their pasts everyday through the effects of denied access to

Beauty is skin deep but that’s only in theory especially when living in such a vanity obsessed society. The back history on the vision of beauty has so much turmoil and anguish attached to the word, it seems contradicting. This essay will delve into the depths of the foundation and perpetuating controversies around the standards of beauty drawing most of the attention to skin color, specifically in the North American and South American regions (primarily Brazil). Furthermore, this article will give insight on colorism and the impact it has had on ‘post-racial’ theories that have developed today, as well the deeming of ‘racial democracy’ for both continents.

Colors have a secret power that socially guarantees a better life. A human’s skin color can be a variety from darkest brown to the lightest pinkish-white. Even though all of us are human, the colors make the differences between us. White people are always above black people in society; typically the benefits are given to the white people. As a result, black women started to use skin-lighting creams to have a better life. Limited independence, limited opportunities, and limited privilege affect black women’s abilities to have social status.

Throughout history, people have learned in schools that racism became a predominant concept that dated back in the 1600s. The Native Americans were slowly being swept away and stripped off their land by European settlers. In God’s name, the Europeans justified their actions to further eliminate the natives. Eventually, labor costs increased and settlers began to enslave people, especially African Americans. As time progresses, things began to change as slavery was abolished during Lincoln's presidency. However, the attitude of the West towards non whites have been coarse. Though it is not as evident today, the ideology that a color is far more superior than other still exist. An advertisement by Nadinola promotes a bleaching cream in which they utilize African American actors. In the middle, an African American women is portrayed in the middle smiling with lipstick on and on her left side, it is an African American man that admires and adores her. Underneath this image, is text that advocates for the benefit of this bleaching cream.

“You would look so much prettier with your hair straight!” is a comment my sister of mixed descent has been receiving from her classmates since childhood. Straight hair is a Eurocentric beauty standard that has been pushed onto my lighter skinned sister for most of her life. I am of a darker complexion however and therefore am complimented often on my naturally curly hair. This leads to the question; do black beauty standards differ from white ones? The answer to this query is explored in Maxine Craig’s work Ain’t I a Beauty Queen? She claims that in many regards, though not all, the answer is yes. While Craig does a good job of defining the historical moments that lead to black beauty standards today, she lacks an explanation as to why darker skin tones are stigmatized the way they are and neither does she factor in how many people consider personality when determining beauty.