Colorism And Colorism

Great Essays
The essay Life with Daughters: Watching the Miss America Pageant spark an insight into black beauty in a white dominated world. Throughout black history women have been subjected to thoughts that their bodies were inferior. Many African American women do not feel comfortable with their hair or color of their bodies because of the upward battle they face to try to fit into society’s standards of straight hair and light skinned women. We see from the day Europeans arrived in Africa they tried to restrain and erase the essence of beauty in African culture, leaving behind remnants of racism that eventually morphed into colorism. This paper will explore the psychological impact of colorism in the social and economic aspect of African American women’s …show more content…
“Walker 's beauty empire, therefore, not only contributed to higher self-esteem among the Black community, but also created a new job industry for those who attended her beauty schools” (Patton). This sentiment was also echoed in the essay when discussing Early’s daughter Linnet’s hair. Throughout grade school Linnet wore his hair unstraightened in braids. Her mother refused to have her straightened at that age, even though Linnet desired a different hairstyle. In the essay, Early reasoning for his daughter’s desire to change hairstyle was not for cosmetic reasons, but rather a desire, “To be like everyone else” (Early …show more content…
Dr. Kenneth Clark conducted a study that was intergral in striking down the ideology of separate but equal in the 1954 Supreme Court Case Brown vs. Board of Education. The lack of positive views of black people in the media and other public spheres can have a profound impact of the self-esteem of a child, “Colorism causes collateral damage beyond its effects on the child with darker pigmentation. Often lighter skinned children attempt to assert and prove their "blackness" by assuming negative stereotypes and trying to prove themselves by being overly aggressive (this is often a response to being the target of bullying by their peers). This bullying completes the cycle of abuse as darker children project their underlying feelings of anger towards these lighter skinned children in an effort to punish them for their perceived "birth rite" of an easier life.” In the essay the author George Early and his wife made it a mainstay of their family that their daughter had black dolls to play with. This gave their daughter a heightened sense of pride in their skin color because they see it emulated in an everyday object they use. The girls may not even ever notice the impact that having black dolls will have in their

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