Not long ago, I told you about the danger of tanning, and I concluded the article by telling you about the depigmentation of the skin in the black community. Recently, I read an article about the lightening products that were banned in Rwanda my country of origin. Indeed, the Rwandan Ministry of Health is starting to fight against those kinds of products that are harmful to the health of their user, which is a majority of people in Africa. (see article)
Credit: CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/09/health/rwanda-ban-skin-lightening-cream-africa-intl/index.html
Why do African women and men want to lighten their skin? This is called colorism, it is a discrimination against black people with a dark complexion. People of color make their own categories from the less dark to the darkest. So how did people develop this sense of shame about their skin color? This goes back to the last century, soap ads promoted their merit by saying that they had the ability to whiten the skin of blacks. Black skin is associated with dirt against white skin which is associated with purity. Black people have therefore whitened their skin for a guarantee of social integration into the white community. These things descending from colonialism and segregation are still relevant today.
Credit:
https://www.nofi.media/2015/09/le-blanchissement-de-la-peau-un-complexe-dinferiorite/23216
Today, we hear about white skin, brown skin, dark skin, to give you an example, we talk about white skin for Alicia Keys, brown skin for Beyonce and dark skin for Kanye West.
Alicia Keys: Allure https://www.allure.com/story/alicia-keys-on-makeup-no-makeup
Beyonce: Who What Wear
https://www.whowhatwear.co.uk/beyonce-stella-jean-red-dress/slide3
Kanye West: W Magazine https://www.wmagazine.com/story/keeping-up-with-kanye-west-and-everything-hes-done-in-the-last-four-chaotic-days
Black beauty is not represented by dark skin in beauty magazines. Indeed, many advertisements or first pages of magazines have whitened the skin of people posing for them. Like Beyonce for L’Oreal, Kerry Washinton for Instyle or Rihanna for vogue.
Credit pictures: https://fr.trace.tv/people/ces-celebrites-dont-la-peau-a-deja-ete-blanchie-pour-des-photos/
Being mixed race, since I was a child, I have been considered black in the West and white in Africa. What puzzles me is that since I was young, I have only seen white models in the majority. The exceptions are obviously Katoucha or Naomi Campbell , but skin color is not everything.
Credit pictures:
Katoucha: Vogue
https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/yves-saint-laurent-exhibition-paris-and-marrakech
Naomi Campbell: Pinterest
https://www.pinterest.ie/pin/173810866854216483/?autologin=true
A woman’s beauty is also judged by her body, after years of thin bodies, here comes the arrival of bootylicious women with shapes. Beyonce, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, these women, and their shapes have made it possible in a way to allow women of black and Afro origin to assume their bodies like me.
Instagram: @nickiminaj 
Instagram: @badgalriri 
Instagram: @beyonce
Speaking of Rihanna, she has revolutionized make-up with Fenty Beauty©, her range of foundations adapted to all skin colors (see article), but with her range of lingerie, she also promotes the positive bodysuit by promoting models of all sizes.
Instagram: @savagexfenty 
Instagram: @savagexfenty
Black positive increases more and more, first of all with the hair. The Afro cut made famous by Jackson 5 is back in fashion. It is certainly a hair fashion, but it is also a strong act, assuming your hair naturally after years of dictatorship of the straightening of Afro hair. They named themselves ‘nappy’. In addition, relaxers have risks on the hormonal system and their compositions lead to the development of fibroids and even cancers. Many celebrities have been criticized for their choice not to highlight their hair as Beyonce who is blonde.
Brands like Shea Moisture offer organic products, vegan without animal tests adapted for every hair types, and very popular in the Afro community. This brand was the victim of a scandal by highlighting white models in their ads while the majority of their sales are made in the black community.
Thousands of influencers post videos to help maintain Afro hair, even Kim Kardashian has taken lessons to style her children.
Instagram: @kimkardashian 
Instagram: @kimkardashian
To avoid damaging your hair, the new fashion is to use wigs like Cardi B; the wigs allow you to change your headstyle easily. Afro hair is very fragile, brushings, colorings, and others are even more harmful than for straight hair.
Instagram: @iamcardib 
Instagram: @iamcardib 
Instagram: @iamcardib
Even today people are still discriminated because they are too black, for example, recently the singer Aya Nakamura, well known in France and the Netherlands, revealed that she was told that she should whiten her skin to reach wider. We also compared a man to her, the fact that she was dark skinned made people want to destroy her femininity.
Credit: Le Bureau Export
https://www.lebureauexport.fr/en/news/2018/08/the-netherlands-aya-nakamura-is-topping-the-dutch-charts/
Moreover, a new whim arrives on Instagram, indeed influential women tan so much that one would say they are black, it’s called ‘niggerfishing’, would the question arise to live in the skin of women of color, to suffer racism and denigration of their beauty? What do you think about it?
BeauTea Community 