“Dipped in chocolate, bronzed in elegance, enameled with grace, toasted with beauty.  My Lord, she’s a Black woman.”

Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan

Do you truly believe your Black is beautiful?

I hope this post finds all my family, friends and followers (and those who did a random internet search and landed here by mistake) chilling this summer and enjoying some long overdue fun in the sun with your loved ones. I know it’s been a minute since my last post, but alas, your girl is back in effect.  I’ve recently come back from a much needed vacation myself and had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful state of Florida this year with my family.  Anytime you spend a lot of time in the sun or on the beach, it’s natural for us ladies to develop a heightened sense of self-consciousness which seemed to confirm the need for this post.  Unless you’re gunning for a heat stroke, summer months require that more of our body be exposed and as is typical of many Black women, I’m working with more than my fair share of T & A.  I found myself concerned with stuff like whether all my Mother Africa hips would fit on the Harry Potter ride at Universal or if I dare go without a sports bra under my swimsuit and risk scarring small children on the beach with each big wave.

For Black women in particular, fun in the sun is not as straight-forward as it is for other women.  For us, spending time near the water not only means our bodacious figures are on display for admiration (and sometimes critique), but we must also contend with our hair. (See: Because I’m Nappy!)  Most Black women can’t just take a quick dip and let our hair air dry into perfect sun-kissed ringlets.  No ma’am, we must stand toe-to-toe with disobedient kinks that generally tend to rebel in the face of water threats.  And even tanning takes on new meaning for the woman of color.  Personally, I love the richer color that extra time in the sun affords, but I sadly know many Black women who shy away from the sun and verbalize their fear of “getting too black” during the summer months.  Though summer should be a time to relax and enjoy our natural world, it is also a reminder that there are indeed different standards of beauty that can make the pool, waterparks, and the beach intimidating places for those of us whose looks defy convention.

Now, all of this was already fresh on my mind when I returned home, but then I’m scrolling through my Facebook feed and came across an article involving Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones that drove my angst all the way home.

In the article, it explained that this beautiful and talented sister who has literally had me on my floor crying laughing while watching her comedy special Problem Child, had apparently fallen victim to the relentless hate of racist internet trolls.  She had to temporarily leave Twitter all together to stop the barrage of hateful attacks on her looks.  These idiots felt it justified to liken Ms. Jones’ looks to Harambe the Gorilla, a dog, or a man.  They attacked her weight by posing the question, ‘who you gonna call, Weight Watchers?’ though she is far from overweight.  Others went in for the kill and flat-out called her a “big lipped coon” or made graphic sexual references that played directly into the stereotype that Black women are grossly hypersexual and are somehow up for being ejaculated on by redneck pigs.  Prior to all of this, I found it equally disturbing that in a Hollywood where every fashion designer is eagerly chomping at the bit to dress the stars of every blockbuster film, Leslie Jones had no takers for the Ghostbusters premiere until she complained on social media and Project Runway champion Christian Siriano stepped up.  If a job and free publicity are up for grabs what exactly is the hesitation?  What are we as tall and/or fuller-figured Black women supposed to think about ourselves after the Leslie Jones snub?  Do these designers believe their gowns are too good to be wasted on the Black woman?   Would Leslie Jones make a top designer’s dress look bad and if so, why exactly?  I’ll wait…..

 

The inconvenient truth is that we as Black women are quick to proclaim that “Our Black is Beautiful” and “Black Girls Rock” because frankly, someone’s got to do it!  Society’s beauty standards do not applaud broad noses, wide hips, kinky hair, blackberry skin, big lips, thick thighs, and cornrows unless of course they’re on the Kardashians.  Even Beyonce’ proclaiming that she loves her “baby hair and afros” is sort of lost under the mountain of blonde extensions she opted to rock in her most pro-Black music video ever.  Keeping it gully, as far as the media goes, Blackish seems to be a lot more palatable than straight up Black.  Being “too Black” is generally a recipe for rejection as evidenced by the Leslie Jones Twitter travesty.  If you want to be considered a beautiful Black woman by mainstream standards then you better have AT LEAST one of the following though a combination of two or more is expected if you want folks to put some RESPECK on it:

1) “Good Hair”

2) Eyes that are Anything but Brown

3) Keen Features

4) Light Skin

5) Slender Physique with a Small Waist (but of course the big butt and boobs can stay)

Without these features, many sisters may be overlooked or outright rejected by family, childhood peers, and of course men who might even be clueless enough to admit their ignorance.  I’m thinking of rappers like A$AP Rocky who apparently doesn’t think dark-skinned women need to wear red lipstick or Consequence who says “light skin is the right skin.”  Lil Wayne once said that when it comes to beautiful Black women, “I bet that b***h look better red ” and Young Berg apparently “don’t like dark butts.”   Kevin Hart has joked that “light skinned women usually have better credit than these ‘broke ass dark hoes'” ( a myth that as a lighter-skinned woman, I can single-handedly debunk).  Will Smith was checking for the “honey with the light eyes” in his hit ‘Summertime’ and everybody (except the Black woman) was stunned when MSNBC’s Don Imus felt it appropriate to refer to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hoes.”  With so much hate for Black womens’ beauty, what are us nappy heads to do?  Well, you could take a page from rapper Little Kim’s playbook and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that you won’t be resigned to life as a broke down “dark butt” for long.

Get a Good Deal on Some Good Hair – If you are one of the unfortunate Black women who was born with 4C kinks that sadly don’t blow in the wind and shrink disrespectfully when wet, then just buy some.  What’s an extra $800 when some Malaysian woman was willing to sacrifice her precious dead ends so that you could achieve true beauty.  You could even take it a step further a dye it blonde.  Trust me, no one will be the wiser.