A young man approached a friend of mine. He said to her “You got dah Kim Kardashian type uh body.” He made the comment sound as polite as possible when commenting on a total stranger’s body.
Many would simply accept the personal praise and miss the larger diss. Some socially aware persons would take offence at the sexism and objectification. How many though, would stop to ask the question, “How de rascality Kim Kardashian get to be the poster child for a body type that is typically African?”
The young man was referring to her small waist and inversely proportional hips and derriere. It sounds like a compliment. That is surely how he meant it. Many would agree. My friend did not. She recognised the irony. This black Barbadian male has grown up in a majority black country surrounded by black women with bodies like this. Yet in his mind, this body type has come to be defined by a white American celebrity.
Kim Kardashian is a Caucasian-American television personality admired for her ample assets. Her bottom takes on mythical proportions on the internet. Mythical because there is really very little unique about her bottom except that it is on her.
If we think that racism only comes in the bitter flavour of the Klu Klux Klan, the N word, and police brutality we will miss the tasteless, odourless, colourless and sometimes tasty racial poison we are fed.
It is a mental poison. That young man on the beach is a victim of racism. He is clouded by mass media images that present a particular standard of beauty. He in turn imposes that image on the women around him. Fortunately this young woman has a level of awareness to realise the racism which often comes disguised as a compliment.
“You look good for a dark girl.” “She dark but she pretty.” “You are a pretty girl, why you doan straighten your hair?” Because black features are not officially acceptable unless endorsed by white culture, big bottoms more easily go mainstream on lighter skinned bodies.
Black women are pressured by society at work, home and play to fit a foreign mold. Photoshop, make-up, weave, straightener, bleaching cream and plastic surgery in ascending order of extremity, are the means by which they can come closer to the unachievable mark of whiteness.
The black woman, who despite the pressure to conform persists in presenting a natural alternative to the colonial standards of beauty, is performing a revolutionary act.
She is sending this message to little black girls like my daughter, “I am beautiful the way I was made and you are like me so you are too.” This is contrary to the more common message they will receive throughout their lives which is, “You too can be beautiful if you use a product to make you look more European.”
The message is reinforced by our acceptance of it. It starts early and is almost impossible to avoid.
My daughter Rashai is four years old. She received a large floor puzzle for her birthday. On this puzzle are pictures of several princesses in traditional dress from a variety of cultures. I considered this puzzle ok because it gives equal space to various ethnicities.
Rashai asked me to go through the princesses with her, so one by one I indicated to her which one was the African Princess, which one was Chinese, European and so on. When I had gone through the whole lot my daughter thought to herself for a moment and then said, “Daddy, I don’t think that is a European Princess though.” “What do you mean?” I said. She replied, “I don’t think that is a European Princess, I think that is just the Princess.”
I understood what she meant. The European princess looks like most of the other princesses a black girl will come across in her lifetime. That was the real princess. The others were bootleg versions.
Despite my efforts to shield her, the message that whiteness reigns still made it through. We had to have a deep conversation which will probably continue and get deeper as she gets older. I hope I can plant enough seeds of self-respect that she will not feel the need to bend to meet racist social standards.
Parents with similar visions have little help. The young man’s elevation of Kardashian above his sisters indicates our failure as a society to respond to the international media’s psychological assault on the black psyche. Our advertising agencies, media houses and educational system are not adequately countering the assault.
Some people argue that because Barbados is a majority black country we do not fall victim to the self-esteem issues Black Americans may develop due to living as a minority. But our forefathers grew up singing God Save the Queen. The image of God in our churches is still mostly white. We are still groomed by a colonially inspired educational system. Our children today feed on western media at an unprecedented level. Our internal racial issues are just better camouflaged by all the black bodies around us.
When you are raised in an atmosphere polluted by messages of white supremacy and black inferiority you get used to the smell. You may not even notice the stench. Even if you smell it you may love it so much you refuse to clear the air.
This is not a little hole in our education system. A person can be a Maths and English wiz and still be a dunce when it comes to reading the subtle messages of culture and the media and calculating an appropriate response. Without being educated to appreciate our own history, culture and selves, we are being educated to serve some other culture and people.
It goes beyond cosmetics. If we perceive our own mothers, daughters, sisters and wives as second-rate, our businesses and government cannot do much better.
Adrian Green is a specialist in culturally, socially and historically conscious communications.
adriangreen14@gmail.com