Black is beautiful

Black is beautiful is a cultural movement that was started in the United States in the 1960s by African Americans. It later spread beyond the United States, most prominently in the writings of the Black Consciousness Movement of Steve Biko in South Africa. Black is beautiful got its roots from the Négritude movement of the 1930s. Negritude argued for the importance of a Pan-African racial identity among people of African descent worldwide.

The movement aims to dispel the racist notion that black people's natural features, such as skin color, facial features, and hair, are inherently ugly.[1] The movement also encouraged men and women to stop trying to eliminate African-identified traits by attempting to lighten or bleach their skin.[2] John Rock was long thought to be the first person to coin the phrase "black is beautiful"—during a speech in 1858—but historical records indicate that he never actually used the specific phrase on that day.[3] Bill Allen, a freelance writer for advertising agencies, claimed he coined the phrase in the 1950s.[4]

The phrase “Black is beautiful” is meant to uplift the emotional and psychological well-being of black people. It promotes the Black culture and identity, where the Black past is seen as an inspirational source of cultural pride. It affirms the beauty of Black people's natural features, such as their variety of skin colors, hair styles and textures, as well as physical characteristics.[5]   

This movement began in an effort to counteract the racist notion in American culture that features typical of Black people were less attractive or desirable than those of White people. Research indicates that the idea of blackness being ugly is highly damaging to the psyche of African Americans, manifesting itself as internalized racism.[6] This idea made its way into black communities themselves[7] and led to practices such as paper bag parties: social events which discriminated against dark-skinned African Americans by only admitting lighter-skinned individuals.

  1. ^ "Some notes on the BLACK CULTURAL MOVEMENT". Archived from the original on Dec 20, 2007.
  2. ^ "No Message". www.rastafarispeaks.com.
  3. ^ The Journal of Negro History, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Vol. 54, No. 4 (Oct. 1969). pp. 405–406.
  4. ^ writer, Article by Connie Lauerman, a SUNDAY staff. "KING OF THE AISLES". chicagotribune.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ "Black is Beautiful: The Emergence of Black Culture and Identity in the 60s and 70s". National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved 2022-10-11.
  6. ^ "Key Issues in Postcolonial Feminism: A Western Perspective" by Chris Weedon, Cardiff University. gender forum no. 1: "In her novel The Bluest Eye (1970), Toni Morrison depicts the effects of the legacy of nineteenth-century racism for poor black people in the United States. The novel tells of how the daughter of a poor black family, Pecola Breedlove, internalizes white standards of beauty to the point where she goes mad. Her fervent wish for blue eyes comes to stand for her wish to escape the poor, unloving, racist environment in which she lives."
  7. ^ "'Black is Beautiful" and the Color Preferences of Afro-American Youth", Claud Anderson, Rue L. Cromwell, The Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Winter 1977), pp. 76–88. doi:10.2307/2966874.

Black is beautiful

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