Beauty Construction in the African American Community
by
Jajuana Baker
AP English Literature and Composition
Ms. Gruber
December 9, 2011
Final Draft
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There was a girl named Sue who lived in the deep, harsh reality of the ghetto. She had
skin that was dark as coal and as smooth as Shea butter. She was born blacker than she wanted to
be, and as many would say, “too black to be sexy.” She was taunted most of her life because of
her dark complexion that was unappealing to society. Ravaged by insecurity and low selfesteem, she applied a crude skin-lightening mixture to her face, the ingredients of which were no
better than household cleaning products. As her skin drank all of the harsh chemicals, the
privileges of whiteness that she so much desired worn away with her pigment as the fatal cream
was slaughtering her softly. Soon after, she was lightly and soullessly tanned, with skin so pale
that one could see through her, but she was also dead. In the African American community,
beauty is constructed in a negative way because society has enhanced the perception that African
features are not beautiful. Therefore, many of them go to the extreme to convert to society’s
Eurocentric beauty standard.
Before African slavery even occurred, blacks were looked upon as a defect in Europe. In
Ben Arogundade’s book titled Black Beauty: A History and Celebration he explains how the
word black is synonymous with derogatory terms when he states, “European folklore is littered
with derogatory references to blackness, both of color and a state of being. Greek legend has it
that Phaeton's chariot had drawn the sun too close to earth and that the heat blackened the faces
of Ethiopians, while Oliver Goldsmith described blacks as the "gloomy race of mankind."
Religious folklore spoke of sin turning men black; there were stories of black races born in hell,
and Ormazd and Ahriman - the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness” (1). From this
quote, one could conclude that the word black is usually associated with evil or something bad or
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disliked, therefore, the skin of dark African Americans or people of African descent are seen as a
defect.
The color of one’s skin, and their type of hair texture often had a correspondence with a
hierarchy. In this revealing book, Arogundade also renders how skin tone and hair texture had a
certain value when he affirms, “Lightness acquired a value that effectively relegated the
physiognomic components considered most African- i.e. darkness of skin, ethnic features and
Afrohair- to a lower beauty rating” (20). Being light skinned is seen as a valuable gift opposed to
being dark which is look at as an imperfection.
The center of this issue has emerged from slavery and worked its way into the media.
Susannah Walker delivers a message of where this standard of beauty may have come from in
her book Style And Status Selling Beauty to African American Women when she states, “The
narrow range of "types of racial beauty" represented in African American beauty culture
advertising and other popular media during the 1920s and 1930s reveals tensions over class and
color in black society. Historians who have written on the subject observe that color has been an
emotional and divisive issue in black communities since slavery but it became particularly
prominent after emancipation” (82). The complex histories which result in European hair, or
fairer skin, being associated with beauty can’t be reduced to a psychological decision made by
someone. These are prejudiced perceptions that have been shaped by hundreds of years of
conditioning.
African American women’s features were portrayed as unattractive and an error that
needed to be fixed through many product advertisements as early as the 1920s. In a 1933
advertisement for Plough’s Black and White hair products declared, “Ugly Stubborn Hair
Quickly Changes to Beautiful Easy-to-Dress Hair” (68). Advertisements like these often led to
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African American women becoming insecure about their natural hair, so in order to fit into
society’s perception of beauty, many of these women converted to the European look by relaxing
their hair which was thought to be more acceptable.
Black advertisements also began to convince their African American customers that
lightening one’s skin was a correction. Walker also talks about the history of African American
beauty when she proclaims, “Overwhelmingly, skin bleach advertisements connected light skin
with femininity, beauty, and romantic success. That these products were sold to eliminate various
skin blemishes as well as lighten skin does not indicate an attempt to justify the sale of the
bleaching creams or an ad-mission that there was anything wrong with trying to change one's
skin color” (109). During these times, African Americans were emerging to think that the color
of their skin was a defect and to brighten it was more preferred. Therefore, they didn’t think that
there was anything wrong with "fixing" their skin.
Blacks were looked upon as people filled with blemishes. In Walker’s book, she also
states, “Whereas white-owned companies often described African American hair and skin color
in derogatory ways, assuming that darker skin and kinky hair were defects that needed to be
"fixed", black-owned companies strove to counter negative images of African American
women's appearance and to glorify black womanhood” (42).This shows that there were some
black-owned companies that didn’t indulge into the Eurocentric beauty standard and actually
tried to take those negatives images, and use them to exemplify the beauty of black women.
The color hierarchy within the African American community is often related to a
person’s success. Walker concludes that women of lighter skin are more likely to be successful
when she states, “In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the white preference for more
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Caucasian features when hiring African Americans perpetuated certain economic advantages for
mulattos. Furthermore, as historian Willard B. Gatewood points out, mulatto elites of urban
black society sought to use color as a device to exclude new, working-class migrants to the cities.
Although color was by no means the only factor for determining African American social status,
it was always part of the equation” (83). Simply based off of one’s complexion, they were
guaranteed to have more success than that of a darker person. One could conclude that light
skinned African Americans were looked at as superior because they were closer to the fair skin
of Europeans.
Indeed, there was a huge link between one’s skin color and hair texture and economic
success. In a newsletter from The New York Times titled “The Self Stays Strong Amid Shades Of
Prejudice,” the author states, “The only moment in American history when that white-oriented
color consciousness among blacks seemed to be crumbling, the film says, was in the 1960's when
the black-consciousness movement, with its slogan "black is beautiful," prompted millions to
adopt the Afro hairstyle. For Ms. Sandler, the white reaction against that movement is
symbolized by the pressure brought against a television anchor, Melba Tolliver, who risked
losing her job for wearing an Afro.” This shows that an afro was okay to be worn during the
"Black is Beautiful" movement. However, once you got into the corporate world the African
heritage look was shunned.
Arogundade gives a scenario of how beauty is linked to success when he states, “Women
could show that they were "down with the cause" while simultaneously retaining the option of
keeping their straightened hair, out of sight underneath. Black models were told by their agencies
that their own hair had to be straight, and that if they wanted to be "black" they had to carry an
Afro wig in their bags and wear it when they were off-duty. This incensed the model Pat Evans
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when she tried to join an agency in 1966. "I got really mad about that, because all of my life it's
been good hair, bad hair, you know” (75). This shows that black women had the best of both
worlds which meant that they could be a model who has the European look by day or a political
African American woman with the African beauty look by night. However, one could infer that
those models who attempted to express their African pride during work were most likely fired or
penalized.
African American beauty was often associated with the perception of “wanting to look or
be white.” Arogundade shows this when he restated a quote from Civil rights leader that said,
"This was my first really big step toward self-degradation," he said, "when I endured all that
pain, literally burning my flesh with lye, in order to cook my natural hair until it was limp, to
have it look like a white man's hair. I had joined that multitude of Negro men and women in
America who are brainwashed into believing that black people are 'inferior' - and white people
'superior'" (54). Malcolm X is explaining how he once felt like he was disowning his race when
he converted to the popular “conk” hairstyle that most white men wore. He then explains how
converting to those European looks makes society’s perception one’s reality. If someone is told
that their skin and hair isn’t good enough, they begin to believe that.
Arogundade delivers more famous quotes of Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael on their
perspective of black beauty when he states, "Your nose is boss, your lips are thick, you are black
and you are beautiful. Can you begin to do it so that you are not ashamed of your hair?" Malcolm
X put it in stronger language when he accused black of self-hate. "We have been a people who
hated our African characteristics," he said. "We hated our heads, we hated the shape of our
noses...we hated the color of our skin, hated the blood of Africa that was in our veins...And we
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hated ourselves" (71). This quote uncovers the bigger picture of internalized racism which has
everything to do with "self-hate."
This matter wasn’t only controversial within the local African American community;
Civil Rights leaders also encountered some issues with society’s perception of beauty. This is
shown when Arogundade delivers the anecdote of the quarrel between two famous Civil rights
leaders about the issue of beauty. He writes, “Marcus Garvey famously fell out with the
renowned NAACP leader W.E.B. Du Bois. In a heated exchange the pair put politics aside and
donned their aesthetic boxing gloves in bout of "Black vs. Tan." In round one the lightly tanned
Du Bois described Garvey as "a little, fat black man, ugly, but with intelligent eyes and a big
head." In round two a darker skinned counterparts - retaliated by mocking Du Bois's light skin
tone and accusing him of wanting to be white. He also accused Du Bois of deliberately
populating the NAACP offices exclusively with light- skinned workers (34). This shows that the
issue of beauty was in reality skin deep. It had a relationship with one’s culture and even the
perception of wanting to be white.
However, there are other constructions of beauty that have worked to commend African
American beauty such as the “Black is Beautiful” movement during the 1960s. Walker states,
“The 1960s was the pivotal decade for black beauty, as it was for people of color across the
whole range of social, political, and economic spheres. The Civil Rights Movement spearheaded
a new drive for aesthetic self-determination, channeled through the rally cry of "Black is
Beautiful.” Against a back drop of R&B and soul, the era ushered in a new series of firsts for
black beauty (64). This was the start of a new era where black people could feel beautiful in their
own skin, hair texture and culture. The perception of African American beauty is evolving. In a
newspaper article by the Skinvoice Campaign, the author states, “Eighty-nine percent of
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respondents in the Vaseline Skinvoice survey say taking care of their skin is "very important." In
fact, African American women rank "skin" as "most important to them" (49%) above their hair,
figure, make- up and clothes. More than three quarters of the women surveyed (77%) report they
are happy with the color of their skin and never wished they could change it. In fact, when asked
what they love most about their skin, the number one response given was "its color." This
information is helpful because it's factual information meaning, statistics that actually reveal how
women feel about their skin. It's very ironic that women of color feel that the most important
characteristic about their skin is the color of it because it's a very controversial issue within the
black community.
As of today more is being done to let African American know that they’re beautiful. In a
thesis titled Emulated through Images: The Globalization of Misconstructed African American
Beauty and Hip-Hop Culture, Reddick Morgan who’s a current college student describes this. He
writes, “Advertisement campaigns are now using more Black celebrities such as Beyonce from
Destiny’s Child for L’Oreal and Erykah Badu in A Gap clothing campaign” (Gordon 3). Dr.
Melissa Stevenson notes that the acceptance by younger generations of the “natural you” is a
generational change that youth are using to create their own identity without having to conform
to the traditional confines of American Society. She like many others credits this self-identity
development to the genre of Hip-Hop culture (Mitchell 2001; Minus 2001).)” The Natural you
campaign is an organization of African American youth that work to promote the beauty of black
people. More people are emerging to counter the issue of African American beauty standards
including the youth. Thought this may be true, it still doesn’t exclude the fact that as of today,
more than forty percent of the African American population use skin bleachers and hair relaxers
to adapt to the Eurocentric beauty standard.
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In conclusion, society’s discernment that black is not beautiful has tarnished the minds,
and appearances of African Americans. They’ve gone through drastic measures just to fit into
society’s standard of beauty. Many of them do this because it’s clear that beauty is related to
economic and relationship success. The myth that the lighter your skin is or the more wavier or
straighter your hair is than the prettier you are has made many African American endure
internalized racism because they don’t feel like they belong. Many movements and organizations
have worked hard to enhance the idea that black is beautiful, but is it enough to eradicate
society’s perception of black beauty and the negative connotation behind it?
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Works Cited
Arogundade, Ben. Black Beauty a history and a celebration. London: Pavilion Books Ltd., 2000.
Print.
McAndrew, Malia. “Selling Black Beauty: African American Modeling Agencies and Charm
Schools in Postwar America.” Magazine of History 24.1 (2010): 29. CUIP. Web. 2 Nov.
2011. Race 17 May 2011: n. pag. CUIP. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <http://www.salon.com/
2011/05/17/psychology_today_racist_black_women_attractive/>.
Reddick-Morgan, Kerri A. Emulated through Images: The Globalization of Misconstructed
African American Beauty and Hip-Hop Culture. Diss. Georgia State University , 2004.
N.p.: n.p., n.d. Pro Quest. Web. 12 Dec. 2011.
“Review/Film; The Self Stays Strong Amid Shades Of Prejudice.” The New York Times 25 June
1993: n. pag. Gale Student Resource Center in Context. Web. 9 Dec. 2011.
NewsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=News&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=S
UIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CA174570954&
mode=view>.
Sekayi, Dia. “Aesthetic Resistance to Commercial Influences: the impact of the Eurocentric
beauty standard of black college women.” Journal of Negro Education 72.4 (2003): 46777. ProQuest Research Library Prep. Web. 7 Dec. 2011.