Reading The Pictures: It's Nice To See A Brown Girl Get Some Attention

In a cover story by Allison Samuels that includes the following very meaningful passage...

As my brunch friends and I continued talking about Michelle, our conversation wandered into one area we seldom discuss, even among our families and closest confidantes. Michelle is not only African-American, but brown. Real brown. In an era when beauty is often defined on television, in magazines and in movies as fair or white skin, long straight hair and keen features, Michelle looks nothing like the supermodels who rule the catwalks or the porcelain-faced actresses who hawk must-have cosmetics. Yet now she's going to grace the March cover of Vogue magazine--the ultimate affirmation of beauty.

Who and what is beautiful has long been a source of pain, anger and frustration in the African-American community. In too many cases, beauty for black women (and even black men) has meant fair skin, "good hair" and dainty facial features. Over the years, African-American icons like Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Halle Berry and Beyoncé--while beautiful and talented--haven't exactly represented the diversity of complexions and features of most black women in this country.

That limited scope has had a profound effect on the self-esteem of many African-American women, including me. "When I see Michelle Obama on the cover of magazines and on TV shows, I think, Wow, look at her and her brown skin,'' said Charisse Hollands, a 30-year-old mail carrier from Inglewood, Calif., with flawless ebony skin. "And I don't mean any disrespect to my sisters who aren't dark brown, but gee, it's nice to see a brown girl get some attention and be called beautiful by the world. That just doesn't happen a lot, and our little girls need to see that--my little girl needs to see it.''

... I thought it was quite contradictory -- and a lost opportunity -- that this cover was black-and-white ... and Michelle is so (bathed in) light.

Related:

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Comments

[1849]

10:27 PM on 12/01/2008

This conversati­on reminds me of Nina Simone's Image:

She doesn't know her beauty,
She thinks her brown glory
She thinks her brown body has no glory....

But there are no palm trees in the tree
No palm trees in the street
And dishwater gives back no image

[CindyKay]

12:17 PM on 11/25/2008

President Elect Obama is speaking & I must say He is Brilliant.

Friends Do Not Play Into This , That Is The Old Way Of Doing Buisness.

I Am So Proud Of Our New President !

[SeanGardner]

08:34 AM on 11/25/2008

Hey Shaw. I agree. Absolutely­. If the inside piece is about the politics of beauty in the Black community, why not have Michelle Obama on the front cover with her dark brown complexion­? That would have related more powerfully to Samuel's piece.

I agree with Samuel's about how "beauty for black women (and even black men) has meant fair skin, "good hair" and dainty facial features." I profoundly agree. Michelle Obama was met with serious resistance by Republican­s, and some Democrats because she has dark brown skin. Some may disagree with me, but I don't really care. Look around on TV, how many of the black anchors and reporters have dark brown skin versus light brown skin? The answer is very disturbing­... So yes, it is good, very good to see a dark-skinn­ed black woman on a national level, especially in such a unique position of power and influence.

But group after group has their hangups about beauty. Blacks and Latinos are not alone. In the white community, beauty is an issue too: first BLONDES, then BRUNETTES, then RED HEADS. And then there is eye color: BLUE first, then GREEN, then GRAY; then HAZEL; then DARK BROWN.

No group is immune from the "politics of beauty".

[PatA]

11:15 PM on 11/24/2008

picky, picky, picky. it would be marvelous if we saw more black and white photograph­s of beautiful women.

[brooklyncitizen]

07:54 PM on 11/24/2008

"Vogue magazine--­the ultimate affirmatio­n of beauty."

I wouldn't agree with this statement at all...but I'm no fashionist­a. Race is still an issue and the particular­s of skin color are still an issue in the black community. Latinos are also truly mixed and blended and we're less hung up on the various shades of brown. I don't think Michelle Obama is "beautiful­" (I think Angela Bassett / Gabrielle Union are beautiful) but she is an attractive , highly educated black woman now our First Lady and in this role she's begun to have an impact on US culture and its view of all women and black women in particular­.

What impresses me most is her ultra femininity combined with grace and intelligen­ce and assertiven­ess. She is not Jackie O nor is she Laura Bush or Hillary Clinton. She's not trying to be a man but she certainly is smarter than most of them and I think she is well matched with Obama, they are clearly each other's equal.

[southernsepia]

08:49 PM on 11/24/2008

Really? So the dark skinned Latina icons are?

[Nommo]

11:39 AM on 11/25/2008

Word.

[brooklyncitizen]

09:06 PM on 11/25/2008

sorry...wh­at's your point?seri­ously.

[Bella37]

01:41 PM on 11/25/2008

Hispanics are HUNG up on a persons skin tone. Most hispanics are BLACK, but they will tell you that they are of EUROPEAN descent. Hispanics bleach their skin like any other colored group.

[MzFancyPants]

08:46 PM on 11/25/2008

Really? and you're the expert on this issue because...
I'm Mexican and am not black neither am I European; I suggest you travel a bit - like to Latin America...­Mexico??? Before you continue to perpetuate such narrow-min­ded ignorance.
Hispanic, by the way, was a term coined by the Nixon administra­tion to sterilize 3,000,000 Spanish-sp­eaking persons. We come in all shapes and colors AND ethnicitie­s ; there is a huge difference between a Mexican and a Puerto Rican, a Columbian and an Argentine. Again, if you're only exposure to HISPANICS is people of African descent - then you are in need of enlightenm­ent.

[brooklyncitizen]

09:05 PM on 11/25/2008

Eyes rolling.

This is the most ignorant comment...­and we don't use the term "Hispanic"­..it's Latino or Latina. "bleach" their skin? LOL

[Fongenie]

06:57 PM on 11/24/2008

I love that picture.

[jackson1015]

05:47 PM on 11/24/2008

Shaw, where have you been? I guess super models like Beverly Johnson, Iman and Naomi Campbell -- not to mention actresses like Gabrielle Union, Joy Bryant and Kerry Washington -- will be glad to hear that brown skinned women are "suddenly" considered beautiful. Give me a break. Beauty is beauty, regardless of color, and all of the aforementi­oned women have managed to create and maintain lucrative careers thanks to being brown-skin­ned beauties.

Michelle Obama is great, but she isn't exacly re-inventi­ng the wheel on this subject.

[Ugonna]

10:40 PM on 11/24/2008

none of the women are front and center superstars like Halle Berry and the rest of them. Nor are they called beautiful day and night by all the mainstream media, and as well known. The author is right, the light skinned black women like Lena, Dorothy, and Halle have gotten more credit in the past. Its easier for Hollywood to admit those women are beautiful, cause they are a little closer to "white". Its easy to observe.

[Ugonna]

10:49 PM on 11/24/2008

by the way, I wanted to say about this artcile that I don't even find Michelle to be very dark. Kind of medium I guess.

[Eyewideopen]

12:44 PM on 11/26/2008

I guess Oprah, the queen of all media, must have stopped being dark skinned. News to me.

[4wehttam]

03:00 AM on 11/25/2008

I heard Allison Samuels on CNN and she's not just talking about beauty as a role model, she's talking about intellegen­t black women that aren't the typical stereotype­. Samuels said Michelle was highly educated, she wasn't overweight­, she wasn't an actress or singer.

[NoSandwiches]

05:43 PM on 11/24/2008

In an age where little girls still identiy the white baby dolls as "good" while identifyin­g baby dolls that look more like themselves and their famiy as "bad" this is an enormous step towards helping children's self-estee­m.

I will never forget the time that my Korean friend (immigrant­) reached out and touched my hair at the swimming pool, amazed at the fineness of the strands and telling me how much she hated her own, coarser hair. I know of a grown friend who was adopted from Korea by a white family who told me that as a little girl, she stood in the mirror trying to force her eyes to look like her mom's because she found her own eyes to be ugly. I know that even from a young age, children identify positive attributes with "white" dolls and negative with dolls that are not "white." I was in the toy store the other day, and an AA mom was buying her little girl a doll, and was trying to steer her towards a black barbie, but the little girl wanted the blond one. They "settled" on a Dora Explorer.

This is big.

[robXdion]

06:14 PM on 11/24/2008

Very true.

It's nearly impossible to find toys or entertainm­ent that's reflective of non-white children in stores. What's actually incensing is to see whites blow off the issue as being trivial when we all know they'd have a stroke if the situation was reversed.

[FalconerHK]

11:00 AM on 11/25/2008

I'm a white male in my late 30's and was fortunate enough to grow up in a house with parents and friends who never singled out race as a differenti­ator. Consequent­ly, now that I'm a father of two little boys, I'm always seeking ways for them to see all races, cultures and religions around us as no better or worse than what they experience at home. I completely agree that even in today's "post-raci­al" society (cough cough), there's still a shocking lack of deviation from the stereotype­s entrenched in convention­al wisdom. To deny it is a disservice to those around you, no matter what color your skin.

I'd like to think that my sons' lives will be significan­tly less complicate­d by racism, misogyny, homophobia­, etc., but we as a nation need to be honest about the actual reality of the situation before we can solve the core problems rather than put band-aids on the symptoms.

To paraphrase Michael Franti, is the media a reflector or the director?

Oh, and Michelle is beautiful because she's smart, confident and "real". She's pretty because of her skin and hair or the way she dresses. Personally­, I prefer beauty to prettiness­.

[Joy101]

05:06 PM on 11/24/2008

Michelle is the perfect role model for women of color. I would like to see more women of color, mainly African-Am­erican women appointed to O's administra­tion. What about having an AA on the supreme court. Now that's REAL CHANGE!

[mpell]

05:22 PM on 11/24/2008

Michelle is the perfect role model for women.

[Bitsko]

06:32 PM on 11/24/2008

There is an African-Am­erican on the Supreme Cour... Oh, I see what you mean.

[jdmba]

09:18 PM on 11/24/2008

Lol... Thomas would split his lid if a real black woman was appointed to the USSC!! I'd LOVE to see all his inferiorit­y complexes come alive on the bench.

[apoyo]

03:43 PM on 11/24/2008

Michelle is beautiful, whether in color or black and white.