Soc. 3251W Race, Class, and Gender

Color is more than skin deep for these young African American women, and they struggle to define themselves through out this video. This documentary was made in order to explore the standards of beauty that are imposed on today’s black girls. Moreover, it shows how these standards affect the self-esteem or images of these young ladies in their daily basis. As I was watching this documentary I find it very disturbing that something like this still exists, but it’s no surprise because there is no positive portrayal of beautiful black woman in our society. There might be some but it’s barely invisible especially when it comes to the media. In the film, most of the girls discuss about their hair and how it’s seen as not pretty, but they also show how being white is preferred, or seen as the more beautiful skin color or race. Some of these girls stated that people view them as loud, not smart, ghetto, lazy, etc just because they are black. Also, some of the standards that are imposed on them were that being black is fine, but it would be better and more beautiful if they are light skin/white. These girls state that they love themselves for who they are, except their skin color which is black.
Furthermore, this video demonstrates how dominant, “host� cultures can impose their racist standards up general populations and foster self-hatred among those “others� who do not possess the physical attributes of the host culture. If there ever was an indicator that we need to foster ancestral pride in our youth by teaching them about their own very rich and enviable cultural origins, this is it. I think the most telling shot was the look of enlightenment when the pre-school kids were asked to identify which doll looked like them. In the 1950’s Brown vs. Board of Education conducted a doll test. The doll test was conducted by Kenneth Clark who was testing the perception of race. The kids where presented with two dolls one black and one white. They were asked to pick whichever doll they find more beautiful or which ever doll they thought wasn’t bad. The test showed that 15 out of the 21 kids picked the white dolls as more attractive/not seen as bad. This kind of tests shows us that kids from an early age are constructed to think in a certain ways when it comes to race. And because of this some black kids might grow up thinking that being black is immoral or something. We live in a society where the subordinate groups are faced with race, discrimination, inequality and injustice everyday, but there isn’t anything that could be done about this issue because of the “colorblind� ideology that is built into our society today.
This video is very powerful and it makes you think of the slavery mentality that still exists today. I think that African American women need to remember that they came from a race of royalty, and they can still look beautiful either in dreads, natural, or relaxed hair. I believe that whether they are light skin or dark skin, they need to start building each other up instead of looking at each other with envious eyes and tearing each other down. I also feel that it is important to believe in the true identity that we have for ourselves and let NOBODY tell us different. Last but not least what seems the worst is that anyone in this country would look to their ancestor's country of origin for guidance, we all came from somewhere other than here, and where it was does not matter. This is the country we are in; this country is where we have to get along.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489