Black is beautiful

Black is beautiful is a cultural movement which began in the United States of America, beginning in the 1960s. It later spread to much of the Black world, most prominently in the writings of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko in South Africa. It aims to dispel the widespread notion in western cultures that black people's natural features such as skin color, facial features and hair are inherently ugly. [ [http://www.bucks.edu/~docarmos/BCMnotes.html Some notes on the BLACK CULTURAL MOVEMENT] ] John Sweat Rock was the first to coin the phrase "Black is Beautiful" during a speech in 1858. The movement also encouraged men and women to stop straightening their hair and attempting to lighten or bleach their skin. [ [http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/cgi-bin/forum/config.pl?noframes;read=79921 Jamaica Says Black Is Beautiful] ] . The prevailing idea in American culture, perpetuated by the media, was that black features were less attractive or desirable than white features. The idea that blackness was ugly was highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism. [ [http://www.genderforum.uni-koeln.de/genderealisations/weedon.html Key Issues in Postcolonial Feminism: A Western Perspective] by Chris Weedon, Cardiff University

In her novel "The Bluest Eye" (1981), Toni Morrison depicts the effects of the legacy of 19th century racism for poor black people in the United States. The novel tells of how the daughter of a poor black family, Pecola Breedlove, internalizes white standards of beauty to the point where she goes mad. Her fervent wish for blue eyes comes to stand for her wish to escape the poor, unloving, racist environment in which she lives.

] This idea even existed in black communities ["Black is Beautiful" and the Color Preferences of Afro-American Youth" - Claud Anderson, Rue L. Cromwell, "The Journal of Negro Education", Vol. 46, No. 1 (Winter, 1977), pp. 76-88doi:10.2307/2966874] and led to practices such as paper bag parties.

Among other achievements, the "Black is beautiful" movement was largely responsible for the popularity of the Afro hairstyle.

Even now the movement has not fully taken hold. According to figures compiled by the "Essence" market research team, African Americans spend 25 percent more of their disposable income on personal care products than the general population. [ [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_23_17/ai_69652795 Embracing `BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL' - African American involvement in fashion industry, and consumer spending on apparel and beauty care products - Statistical Data Included] "Black Issues in Higher Education", Jan 4, 2001 by Kendra Hamilton] Natural hair styles are still considered "somewhat rebellious" or "unkempt" in parts of the United States.

“Black is Beautiful” came from the Black Cultural Movement also known as the black aesthetics movement and Black Arts Movement. The central purpose of the movement was “to make African Americans totally and irreversibly proud of their racial and cultural heritage.” During this movement, there were a few other topics addressed besides that of having black pride. Art became increasingly important because of a newly appreciated relationship between art and politics. Political struggles bring about art that can later be used to explain things.

Kwame Brathwaite, president of the National Council of Artists (NCA) New York chapter stated,

"We came together to deal with the arts, to tie them to what was going on in Africa. We had the idea; you can’t divorce art from the struggle.” As a result, “artists were no longer artists, but the organizers of a movement.” We replaced the word “negro” with “African”. Another topic or perspective is that of “black nationalism”. This principle introduces the idea of blacks having a totally separate society from whites. The last of the issues was that black culture is not completely explainable. Most people call this just being black."

ee also

* Propaganda
* Racial transformation
* Natural hair
* Afro
* Cornrows
* Dreadlocks
* John Rock
* Blackness
* Jewcy
* Cool (aesthetic)

References