Aamito Lagum, a Ugandan model, suffered racist comments these past two weeks when her lips were posted on the MAC instagram page for their new lipstick.
The extensive list of offensive comments that followed--such as, “WTF are these lips,” “Them fish lips though,” “Holy shit I thought this was Jay Z” are a prime example of white America being infatuated with black features as long as they are not on black people.
But with the recent “Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge," many people are quoting big lips as the “in” trend of today. Meanwhile, black men and black women have had these features for years. They have faced discrimination for this, and for many years, mainstream media preached these features as barbaric and animalistic.
Cartoons made of black people exaggerated these features, comparing them to monkeys and gorillas.
This trend of appropriating black features and black culture and painting them new when adorned on a white person minimizes black people. It rests on the idea that black is not beautiful and that black qualities are only worth something within the grasp of a white person.
Aamito Lagum, responded back to these comments, stating: “My lips giving you sleepless nights” on her blog. This is one of many reasons why recent hashtags like #blackgirlmagic and #blacklivesmatter are important. They are set to encourage black girls and boys to love themselves in a world that wants to tear them apart and diminish their qualities down to nothing.
