Allyship Part 1: A History Lesson
If we’re going to talk about allyship, we have to talk about how we got here. One of the cornerstones of being an ally is education. By educating ourselves and mindfully practicing listening more than speaking, we can better tune into the experiences of others and understand just how to become better allies to black and brown communities.
From slavery to the civil rights movement, Jim Crow laws to mass incarceration, access to healthcare and redlining policies in housing legislation, the evidence of ongoing systemic racism is blatant. At Be More, we are not only committed to fighting the difficult battles and using our voice and platform to demand racial justice in every sector, but we want to foster a community that is safe for black indigenous women of color (BIWOC) and continues to tune into the struggles of black and brown women.
Our society was born out of and still resides in a patriarchal system that works to serve and benefit men. While women have made great strides in earning more rights, respect, and opportunity, we still have a long way to go to achieve the level of equality we deserve. There’s little doubt that we live in a world where women are doubted in their decision-making, expected to uphold unrealistic expectations of beauty, and are lacking fair and equal representation in positions of power. Yet as an ally, it’s vital that we start to listen and give attention to the intersection of being black in this country and being a woman.
In Beyonce’s “Homecoming” performance at Coachella in 2018, one of the many statements she made in her performance was a clip in her song “Don’t Hurt Yourself” that states, “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” The intersectionality of blackness and womanhood begs for the discussion of the impact of European standards of beauty in this country. Black women’s bodies have been neglected and denigrated by the dominant mainstream culture in all sectors. From the fashion and beauty industries to the fitness industry and overall media representation, the prevalence of whiteness and thinness both undermines and neglects the experience of BIWOC.
In a study done in 2014, researchers interviewed African American college women about their concerns with body image and beauty standards. Their findings revealed that the unique issues experienced by black women that appeared most frequently were the importance of hair in self-confidence and belonging, skin tone, body type, hyper-sexualization, and cultural messaging. By inhabiting a system that values some hair types over others, hair maintenance, adhering to cultural norms, and expression of individual identity is a delicate and expensive balancing act. In a society that places a premium on “whiteness,” the natural hair of BIWOC is continuously treated as a symbol of inferiority and is used to discriminate black women in job interviews, corporate settings, and white-dominated areas of society.
In addition to hair, the skin tone of black women is placed on a spectrum in which the lightest complexions are valued more and seen as more attractive than darker skin tones. As black women internalize European standards of beauty that occupy most billboards and beauty campaigns, they are consistently pressured to alter the color of their skin not only to adhere to these beauty standards, but to achieve the kind of social capital that is gained by white women. The intersections of skin color and body image result in a feeling of inescapable inadequacy.
The study also found that BIWOC experience having a curvy body type as the ideal. As the prevalence of “thinness” plagues the American beauty standard for women, black women fail to find representations of their body type in mainstream culture. Instead, hyper-sexualized images of black women’s bodies are the norm in media sources, which further constricts the areas of beauty and culture in which black women are allowed to inhabit.
All of this in mind, the cultural messaging of Eurocentric society is another element of racial injustice we must work to dismantle. Black women internalize these messages just as much as white women. It’s imperative that we listen to BIWOC, uplift their voices and stories of their experiences, and start to reshape the industry we helped create to include more diverse representations and ideals of beauty. Being an ally involves educating yourself on the experiences of black women in their struggles for wider cultural acceptance and understanding.
So what can you do?
An important step in allyship, specifically in the intersections of womanhood and the black experience in America, is to examine your own role in these issues. We urge you to examine your social circles, the social platforms you follow, and the brands you support, as the money you spend, the likes you give to influencers, and the interactions you have with others all matter and play a role in upholding what has historically been the societal norm for far too long. Do you support any beauty or apparel companies owned by black women? Do you follow more white fitness influencers than black ones? Is your Instagram feed as diverse as the world around you?
It isn’t enough to talk about body image, the journey to self love, and unrealistic beauty standards if we only talk about how they affect ourselves. The road to becoming a true ally and advocate for racial justice demands that we talk about how the American beauty standard affects our black and brown sisters too.
