Black & Beauty

Usually when I hear the acronyms NPR, words like boring and stuffy automatically come to mind. I formed my opinion of NPR solely on my memories of being subjected to boring talk radio as a passenger in other people’s cars. I know, our memories are faulty and I can admit that I might have been wrong to form an opinion based on so little. The NPR that exists in reality is far from the one I carry in my memory bank. And, on the occasions when G sends me crazy links like this one, I think that it might be worth my time to check out the site more often and maybe even listen to some of the podcasts. If it produces articles that really makes me think then it can’t be all that boring, right?

No doubt, some of us have discussed the idea of what is considered beautiful, especially in black communities. And it is a known fact that women, especially, modify their appearance to fit an ideal of what is considered beautiful. So it really is no surprise that women in Jamaica (and other parts of the world) use skin bleach to try and lighten their appearances. I’m guessing those days where “black is beautiful” was the slogan that many lived by are far behind us. I personally believe that the many shades that we come in is part of what makes black so beautiful. Does any other race struggle as much as blacks do with the color of their skin? I sincerely doubt that. Unquestionably, some of this is shrouded in history where light was right and dark skin was likened to ugliness and all things bad. But we’ve made great strides since then. So why are we regressing?

The situation in Jamaica highlights just how willing some of us are to be lead. Back when a curvaceous figure was the thing, women were popping chicken pills despite the danger from poisoning attached to them. And now that that's changed, they're scrambling to remodel themselves. They cause damage to their skin in their attempts to be on the “right” side of color. They inject their faces to get that fresh look, and cut themselves apart to achieve the youthful figure that is supposed to be attractive to men. Just how far are we willing to go? Many of these beatification tactics list death as a potential side effect and still we continue. Is there nothing that we won’t do to meet someone else’s standard of beauty?