Media on Shades of Beauty!
There are several shades of beauty in this world of ours. From the palest of the pale to the darkest of the dark, which all doesn’t matter because we weren’t made to be the same. Each skin tone provides it’s own beauty. The shades run different no matter what ethnicity you are. Every White person isn’t pale and every Black person isn’t dark-skinned. Loving the skin you’re in begins when you accept yourself and your heritage attributes. I have collected five readings that indicate skin barriers and self-acceptance among Black Americans.
In the first reading I chose which is “Who’s the Fairest of Them All.” According to Nelson (2009). The Fairest of them All. In Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology (5th ed., pp. 136-140) discussed that how issues she faced as a young black female growing up are still in dominance today among the black community. Those issues are the trinity of hair, body, and complexion. Nelson expressed that to black women the images of society creates a statement that we genetically lack the fundamental element of desirability among all ethnic groups. Black women used to embrace their natural hair, until it was ridiculed and seen as unacceptable in society. Then came along a long line of hair products to help infiltrate a more Caucasian societal look.
My next two readings are scholarly articles I found while on the internet. The first reading is “Skin Tone and Stratification in the Black Community, by Verna M. Keith and Cedric Herring.” This article really goes in-depth about how skin complexion in the black community is really a factor in social and economic stratification patterns in the black community. By using skin complexion to control slaves, enforcing societal views among them making slaves of pure African ancestry feel less of themselves because they didn't have a “light skin complexion.”
They showed slaves of mixed ancestry more empathy as well as more attention. Slave owners, or as well as the white community felt blacks with white ancestry were more superior than the blacks who didn't. Through research they found out lighter blacks are more educated, had higher statuses, and were more likely to live an ideal white lifestyle. This indication that lighter the skin the better you are in society has been around for a very long time within the heart of the black community. It has shaped many personalities and made us envious within our own culture.
The second scholarly article is called “The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order,” by Jennifer L. Hochschild and Vesla Weaver. This article was about the skin color within society and how it works within our workforce. Both authors really touched on the fact that race tends to play a part in everything from status, to marriage, to even the type of punishments one receives in the justice system. They expressed how blacks of darker complexion face even more barriers when it comes to success and happiness compared to others in the culture. They receive less of everything and is at the bottom of every list, because their features aren't ideal and appealing to most. It's not embraced as beauty because it's far to different from the norm and there are very few darker representatives anywhere to even try to grow. Darker African Americans face many obstacles trying to live a life in America as well as fell insufficient and inferior to the society as a whole.
While surfacing around the topic of division among skin-tone I would like to talk about a letter “The Making of a Slave.” written by a man named William Lynch (a vicious slave owner from the West Indies) which I happen to have read in my sophomore year in High school. The letter was written to American slave owners who couldn’t keep their slaves intact. He built a systemic strategy that is based upon using fear, distrust, and envy for control purposes. He outlined several differences among blacks in their features and how he could use it to turn them against other and appeal to the white man. Lynch wanted to keep the slaves strong but make them psychologically weak. The method is simple keep the body take the mind. Divide them by complexion to make them envious of one another, light-skin being closest to white, house slaves, and dark-skin are field slaves. Treat others with more empathy than others, but keeping in mind all still slaves. He implicated that his plan could prevail for 300 years or more, which is true the division among the black community upon skin color, and envy still reigns upon us.
Lastly my next reading differs from the previous ones because it’s about a community who doesn’t place images on beauty. Silko, (2009). Yellow Woman & a Beauty of the Spirit. In Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology(5th ed., pp. 201-203), talks about beauty but from a Laguna Pueblo person’s perspective. The Pueblo way of thinking was how all of mankind should think. They felt the comparison of two people was foolish and rude because each being is unique, so there shouldn’t be room for comparison. She talked about how in her community no one wanted to be like anyone else because it’s praised and seen as a blessing to be different. She stated that in her community there where no gender roles everything and everyone was accepted.
I have discussed societal issues that lie behind one’s skin complexion and how a person who appears really dark in skin tone is ridiculed and unaccepted by peers. I have faced my own insecurities about my complexion but I learned to love myself through reading and reevaluation beauty for myself. Again loving the skin you’re in begins when you accept yourself and your heritage attributes. The fact that in society we have defined beauty is where it all went wrong.
