Quote:
Originally posted by highwayuni
Where? WHERE IS THE RACISM?
The REACHING in this thread
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I’ll spell it out for you.
In America, the standards of beauty are incredibly white-dominated. Even in the black community (and especially in the white community), more “white”, “European” features are favoured. That means lighter skin, a slimmer, smaller nose, straighter hair, lips that are full but not too large, etc. Example of this are: Beyoncé herself, Hale Berry, Vanessa Williams, Denzel Washington, Idris Elba, Diana Ross, Lena Horne, Whitney Houston, Ciara, etc.. I could go on. Black beauty is measured on a ruler of whiteness. The closer to white you can look, the more acceptably beautiful you are regarded.
So, when you have someone like Jay-Z with a wide nose, large lips (what is considered more “black features”) and those features are reflected to some extent in his child, and that child is ridiculed for inheriting them, then you have racism at play. It’s dictating not only the standard of beauty which favours whiteness, but the way someone is treated for not possessing these features. In this case, it’s not only ridicule, its the idea that this ridicule should just be sucked up and forgotten about because it’s “just a joke”.
Not everything has expressly racist overtones. Sometimes, the way we act in this world is racist without us even knowing it. But there is racist there when you break it down and start to see where and why our notions come from.
To not see racism, is not what I'd call a reach, but something more akin to not even trying to lift your hand. You're just content being the way you are, and judging people by the standards that were given to you instead of actually thinking for yourself.