Is The Color of Beauty White?

A friend hipped me to this video and it is truly heartbreaking.  Apparently the color of beauty is still white (and will always be if we are to believe those people interviewed in the video. 

Before I am accused of being too Afrocentric, I am not advocating that the fashion industry is "blackened" just for the same of having black people on the runways and in the pages of mainstream fashion magazines. Rather, I am advocating at least an openness to representing blackness rather than having designers request "no black girls."  Particularly when they are willing to allow white models to don blackface or act as props to showcase white beauty.  Which recalls one of the quotes in the film that says people in the industry essentially want white girls dipped in chocolate. 


I am also amazed that those inside the industry largely recognize the problem and seem helpless (or at least unwilling) to be part of the solution.  They were quoted essentially saying, "Yeah, it sucks, but what are you gonna do?"

It very much reminds me of the ballet industry and that the aesthetic of beauty represents those things that most of us don't have. The last time I checked there were no black women who were principal dancers in major American ballet companies (Lauren Anderson was the only one at Houston Ballet, but she retired within the last few years) and the only black man I can think of is Albert Evans at NY City Ballet.

There is still an idea (and as black folks we also buy into it to some degree) that whiteness represents the ideal of beauty, grace, intelligence, etc. And it is truly sad that those black people who are graceful, beautiful and/or intelligent are seen as the exception to the rule rather than the rule -- never understanding that black people are no more monolithic than white people and we are not all the same.

This video is 17 minutes, but it is well worth viewing.