Beautiful? 'There is no question Black is beautiful'

There is no doubt in my mind that Black is still beautiful. I have been raised to understand and celebrate my Blackness. For me "Black is beautiful" is not a question, but a fact of life. My Blackness goes beyond a simple color; it represents a rich culture of strength, creativity, beauty and brilliance. Black is beautiful to me because it symbolizes a fierce determination and perseverance. Black beauty depicts our own style, grace and regal beauty that stem from our own distinctive and unique roots. We as a people have been exploited, enslaved, dehumanized, stereotyped, miseducated, and still we rise in spite of so many obstacles.

Today, young people are receiving mixed messages that do not always affirm our beauty. Believing that your Blackness is beautiful can at times be a difficult process in this society. Almost everywhere we look we see many harmful, stereotypical images, but rarely do we see ourselves reflected as the standard of beauty. Instead of having our beauty affirmed, we are faced with a Eurocentric standard that's constantly placed on a pedestal and exalted by mainstream America and sadly sometimes by our own people. Whether it is thinner noses and lips, lighter skin and eyes, or longer and straighter hair, that standard has been imposed on us all.

When I was 16, I created a short documentary film entitled A Girl Like Me. Through the film, I wanted to explore the standards of beauty being imposed, particularly on Black girls, and the effect it was having on our self-image and identity. I spoke openly with girls from my high school who shared everything from issues dealing with perceptions of skin color to the good-hair-versus-bad-hair syndrome. In my film, one girl who had recently begun wearing her hair natural was upset by her mother when she implied that she now was beginning to look "too African." Another girl shared insecurities she once had about her dark complexion as well as the use of skin-lightning cream used by certain family members.

One major section of the film featured a doll test originally developed by Dr. Kenneth Clark and Mamie Clark. Black children were given a Black and White doll and asked which one they preferred. The majority of the children preferred the White doll. This test was used in conjunction with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation case. It demonstrated the negative effects that a racist and segregated school system had on Black children. When I reconducted the same doll test over 50 years later with children as young as 4 and 5 years old, I unfortunately received similar results. Watching child after child select the White doll as the "good doll" and the Black doll as the "bad doll" was disheartening.

The children in the doll test were like a mirror. They reflected exactly what they had been shown and exposed to. Due to the racism and prejudices that still permeate today's culture, growing up Black in America can still make one feel less valued than our White counterparts.

As children growing up in America we are acculturated by mainstream society to believe as the dominant culture believes. Sometimes even our schools keep us ignorant of who we are and distort or omit versions of our history. We must remember that African-American history is American history. When I was little, I was taught to never forget my African roots. My history and my culture have always been a part of me. I've learned that self-pride comes from feeling affirmed that Black is beautiful universally. I no longer search for acceptance because I have found it within myself. My family and many in my community have always affirmed my beauty as a young Black girl growing up. They exposed me to the beauty in our art, our traditions, and in our own reflections. Through discussions, cultural experiences, travel, film and books, I have embraced myself.

However, I have not been without challenges around these issues. One of my first experiences dealing with issues of color occurred in nursery school. I had come home quite discouraged because some children at school had informed me that I couldn't be the princess because I wasn't White. In a way, I had believed them because I couldn't think of any contradictory references. However, when I came home and told my mother, she immediately found images and stories that contradicted what I had been told, and reflected the kings and queens of Africa. For me, this incident validated my beauty and added to a foundation that has given me the armor to deal with the negative forces that deny my beauty.

Black is the most beautiful when we stay true to ourselves and refuse to accept someone else's definition of beauty.

Kiri Davis, 18, is a recent graduate of Urban Academy High School in New York City. A youth filmmaker who directed the award-winning film A Girl Like Me, Kiri will be attending Howard University this fall.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Johnson Publishing Co.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning