Growing up during black history month, I was imbued with a tremendous sense of pride as I reflected on the lives of Black people. I was astonished by all the wonderful accomplishments of a people who, although burdened by the cancer of racism and inequality still managed to defy the odds against them and not only survive but also excel. I particularly enjoyed the innumerable successes of black women who were often times the beneficiaries of not only racist sentiment but also sexist disdain. While sitting in elementary school classrooms, I would often daydream and look at the weathered and misshapen pictures of Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Fannie Lou Hammer and Bessie Smith plastered haphazardly across the top of the blackboard. I realized that these were the unvarnished portraits of strength that often times went unnoticed and unsung throughout the course of American history. While they were sterling examples of integrity and courage in the face of tremendous odds, they were not necessarily beauty queens. They were not the glamorous or well-celebrated vixens that normally graced the covers of various magazines but rather reserved for the trash bins of historical obscurity. This especially became noticeable during middle school Halloween festivities as no young girl in my class wanted to dress up as these women. They wanted to be Barbie, Princess Jasmine, sexy nurse, vampress or some other contemporary Contessa. Nobody wanted to be Rosa Parks or Althea Gibson. I guess it took too much work to dress up as a black woman or better yet, they were already Black girls who knew about their tainted inheritance and the legacy of adversity encoded in their blood since birth. I guess most opted to escape into the realm of easy fantasy than be reminded of the harsh reality of being a black woman in an anti-black country.
Sadly, the underlying zeitgeist of our society is one that is anti-black and anti-woman. We still see black female beauty as mythological as opposed to actual. Despite much evidence to the contrary, we operate under the erroneous belief that black women are not sexy but rather the veterans of relentless struggle and strain. Because of this, Black women have been perceived as the poster children for hardship. Such lopsided perception perpetuates the legacy/ trope of the lonely black women. While there have been efforts to overturn this belief, there is still much work to be done in this area as our beliefs have not caught up to the new modes of thinking that are currently being established today.
One possible reason why black women have been perceived as the face of hardship is the inordinate portrayal of Black women throughout history. Black women have either been seen as ugly castoffs only good at survival and nothing more or as undesirable wenches and whores used at the whim of the male imagination. They also have been seen as either uncouth animals dressed in slave rags running for their very lives or as counterfeit impersonations of white female beauty. History has done a good job at demonizing black women by highlighting their struggles while simultaneously deemphasizing their beauty. This disproportionate emphasis on slavery, pain and struggle has oftentimes overshadowed the resilience and beauty found in the Black female divinity. In a larger context, history has also castrated the black female by denying the existence of Black joy. Such joy has been hidden and buried underneath the supreme assumption of Black grief. I mean shouldn’t we all be sad cuz we are black? When it ain’t the black making us sad, it’s the hate of our black that is making us sad.
Another possible explanation for the belief that Black women are the face of hardship is the constant barrage of media images depicting black women as angry, uptight, confrontational and volatile. The fact is this: In our current racially charged era, Black women are not allowed to be both beautiful and strong. They have had to compromise one for the sake of the other. In fact they are often times punished for their strength through over dramatized caricatures saturated in stereotype as opposed to the diversity of the Black Female spirit. Having to often times combat multiple systems of oppression, the invention of black female strength has become one created out of necessity as opposed to actual want. While such strength has been seen as admirable, it is not necessarily celebrated as desirable, which taps into the genderized politics of desirability where female strength is only valued when it conforms to prescribed gender roles.
Another possible reason why Black women are seen as the face of hardship is the glamorization of white beauty as the supreme standard of beauty with Black beauty seen more as an apology or a biological consolation prize. History has shown us time and time again that the concept of black beauty has been colonized and seen as substandard. The strong features of the Black female face have been mocked, jeered, criticized and compared to that of primates. This subordination and subjugation of black female beauty perpetuates the silent stereotype that Black women are synonymous with struggle. This has been vocalized by Black women who have often times been denied access to the benefit of a Black male partner due to the colonization of beauty and internalized racism and color-hatred of some Black men. White seems to be a status symbol while black is synonymous with struggle. This white washing of American beauty has left many Black women feeling subpar. Some have even elected to dilute their blood by deliberately seeking out White male partners in-order to give their offspring a “chance in life”, not wanting them to also experience the same hardships that they themselves have gone through as a result of racial bias in America.
Another possible reason why Black women continue to be seen as the face of hardship is because of their own self-hatred and self-denial. Back in the Jim-Crow era, Black women were told that everything that made them beautiful and unique was wrong and unlawful. They were told that White beauty was the standard by which they should strive to achieve. Therefore, Black women, in an effort to conform to European standards of beauty and desirability, tamed their blackness with conks, hot combs, treatments, lightning creams and other color-annihilating technologies. Recent studies have suggested that trauma is genetic and encoded within our DNA and this is clearly made evident in the legacy of self-hatred that has been transmitted to black women today. So many Black women continue to adopt European standards of beauty with the installation of lace front wigs, tone-deafening cosmetics and concealers and filters that diminish the strength of dark skin tone and complexion. By doing this, the concept of a beautiful black woman becomes one buried and surrendered to the torch wielding perceptions of America. The politics of visibility become skewed with emphasis on struggle as opposed to black beauty and desirability.
Fact is this world makes no room for the possibility of black beauty but that is a tide I see gradually turning as more and more Black women celebrate their beautiful onyx complexions along with their ample figures and generous features. Survival is not always pretty but Black women have made it look beautiful in their own right as they continue to elect themselves and broaden the conversation of beauty politics in America. While continuing to be indomitable symbols of strength and fortitude, Black women are greater than their struggles and while the world wants them to make an identity out of what has tried to kill them, Black women have forged new paths and have created new lanes as trendsetters and trailblazers. They have shown the world that they can wear many hats and refused the dichotomous restrictions placed on them by societal bias. They are indeed strong and beautiful and will ensure that you acknowledge them as such.
Originally published at http://luisspeaks.wordpress.com on May 14, 2020.
