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Information about socially appropriate behavior and norms shape identity, and with few exceptions, most people conform in one way or another to some form of acceptable behavior. Without a strong collective identity as a referent, blacks in the U.S. have had a long struggle with Eurocentric beauty standards, since they exclude skin colors and hair types which many black females have. This critical-interpretive analysis of cultural dominance and cultural identity explores how Eurocentric beauty paradigms impact black female identities. Specifically, the research examined ways in which black females' cultural identities are adapted-then communicated as a result of dominant beauty standards. It was found that European beauty constructs are internalized by blacks in general, and black females in particular. Lighter skinned females with longer hair reported social acceptance and other forms of validation, resulting in higher levels of confidence, self-esteem, and individual successes. Inversely, darker skinned participants, particularly those with shorter hair, experienced feelings of isolation, resulting in lowered self-esteem, some of which limited their social and employment opportunities. To combat dominant beauty standards, participants stressed the need to strengthen cultural identities by using an Afrocentric rather than Eurocentric construct of beauty; the need for positive family messages to counter negative dominant messages; and the need for individual self-acceptance, regardless of skin color, hair, or beauty paradigms.
Being black affects the way a person walks and talks, his or values, culture, and history, how that person rehtes to others and how they relate to him or her.
The Color Complex (Russell, Wilson, and Hall 1992, 62)
...I begin to suffer from not being [white] to the degree that [whites] impose discrimination on me, makes me a colonized native, robs me of all worth, all individuality, tells me that I am a parasite on the world, that I must bring myself as quickly as possible into step with the white world. . . Then I will quite simply try to make myself white. . .
Black Skin, White Masks (Fanon, 1967, 98)
I liked being what they liked, so what they liked was who I was.
Jill Scott - poet, songwriter, singer
INTRODUCTION
Recently, CNN's Soledad O'Brien presented a two-day presentation about the U.S. black experience, (Black in America, July 22-23, 2008), covering such topics...