The Colour of Beauty

I can't say that I was surprised by anything in this documentary, but there are interesting things that I would like to note.

"We want white girls dipped in chocolate"

I appreciate that they were honest and frank about that matter. There was no need to hide such an obvious truth. However, what got me was how the man described African features compared to European ones. To him ours are harsh, while Europeans' are "elegant." It was if the discrimination against African decent models was understandable because we are not naturally as lovely as European decent models. It is the discrimination against African decent models with European features that is the shame! Throughout the media, we have seen that AA women are accepted on the condition that we show our African ancestry to only a limited degree. If you don't pass the paper bag test, you aren't let through the door. This conditional permitted isn't true acceptance at all, and is designed to maintain the facade of diversity. We should not mistaken it as such. We also should not embrace tokenism. As one woman said, you see the same minority women over and over in the fashion industry. This is not progress, although the media attempts to use it to delude us into thinking that it is such.

We have to give 110%

My mother always told me that I have two strikes against me. 1. I am African-American. 2. I am a woman. Therefore, I have to do better than everyone else. This video pointed this principle out once again. As the models said, Euro women can make due with a few flaws, but Afro women have to be absolutely flawless to get a job. I think this is an important lesson that our community must keep in mind. Since we face greater opposition, working half-heartedly isn't acceptable. We can't simply be good or adequate. We must strive to be better.

How to end the discrimination?
The objective of any documentary is to bring attention to a problem so we can find a solution. The best way, I believe, that we can open doors for our sisters in the fashion industry is to be the leaders of it ourselves. We have to be the producers, directors, and the casting agents--the one's making decisions. If we were, we wouldn't have to beg the European-Americans to give us a chance.