Look at what L’Oreal has done to Beyonce to make her “beautiful”. It is not just her hair that they changed. Read about it at Womanist Musings.
See also:
- L’Oreal accused of ‘whitewashing’ Beyonce – Daily Mail article
- Passing the Buck and the Brown Paper Bag Test – a post on the same at What Would Thembi Do?
- ‘Creole’ Chicks – about the whitening of Beyonce
- Why pretend a beautiful black woman is white?
- race and beauty
- The most beautiful black women according to white people
- Creoles
- politically correct beauty
Got alerted to this a few days ago. What can I say? =|
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I feel that we are living in a society, where we want the disappearing of real beauty, in the beauty industry, we want only one thing, white, light people. In the real world, there are people of all races and shades and there is a brainwashing and quickly frankly this of the darkside. The images on the magazines has been so touched up, we don’t know what is real and not real.
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Absolutely amazing when I see things like this. And then we wonder why so many of our black people spend tens of millions of dollars a year on skin lightening products and such? Its 2008 and white people are still subtly [or not so subtly] saying that Black Is NOT Beautiful. But here’s the kicker … most recent statistic that I could redily obtain said that back in 1999 it was a $4,000,000,000 a year industry !!!
So lemme see if I get this straight … they send subtle mssgs 2 us that the more we look like them the more “acceptable” we are. Then … they go out and get tans and collagen lip implants? Hypocrisy and confusion reign supreme.
[understanding shakes head in disgust … exits thread]
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Correction:
“The most recent statistics that I could readily obtain on the TANNING INDUSTRY …
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it’s real stinky bull$h!t.
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That’s disgusting! L’Oreal did mess Beyonce’s image big time! The company transformed her from Black Creole to a white-looking Barbie doll. Something is wrong with a society that is built on whiteness worship. It’s really sad.
S.B.
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@understanding
they go out and get tans and collagen lip implants?
The collagen injection in the lips is not a racial imitation it is to make the lips resemble labia. The same reason women where lips stick.
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Felicity:
Cosigned!
It may have been the lighting or digital editing….but I do not blame L’Oreal completely, just partially.
All artist, like Beyonce, should hold themselves to a certain standard, as it is their image; it is ultimately they who make the decision of doing gigs like these—whether L’Oreal and others decide to put a white, pink, or yellow wig on her head and paint her skin powdery white, she always has a choice.
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Beyonce’s mother is supposedly “Creole” (yet has no roots in Lousiana, intrestingly). Beyonce and her sister are perfectly African American.
And this isn’t the first time Knowles’ image has been dramtically altered. When she appeared solo on a cover of Vanity Fair a few years ago, the press reported that her skin was noticably lightened.
It’s very intentional. And a very old marketing gimmick. The question is “why” in this particular case? When there’s been so many examples of black women in big budget ad campaigns who didn’t have to get their complexion tampered with or have a dusty blonde wig placed upon their head.
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There are plenty of Creoles in Texas. They moved there in the late 1800s and afterwards.
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It does bear questioning why Beyonce allowed her image to be made whiter like that. Like indigoblu said, not all the blame can be put on L’Oreal.
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You’re right, Abagond, there are “Creoles” in Texas as well. Yet, they are a subset of African Americans. Similar to the Lumbee people of North Carolina, the Gullahs in South Carolina/Georgia, the “We-Sorts” of Maryland, etc. Small, instristic subsets of African Americans, rooted in unique niches post-slavery.
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just a question from a black woman with her roots in the caribbean, all african american have quite racially mixed backgrounds ( of very different origins cultrally and racially) so why is it thatt creoles are considered different and fetishised by the rest of the afican american community, i am not saying anything but i just notice that creole is a coveted title and very fetishised.
in the lesser antilles all black people are called creoles because we are of different african ethnicities as well as having other racial groups and having a multilingual background of english and french. so i just don’t get the american angle.
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Knowles’ Vanity Fair and L’Oreal “fiascos” reminds me of a story that I once read from a white casting director:
A young teenage girl, who was black, came in to read for a part. She brought in a resume and two headshots. One of the headshots was her as a “sweet middle class girl”. The other was one of a “hard, street urban girl”. The casting director noticed something very subtle yet glaring. In the photo of the girl as a “sweet, middle class girl”, she was lit in a way to make her look dramtically lighter in skin tone. And reversebly, in the photo as a “street girl”, she was lit to make herself look darker. As a white man, this was his first introduction to African American color politics.
Obviously, the young actress was playing to her perception of white color biases. It was very intentional.
Knowles is doing the same thing.
The sweeping (and very fake looking) blonde lace fronts, the nose job, the bright lighting, light foundation and the sudden “Creole” identity is VERY deliberate and it’s clear what she (and her handlers) are trying to do, and why they are doing it, and who she’s attempting to do this for.
The question is “how come”? There’s enough examples of black women who made it through without cloying and desperate attempts to reinvent themselves into what they think will be more palatable to the “white mainstream”.
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Louise,
“Creoles” ….I don’t think that half of the black Americans in this country even know who they are and what their history is.
They’re a very small, instristic, geographical (Louisana, some parts of Texas) clan. Many marry out of the culture (like Tina Knowles did).
Yeah, most black Americans, technically could be “Creoles” or “Afro European” but the U.S. has historically disregarded any public acknowledge of admixture that any black American could possibly have. We’re all simply considered “black”.
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I wouldn’t even know she was black in the L’oreal photo if I didn’t know it’s Beyonce.
The lightening could have been done by editing the photo afterwards, rather than with make-up. Maybe she wasn’t even aware of it initially.
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From what I understand, she was made whiter mainly through the magic of Photoshop.
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I wrote a post on Creoles a while back:
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I just thought of something that slightly veers off of this topic yet still involves the subject of this post:
Beyonce, overall, isn’t the superstar that you’d be lead to believe she is based on media coverage.
Unlike Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Lauryn Hill, who all went from being the star in iconic groups (Supremes, Jackson 5, Fugees) to solo superstars who superceded the mega-success they had in their past groups, Beyonce hasn’t even came close to matching her success as part of Destiny’s Child, in terms of overall record sales and concert attendance.
In fact, her tour last year, was one of the lowest attendances tours of recent note. The promoters lost lots of money. (Reports would note that many, if not most, of the venues were half-full during performances.)
Sony even resorted to re-releasing her (poorly receieved) second solo release to catch up in sales and revenue. Plus, she had gotten embrassingly upstaged by Jennifer Hudson during the “Dreamgirls” time. (JH won an Oscar, garnered big movie roles, got covers that were supposed to go to Beyonce). It was an obvious move to save face as well. All of the “Dreamgirls” glory was supposed to go to Beyonce, yet it didn’t.
So, in short, the hype still can’t be believed. Despite her presence in some mainstream media outlets, her star hasn’t shined all that brighly, as a solo artist.
Her daddy overestimated her appeal.
Based on actual facts, the conclusion is clear: the public appears to prefer Knowles as a member of Destiny’s Child, rather than as a solo artist.
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Halle Berry, too.
Extreme media attention, relative to many other black actresses …but her career pretty much in the same place, theres is.
Outside of the X-Man and Bond franchises, none of Berry’s films have been huge box office hits. None.
Whoopi and Latifah are the two true moneymakers, of past or present, in Hollywood as far as the sistas go.
And they both veer far from the percieved “white media standard of beauty”, don’t they?
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The full lips phenomenon is a imitation of black beauty. Before the likes of Angelina Jolie and Scarlet Johnson black women have been ridicule for having these same features. I remember growing up as a kid in London during the 80’s and white kids would make fun out of my lips which made me feel self-conscious. Now that Jolie has made full lips ‘fashionable’, now white people feel more comfortable with imitating our features but not actually say it’s more attractive than the old western ideal of beauty which has always been blonde-hair, blue-eyed, thinned lips, it has simply has that!!
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I remember that too, in America.
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Myname: Interesting point about Halle and Beyonce. I never thought of it that way. Thanks.
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yes, i too noticed how light beyonce had gotten in that commercial….i wasnt surprised at all….shes not the only guilty one to participate…in classic hollywood bleachings ….wesley,janet,latifah,eddie,alfre,brandie,oprah,cedric ,venus,selena & bernie mac r.i.p seems to have gotten 2 or more shades lighter over the years …beyonce creole….THE ONLY WORD SHE Apparently knows in french is OUI!!…LOL
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ANY HOW WITH GLOBAL WARMING FAST BECOMING A REALITY EVERYONE WILL BE DARKER IN THE FUTURE…THOSE WHO HAVE LIGHTER SKIN WILL HAVE TO LIVE IN THE CAVES THEY CAME FROM OR BURN UP LIKE VAMPIRES IN THE LIFE GIVING SUN….SPF 2000!
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Why are some of you surprised that Beyonce allowed her image to be photoshopped to that degree. I mean, this is the same woman who wears ridiculous hair weaves/wigs.
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It’s good to see I’m not the only one who has noticed Beyonce’s sudden “transformation”
It’s because of things like this that I refuse to purchase L’Oreal, knowing what kinda of evil they are doing to our fellow black women.
Abagond, have you noticed how Rihanna has kinda done this too?? or is it just me :S
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No, it is not just you. I have noticed that too. Think about how Rihanna looks now in her videos compared to “Pon de Replay”.
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Watching the Vh1 movie about the Jackson Five I found myself thinking about the lightening of skin and plastic surgery to make themselves look whiter. I was struck by how much a person would have to hate themselves and their own race to do that sort of thing….and how vey sad it is.
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the way i see beyonce is that she’s not that light to me compared to alicia keys, mariah carey, and halle berry. hollywood may look at her as being light skinned but she’s not that light to me in my opinion. seeing that loreal picture, it doesn’t even look like beyonce. it looks like a man wearing a blond wig. times when she takes pictures, she either looks light or darker than what she usually looks. people want to believe she really looks like that when people that take her pictures make her look like she’s something that she’s not and yet people see her as ideal beauty. it’s sad that people would lighten their skins in order to fit into what society sees as beautiful and it affects women the most because we strive so hard to be beautiful and we shouldn’t. you never know what’s real or what’s fake because everybody is so obsessed trying to be perfect when we are not. we weren’t born perfect but people these days will do anything to feel wanted or to fit in for all the wrong reasons.
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Yeah, Lil’vina, as I’ve mentioned eight million times, it’s all perception.
I, too, never saw Knowles as being particulary lightly-complexioned. Same with Halle Berry. (In reality, Berry is actually browner than Knowles). I didn’t know that either of those ladies were perceived as such until I went on the internet.
I believe that the mainstream media’s glorficiation of both has a lot to do with how mallable and vapid they are. They can always alter their looks and make them over into what they want.
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exactly mynameismyname! the media can glorify lighter women but why is that they take pictures and look even lighter than they already now? halle to me was never that light to me but that’s how hollywood view her, same as beyonce and tyra or any other female that may considered to be light but really are not. so people can’t always believe what they see in magazines and t.v. because they tend to look like a different person.
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So it is not so much that the media favours light-skinned women as that they lighten the ones they do like and make them look as white as possible. Kind of like how most white people see Barack Obama as biracial.
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of course. that’s what hollywood do. every time you see beyonce in a magazine, she tends to look lighter than what she is and she’s not even that light to me compared to alicia keys. i think the only reason why hollywood only likes light skinned women because they are closed to being white looking and even if the women are a little darker, like beyonce and halle, they are still considered to be light skinned but they lighten their skins to make them look different or white.
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beyonce is naturally light. as a mixed race girl i know how different my skin colour can look from one picture to another depending on the lighting. she probably has a tan on the picture on the left. I think the moral panic surrounding the loreal picture was abit over the top. I can see that it is aibrushed because her features look too perfect. But as for the skin colour i’m not sure.
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Do you think Beyonce has been trying to make herself look whiter over time?
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No, I don’t think so. I think it’s her handlers trying a “different angle” to make up for her lack of talent. Jennifer Hudson sang RINGS around her.
“I, too, never saw Knowles as being particulary lightly-complexioned. Same with Halle Berry. (In reality, Berry is actually browner than Knowles).”
Yes, I’ve always wondered why Halle is always said to be light-skinned. I’m light-skinned. She’s DEFINITELY NOT. She looks like a lot of black women look skin-tone-wise.
And remember that most lighting is made to flatter whites, not anyone with a natural tan. Simon Baker mentioned in a video that in the movie “Something New” he had to wear brown paste because he was the only white person in most scenes. They painted him darker so that the lighting could be adjusted to suit the black people better.
I look much lighter in pictures and videos, as well. In fact, (see avatar) I look positively ghostly even though I’m not IRL.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s not actually backwards. I think perhaps it’s just the case that when white people see a black woman who’s attractive, they make excuses to themselves: she’s light-skinned, she’s got a thin nose, etc. It’s like they can’t just look at a black woman and say, “Gee, she’s pretty.”
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^^^
Thank you, Sedlmeier1! Thanks for proving that I’m not crazy. You took all of the words out of my mouth! LOL.
Speaking of Jennifer Hudson, have you seen her new Entertainment Weekly cover? I think she’s trying to pick up the pieces after the unfortunate tragedy.
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To elaborate on what Sedlmeier1 said and to provide perspective, usually when a black woman in the entertainment industry is especially fair skinned, bronzers and other tanning effects are used. Why?
A. To give her a sexier, browner after glow and to even out her skin tone
B. To remind you that they’re black.
This goes for Lena Horne, Vanessa L. Williams, Alicia Keys, Faith Evans, Chante Moore and others. They’re all pale-faced in person yet much browner-skinned in their media depictions.
In constrast to Knowles, if she’s so light, then why would make her even lighter?! They’d be darkening her instead. Doing the opposite would defeat the purpose.
That’s a little industry secret for everyone! Same thing with height and weight…there’s so many tricks. I pity people who believe what they see on TV and in magazines! LOL.
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sedlmeier1 said:
I think perhaps it’s just the case that when white people see a black woman who’s attractive, they make excuses to themselves: she’s light-skinned, she’s got a thin nose, etc. It’s like they can’t just look at a black woman and say, “Gee, she’s pretty.”
I think that is why you keep hearing about Tyra Banks being light-skinned.
With Halle Berry it is partly that but also because we know she is half white and because she is often presented as light-skinned. Just look at her on Google Images:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=halle+berry
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Or, what about the practice of putting light-skinned and multiracial Black women next to blondest white women instead of placing with women of other ethnicities and brunette white women. Could it be that they want to remind the audience that they’re Black? Please elabaorate on that disgustingly racist practice. Thank you.
La Reyna
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Mynameisnyname, I have seen pictures of Vanessa L Williams and Faith Evans, in which they appear as pale as an average Caucasian. But you are saying that they were made to appear darker. So it can go both ways. BTW, I believe Faith Evans’ father is white.
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Williams and Evans are usually bronzed in their media depictions. Although, Williams may be slightly browner than your typical white person. Yes, Faith’s father was a white man. Are you saying that plays a part in her extreme paleness? LOL.
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La Reyna,
I don’t understand your question, #41? What’s the difference between “light skinned” and “multiracial”? Do you mean “racial ambigious”? I’m confused.
Again, usually if there’s a black woman who’s “too light” they will darken her up a bit. It’s standard practice. Just like when an extremely dark skinned person is in a frame, they’ll use a light called a “special”. This was used extensively in the Ocean Elevens remakes with Bernie Mac (RIP). They had to light him with a special because otherwise, in constrast to his pale-faced co-stars, he’d be washed out.
It’s just a matter of making one look good for the camera. Also, remember, since black folks are a naturally darkly pigmented group of people, their complexion will appear different, from frame to frame, picture to picture.
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One last thing:
Why do the concepts of “light skinned” and “dark skinned” have so much meaning when it comes to assessing black people?
Every other non-white “race” in America is fairly multi-hued as well yet no one is debating, assessing, analyzing and arguing how dark skinned an East Indian or Filipino or non-black Hispanic is or isn’t.
Why is that?
Why does a black person’s complexion stir up such a commotion but it doesn’t for someone who isn’t seen as black?
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That’s easy: During slavery, power and privilege were associated with white skin. The closer your skin tone was to white people, the more power you (generally) had. Although the power was ephemeral as you could still be sold, raped, abused, or even murdered at any time. Slave is slave.
Also, light-skinned slaves generally were more valuable (sale-price) than the dark-skinned ones, especially among women. For obvious reasons that make my skin crawl. That bias has carried over into modern times.
We. just. can’t. get. over. it.
I think this is a general issue in colonized societies. What about India or Brazil? Class and hue are closely aligned there, as well. Although, I think the Indian aspect is closely aligned with the colonization by the Indo-Aryans and not only from the British colonists.
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mynameisnyname Says:
“Williams and Evans are usually bronzed in their media depictions. Although, Williams may be slightly browner than your typical white person. Yes, Faith’s father was a white man. Are you saying that plays a part in her extreme paleness? LOL.”
Even though she is very light, I was surprised Faith Evans has one white parent.
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B&G,
My question was rhetorical but you gave the stock answer. Of course, it derives from a system that worked through slavery. I just have to correct you in saying that no slave had any real power. But if you mean in a relative sense, than maybe you have a point.
Also a lot of these “light skinned” slaves were often the slave master’s kin, hence the preference.
And yes, I’ve already explored why colorism a loaded issue for any colonized country.
What I asked is why folks apply “light skinned” and “dark skinned” onto BLACKS more frequently than they other non-white races when colorism is just as big of an issue (and arguably, a larger one) with them. What does “light skinned” and “dark skinned” mean for black people in the Western world that it doesn’t for other once colonized races?
Yeah, A White Guy, I was also surprised to learn about Faith’s father. He was never in her life, however, and she’s never seen him in her life. She was raised by her black grandmother in Newark, NJ.
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Perhaps it’s because America is still a majority-white country, whereas whites are in the minority in most other former colonies. Just a guess.
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BlackgirlUK Says:
“The full lips phenomenon is a imitation of black beauty. Before the likes of Angelina Jolie and Scarlet Johnson black women have been ridicule for having these same features. I remember growing up as a kid in London during the 80’s and white kids would make fun out of my lips which made me feel self-conscious. Now that Jolie has made full lips ‘fashionable’, now white people feel more comfortable with imitating our features but not actually say it’s more attractive than the old western ideal of beauty which has always been blonde-hair, blue-eyed, thinned lips, it has simply has that!!”
BlackgirlUK, I think this shift began before Angelina Jolie arrived; the models in fashion and advertisements, for example.
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Re: lips
Well.. it’s sort of like Elvis, Justin Timberlake, Eminem, etc. for music. There were white people who liked “black” music before them but it took a white person making similar music to bring it mainstream.
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True, B&G,
Whites have always loved black music. From blues to Motown to gangsta rap, whites have always been the biggest supporters.
Yet, with Elvis, Eminem and Timberlake, they got a white face not unlike theirs performing music that they already loved. It was a win-win situation and it captupalted those fellas to soaring heights.
(On an unrelated note, a girl I know from CT sings the hook on the current Eminem single! I still haven’t heard the song but was happy when I heard the news! Go Charmaine Tripp!)
On the other hand, most white artists who’ve performed black musical styles never had much of a real white following. Interesting. It’s weird how much white folks took to Timberlake and Eminem, but not Teena Marie, Jon B or Bobby Caldwell.
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LOL: I thought Bobby Caldwell was black! And even Teena Marie I assumed was part black somehow.
The white-people-liking-black-music thing goes back to at least the 1800s when some of the top songs were minstrel songs – some done by black men but most done by white men in blackface. None of this stuff is new.
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Exactly, as I said, whites have always loved black music.
That’s one arena that whites never had a problem with blacks excelling in: entertainment. That and athletics. Now, when it comes to positions of power, that’s another story …
I didn’t know Caldwell was white (for years!) until someone told me.
Teena Marie is asthetically black. A lot of people thought she was black when she first came out. And some who don’t know her story still think she is!
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mynameismyname is crazy. Beyonce’s mom’s family is from New Iberia. There are records of her family history online:
http://www.afrigeneas.com/forum-fpoc/index.cgi?md=read;id=5121
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h va t katar
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Beyonce is not “light-skinned” in terms of bi-racial standards, because she is not bi-racial. There have been too many comments about how she changes from picture to picture and how people are confused about what her real complexion is. No one is THAT confusing…She is brown-skinned, point blank. Compared to Alex Wek (model) she’s lighter, but she’s comparable to a lot of African Americans.
She claims to be “CREOLE” but is using the term in a wrong way. Creoles are white/caucasian people that were BORN in the Caribbean. Maybe some of Beyonce’s ancestors MIXED with these creoles, but that does not make her a creole. **A lot of African-Americans can claim mixed roots in the US** She would have to be caucasian and born in the caribbean to be a Creole. That’s like having a great-grandfather who was Japanese, and all other family members being white…And being born in New York, and referring to yourself as being FULLY JAPANESE. Beyonce does not look “creole”. She merely identifies with it to be less Black.
Its obvious that Beyonce wants to appear more exotic (less african), hence her use of blond weaves. The concern about African Americans HAVING to buy into the white standard of beauty is getting old. How about create a new standard of beauty? That’s like Obama saying that he had to wear a white mask to win the election — He didn’t! Now, other people looking like him can run for office and not be viewed as different.
Beyonce WANTS the caucasian standard of beauty. She (and other Black celebrities) can RE-DEFINE the standard of beauty so that harmful bleaching creams become a thing of the past. But NO, she will continue to wear lace-fronts and continue to make ridiculous comments like “I wish I were Latina. I love the latin culture”. Her beauty/style icon is Jennifer Lopez. There were numerous pictures that showed that Beyonce emulated past looks of Jennifer’s. Beyonce reminds me of Tina Turner not J-Lo so I was always confused as to why she turned to someone who looked nothing like her to emulate.
End the speculation about Beyonce – She has an identity crisis and wants to look different. Not because of society, but her own insecurites.
Natural is ALWAYS BETTER.
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Exactly, Lynette.
Cruz,
Comparing Knowles to Tina Turner is an insult to Tina. If anything, Beyonce, as a solo act, is the black American version of J.Lo. Albeit less succesful and less market-savvy.
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I understand where you’re coming from…However, I was referring to the original use of the term creole (i.e., people like Jean Rhys). Now, the word has taken on too many meanings and used by people like Beyonce who want to call themselves anything but Black.
I meant she resembles Tina (looks nothing like Jennifer).
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I brought up Tina & J-Lo to show that Beyonce is confused…Why try to emulate someone so utterly different than yourself?
vs
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tell beyonce why “U” mad SON!
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Just saw another example of this.
In this interview (in German), the interview shows the Ethiopian model’s (winner of Germany’s Next Top Model) picture in Cosmopolitan and points out that they “changed her appearance”. Just look at what they did to her boobs! And they lighten her up considerably.
For those of you who don’t speak German, he comments that it shows how ridiculous it has gotten when they take such a beautiful woman and change her like that.
http://www.stern.de/video/:Video-Topmodel-Sara-Nuru/701991.html
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For those who can’t be bothered to watch the interview, here are two photos to show what I’m talking about.
Her real self: http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1614/germanysnexttopmodelsar.jpg
Her Cosmo self: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30821108@N03/3675817264/
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Why’d they go and do that?
The Ethio model was beautiful as her natural Nubian self.
I’m surprised that a black woman won a German beauty contest. Wow.
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A comment Uncle Milton put in another thread but seems to go here:
To Black&German:
Just look at what they did to her boobs! And they lighten her up considerably.
re: Boobs – Looks like a Wonderbra of equivalent.. re: skin tone… notice the highlights.. she’s under very heavy studio lighting. Was it done on purpose? Possibly but I don’t think it was Photoshop. Beyonce’s photo, however, bears the marks of digital alteration. It clearly wasn’t done with lighting.
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Cruz:
“Creole” has different meanings, like you said. At first it meant white people born outside of Europe – no longer a useful meaning. When I hear it used in America it almost always means the Creoles from Louisiana. I wrote a post about them:
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Shame they made her pasty.
She looks great with her natural caramel complexion.
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to be honest the right picture looks more like Beyonce, I’m black and when I was younger I coulda swore Beyonce was white… I ain’t neva seen Beyonce that nice caramel shade on the left, or with dark hair… she’s been blonde and high yellow since her DC days… in fact I thought the left pic was Lil Kim for a minute
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Good point. Black-haired Beyonce is not what we are used to. I can remember when I first saw her back in the 1990s on some website, and even then she seemed like a light-skinned blonde wannabe. The other three girls made that stand out even more.
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These pictures are all that clear, looks like some photoshop was done. http://entertainment.msn.co.nz/img/blog/may08/blog140508_beonce2.jpg Look at her pics as a child.
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“I’m surprised that a black woman won a German beauty contest. Wow.”
I’m not surprised. One of the former Miss Germany’s (and, in my opinion, one of the world’s most beautiful women) was Brazilian: http://www.mikurda.de/Allerlei/HTML/Bilder/VeronaFeldbusch.jpg
And Heidi’s a bit of a “collector”. One of the previous winners was her: http://www.listal.com/person/barbara-meier
She tends to favor unusual-looking (to German eyes) girls. They’re more memorable, therefore more marketable.
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They need to stop trying to make peoples hair color and make up color and every color on them start to blend. She looks better when her hair has that original contrast. It’s like those commercials with Drew Barrymore(I forgot what makeup) where her hair and make up and skin started looking like the same color. It’s creepy! Contrast is nice
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shes looks more like shakira in her image on the right.
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I think we should stop blaming white people for everything. Let’s face it: if you are willing to buy into an idea of white only being beautiful, it’s YOUR fault, not the fault of a white person. If African Americans truly appreciated what mother nature gave them instead of trying to fix being black they’d be just fine. But they don’t like themeselves and try to mask it by blaming it on whites.
I’m partly African (native) and I can tell you that here in Europe some of the views of AAs on black body image would be considered purely racist and very backwards.
You guys, however you’d never admitted that, are hating on your own race!
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I do not feel like like Loreal changed anything about Beyonce. She always parades various colors of hairstyles, especially blonde hair or highlights. That picture to the left was only placed here to generate some pseudo conclusion about a possible injustice; when we rarely see Beyonce with dark hair. C’mon! Beyonce, like a number of fair-skinned black women, do spray tanning for that crispy golden look. She looks like herself to me.
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Just came across this… Do “we” tend to read too much into issues like this? My wife is a lot like Beyonce, and at different times of the year she is Whiter or Blacker to differeing degrees based on the amount of sun she gets.
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UNDERSTANDING is almost certainly white.
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I heard a lot of controversy surrounding this incident. I think Beyonce is trying to appeal to a wider audience(White mainstream media). I don’t know if she wants to be White because I don’t know her personally. I love Beyonce and her music but all this worship White features and anything White nonsense that the media has going on has to stop. And Blacks really need to love themseleves because I know this because I am Black and I am trying to get to love myself. We, as Blacks, have really listened to and gave in to the media’s standard of beauty:long blond, brown, black straight hair, light eyes,pale to fair skin(for Blacks and Asian and Latina women). This is not for all of us but a lot of us. We should love ourselves because there are some people out there who think Black is beautiful, which it is. People of all races are beautiful and I hope people realize that one day
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Do you know what I think would help? END THE LABELING OF SELF. How about we’re all Black. How’s that for an end to this “black pride”?
No? Can’t do it, right? BECAUSE NOBODY WANTS TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN. Absolutely shameful.
What is wrong with being a “Black American”? That’s right…nothing and, yet, all one hears is I’m Black and I’m proud: I’m creole, jamaican, african, and etc. You may be Black, but you are not proud, if immediately, you must add, “and I’m…”
Just be proud because you are unique of all the races.
President Obama is Black. Ask him. He will tell you. Don’t believe him, then check the box on his census form. He ticked “Black”. THAT is good enough for me!
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This whole hair and color thing really confuses people–especially black women and men.
I was never a follower of DC or Beyonce as a solo artist,but i did notice from like 1998-2004, that it seemed the media always made Beyonce out to be the “exotic” factor of DC or the more “ambiguous” one.
It wasn’t until i read the wikipedia bio of Beyonce that i learned she was creole–whatever that means because there are creoles who I have met from Haiti and are really ebony complexioned. To them it is not as race as they clearly identify as black, but a certain cultural identity, mainly revolving around language and a particular dialect.
I think in the states, especially among AAs there is a tendency to think of creole as “mixed”–meaning not all black, but what of the white creoles and primarily identified black creoles? This is really a sub set of cultural norms and dialects, not a type of skin or hair color. At least in my experience.
I think Beyonce is good-looking, but i think the belle/petite/bien aimee is her baby sister. I mean since we are going by old French standards…
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First of all, Black women are beautiful, don’t let up to any image of Beyoncé as an image of ”Black beauty” because she isn’t representing Black women but White women.
Second of all, Beyoncé is just a modestly attractive light skin girl(pretty) not beautiful. She has a great body and a nice smile though. I have seen much better looking Black women in come in all shades of color and I am saying this as a Black woman myself.
Last but not last, Beyonce is not mixed. Her mother is mixed and mixed with Black, French and Native American, which makes up the Creole culture of people in Louisana. Creole is NOT a separate race from Black . Creole are descendants of French colonists and African people intermarrying and having sexual relations, in fact if these mixed people lived in Georgia or any other Southern state, they would have been slaves because of their Black ancestry and sit at the back of the bus. Beyoncé’s father is Black and her mother, who is very fair has Black in her.
Beyoncé is about 70%-80% Black and about 20%-30% European and that is the average mixture of a Black person in America so Beyoncé is just Black. She, like many Blacks have White and other racial admixture but they are still majority Black in blood like Beyoncé is although she has a light complexion that she inherited from her mother.
I don’t hate Beyoncé. I like her music and I like her but I know I had to speak up about this. No one is ever exempt from my criticism whether I like them or not. Black people, know you are beautiful and stop looking to Whites to validate your beauty!
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“Adeen,
Last but not last, Beyonce is not mixed. Her mother is mixed and mixed with Black, French and Native American, which makes up the Creole culture of people in Louisana. Creole is NOT a separate race from Black.”
Linda says,
Adeen, stop drinking the American kool-aide.
no matter how you slice it because of her mother, she too is mixed race because the 3 “races” in her bloodline have not magically gone away — and no, most black people in American do not have a 20 – 30% admixture — only certain regions, like Louisiana.
If you want to learn how America became a 2 “race” country, here’s the grandfather of your modern day thinking: Walter Ashby Plecker
http://hamptonroads.com/2004/08/blackandwhite-world-walter-ashby-plecker
a man who erased a group of people singlehandedly Overnight in the name of Eugenics and white supremacy and made it “illegal and a crime” to carry African genes and not announce it — he erased almost an entire native American tribe because they had intermixed with Africans.
Plecker is the man who has black Americans thinking that anyone with 1 drop of African blood is “black”; while everyone else in the world, like Jamaica, call racially mixed people exactly what they are — what do you think “brown” people in the Caribbean and mestizo Hispanics are — mixed race…not first generation or even second, but mixed for generations just like Beyonce
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Your numbers were not too far off —
“A 2003 study found an average of 18.6% (±1.5%) European admixture in a population sample of 416 African Americans from Washington, DC. Studies of other populations in other areas have found differing percentages of ethnicity.
Twenty percent of African Americans have more than 25% European ancestry, reflecting the long history of unions between the groups. The “mostly African” group is substantially African, as 70% of African Americans in this group have less than 15% European ancestry. The 20% of African Americans in the “mostly mixed” group (2.7% of US population) have between 25% and 50% European ancestry.”
But to put things into perspective, being “black” in America is a social construct created by white supremacy and embraced by the Civil Rights movement in order to gain political strength.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiracial_American
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@Linda
We live in America not Caribbean or Latin America! I am only going by American standards because Beyoncé is American and she does not live in Latin America or the Caribbean. It is not my fault that mixed people are considered Black in America. America is a racist country and according to America, any Black blood makes you Black, which I don’t think is right but it is America.
”But to put things into perspective, being “black” in America is a social construct created by white supremacy and embraced by the Civil Rights movement in order to gain political strength.”
Exactly! You are right on this one.
If she lived in Latin America and Caribbean, where my family is from(I descended from Jamaicans), she would have been considered mixed.
However America has different standards of what is considered White and what is considered Black than other places of the world. I was just looking at it with an American standpoint not trying to offend anyone.
We don’t live in the Caribbean or Latin America although my ancestry hails from that region of the world. Beyoncé is a Black American woman, and like other Black Americans, she has White admixture in her ancestry. But that doesn’t make her ”mixed” like Halle Berry.
I am not here to offend but defend my standpoint and view.
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Adeen, you didn’t offend me at all…I’m just don’t believe in following “fashion” because other people say so.
Regardless of what “America says” … you can distinguish between reality and the ridiculous…Halle might have more European mixture than Beyoncé.. but does the difference in quantify really make that much difference? …does Beyoncé 30-40% make her less mixed than Halle’s 50% — no it doesn’t — black people in America just don’t want to hear about it, from Halle or Beyoncé.
What I don’t like is when “black” people feel the need to remind someone that they are trying to be “white” because they say they are “mixed” and don’t just say they are “black” — group pressure
regardless of where you live, you have to know how to keep things in perspective and not just fall in line with everything you hear. Beyoncé IS mixed and should be able to talk about her heritage without being accused of “trying to be white”
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@Linda
Nice to hear that you think for yourself instead of going by the One Drop Rule, which is what America goes by when determining who is Black and who isn’t.
Yes Beyoncé is mixed to a degree and Halle Berry is very mixed but by America’s standards, they are Black. The One Drop Rule determined that mixed race people are Black.
But from now on, I will see them as mixed(deciding for myself here). I will not go by the One Drop Rule anymore however society will always see them as Black.
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@Linda
Plecker is a wicked man. Wicked people like him made up the One Drop Rule so that they could keep the White race pure and not ”pollute” it with Black blood and genes. To me, that is terrible.
And honestly, my mother has the same phenotype as Beyoncé. and she is light skin Jamaican woman but she considers herself a Black woman. My father is dark skin though and I take after my father’s side.
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“Adeen,
Yes Beyoncé is mixed to a degree and Halle Berry is very mixed but by America’s standards, they are Black.”
Linda says,
Yes, but Only in America and Thank God that the USA is not the world or decides for the rest of the world — no need to have America’s “racist views” dictating to the rest of us globally — we have enough to deal with as Afro-descendants in the diaspora.
Anyway, here is a picture of Beyoncé when she was a baby (she’s was adorable)
http://celebritiesaskids.net/beyonce-as-baby
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@Linda
Thank you for sending me the picture. Beyoncé had wavy hair and she looked Latina as a baby! She is beautiful today.
I wouldn’t let America’s racist views on race dictate who I think is White or Black any longer. You opened my eyes.
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You’re welcome, I like Beyoncé (even though she’s a little overrated)
I really was not setting out to change your mind,
When it comes to white racism, black and Afro mixed-race people do have to deal with it and have that in common; I had just wanted to say that it’s OK to recognize and admit the differences between black and mixed-race people as well.
I think it’s important to recognize the history and mindset of different groups of people(s)/ country(s) when it comes to “race” and racial concepts but keep in mind that these concepts are fluid (like in some countries in Europe, Indians [from India] are seen as “black”)
if you should ever travel outside of the US and live for any extended period of time, you would have to be prepared to take on “new rules” when it comes to race, class, women’s rights, etc
(certain countries in Africa would view you as “white” because you are American and don’t belong to an African ethnic group — so they would probably view this whole controversy about Beyoncé as silly)
When we I first came to the US, my mum told us to “do as the Romans do” in order to get along but never forget where we come from and don’t follow fashion (blindly) because it’s important to be able to view things from at least 2 sides.
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@Linda
I like Beyoncé too. I grew up watching her on the Destiny’s Child. She is overrated but I like Beyoncé. She is one of the few artists today who can sing, dance and perform well at the same time.
I plan on being a journalist and traveling outside of America. I even plan on living outside of America after age 30.. I can’t take this country anymore witht heir racism and political correctness. I think this country is getting worse for Black people.
”When we I first came to the US, my mum told us to “do as the Romans do” in order to get along but never forget where we come from and don’t follow fashion (blindly) because it’s important to be able to view things from at least 2 sides.”
Same with my parents when they came from Jamaica to here. Personally I don’t think America is the best country in the world.
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