I have always been conscious about African American representation in the media, and do you know what I have noticed? The token "black girl" is always fair-skinned with curly hair and light brown or green eyes. Remember the time "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" replaced the original brown-skinned "Aunt Viv" with a lighter skinned version? How many movies can you name where the African-American love interest (if there was one) was not "light skinned"?
This issue is prevalent in advertising, also. Advertisements are usually good about having at least one "black girl," but a lot of times that "black girl" looks nothing like most of the general population of African American girls and women. For example, I took my little sister to Justice the other day (aka H&M for 10-year-olds), and the girls in the photos plastered along the walls of the store modeling the clothes looked like this:
Yeah, she's black... or at least some part of her ethnicity could be considered "African American," so I am not discrediting her ethnicity at all, my point is, most of the models that represent "the African American female" look like her. The same skin tone, the same type of hair. That isn't what all black girls look like, so advertising execs need to switch it up! African American women are extremely diverse, so it is time to show more variety, ya' know?
The lack of representation from other types of African American women is detrimental to a girl's confidence. All she sees is light skinned girls with curly hair and hazel eyes in the media, so she thinks that the prototype for a beautiful woman is only that.
Growing up, I always figured that the prettiest girls had long curly hair (and I don't) *cue "Good Hair" documentary,* so I was always self-conscious and really jealous of other girls with that soft and curly type of hair, and it is no secret in the African American community that "light skinned girls" have more of a positive stigma than darker skinned women *cue Black Girls documentary.* I don't think that these ideals are ingrained in the minds of black girls everywhere, but I do think that the idea is introduced culturally, and reinforced by the media. All of the black girls who do not fit into the prototype feel inadequate, envious, and "not pretty."
That's not okay. How many dark brown girls feel deficient? How many girls with coily hair look in the mirror and wish their hair "curled like the girls on TV?" I know I did, so that makes one. It's time for different representation of beauty.
I love seeing chocolate goddesses gracing movie screens as a strong protagonist role that is not a slave. Black women are the most beautiful and diverse creatures, but a chunk of the population may not know that because one particular version of a black woman gets the most camera time.
