The Personal Side of Bias, Predjudice, and Oppression

• What memory do you have of an incident when you experienced bias, prejudice, and/or oppression, witnessed someone else as the target of bias, prejudice, and/or oppression? Keep in mind that one can encounter such incidents in real contexts, including online environments, as well as in fictional ones, such as movies, books, television shows, and the like.

 The memory that I will talk about is black women and beauty. I will use television and media as examples it seemed like to me in the 1980's and 1990's the only black women perceived to be beautiful was women that was half black and half white or just 

biracial. For instance in shows like the Cosby show, you were automatically deemed beautiful  if you were biracial. It seemed like in that era of the 1980's and 1990's the only black  women portrayed in television and movies in romantic roles and deemed beautiful were biracial and light skinned black women. If you were a woman and too black you were portrayed in other roles. It was to say if you wanted to be called beautiful and you were too black you better step back.

           Psychology today had published article on black women'sattractivenes, but brought on an  outcry and rightly so. This is what someone said, "Wow. So Psychology Today published an article yesterday titled “Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?” Wow. It disappeared from the website after massive, overwhelming outcry about it being obvious racist pseudo-science bullshit. The fact the article ever went up at all is appalling, though, and unfortunately must be called out. (The article’s been reposted here if you feel the need to read it, which I do not recommend.)

The author, Satoshi Kanazawa, is known for racist junk science. He works in the field of evolutionary psychology, which sadly is full of folks passing of their deduction as objective fact to prove their racist and sexist views. He’s obsessed with attractiveness and linking race and intelligence in work that’s been repeatedly debunked. He’s also said he wished Ann Coulter was president on 9/11 so we could have nuked the entire Middle East. Yeah, wonderful guy...No, the real reason black women are less attractive is probably because they have more testosterone than other women. And testosterone, while it looks fine in men (yay gender essentialism!) makes women fugly. “Objectively.” I think what he’s trying to say is butch women are gross. I think Kanazawa is gross.

This piece is so undeniably racist there’s just no way Psychology Today put it up for any other reason than to generate traffic. which is despicable. And in fact they’ve published plenty of bullshit by Kanazawa in the past, plenty more junk science and pointless racist ramblings. Maybe the fact this article was taken down means they’re finally done with him – a girl can dream. Here’s where you can contact Psychology Today. Because maybe if enough of us tell them we’re over this crap this really will be Kanazawa’s last article"(Truitt, 2011). I think the myth that black women are ugly is one of the greatest misconceptions of the black race. Black people themselves  have been brainwashed that the lighter skinned you are and the straighter your hair is the more beautiful you are.

• In what way(s) did the specific bias, prejudice and/or oppression in that incident diminish equity? It diminishes it by saying that no matter how beautiful a black woman is she still not as beautiful as other races. This means to her she is inferior to other races of women. So  in order for black women to be presentable for husbands, job opportunities, and deny what they feel about their natural beauty we have to straighten our hair, wear hair extensions, sometimes black women dye their hair blonde, some even wear blue or green contacts. I am glad some black women are proud of their beauty and have not sold out to the mentality that the only way to be beautiful is to look Caucasian.
• What feelings did this incident bring up for you? This means in some cases we do not have equal opportunity for jobs, businesses, and husbands.These incidents means that as an Afro American Female we may have to carry the pride of our race alone, but I say march on black women.
• What and/or who would have to change in order to turn this incident into an opportunity for greater equity? I think it starts from teachers, parents, society, and black people themselves by believing that no race is superior to another race and we all should be proud of who we are.

Reference

Truitt, Jos Retrieved from http://feministing.com/2011/05/16/racist-psychology-today-article-claims-black-women-are-objectively-less-attractive-than-other-women/