By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – Is beauty skin deep? What is the connection between race and beauty standards? To what extent are ideas of beauty colonized? These questions and more were explored during the Red Bank Public Library’s latest Let’s Talk About Race program on Nov. 30.
In the year’s final installation of the series hosted virtually, Kayla Williams, the Diversity Equity and Inclusion lead for Clean Production Action, a nonprofit that provides environmental justice programs, spoke about how far people of color will go to achieve white beauty standards.
Williams explored the issues hiding under layers of beauty customs, such as systemic racism, white beauty standards, toxic chemicals in products marketed to women of color and ways to reduce personal chemical footprints. According to Williams, not just Black and Brown people but women and children and those with disabilities are all at risk when it comes to the toxic chemicals in the marketplace.
She began her presentation by noting that race is a social and political construct, not a “biological” one. The first instance of explicitly defining race in the United States came during the 1680s in Jamestown, Virginia. The Virginia House of Burgesses began to use the term “white men” rather than “Englishmen” or “Christian” to describe the class of people who would have access to certain rights, privileges and property.
Williams said the construct of race has continued throughout history and has “been central to our country’s economic development and the development of wealth and power as we have exploited those peoples who are not white.” She added that these wealth disparities, in turn, contribute to other disparities like health inequity and environmental injustice, among others.
Williams shared a recent example of a “microaggression” – a small comment or action that often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses prejudice – in the beauty industry. Williams, a self-described “lighter-skinned Black woman” and her sister Maya, whom Williams said has skin the color of “warm chocolate,” were at a makeup counter. According to Williams, the salesperson, while applying different shades of makeup on Williams, Maya and herself, pointed to Maya and said, “I get really tan in the summer, but I don’t get that dark.”
At that moment, Williams said, “It felt very uncomfortable because I was experiencing an advantage because of my perceived identity as a lighter-skinned Black person. I wasn’t the person that microaggression was directed towards. So, it didn’t hurt me the way that it hurt my sister.”
Because of a history of discrimination against skin tones, races and hair types, “there’s Black people alive who have been kicked out of school, lost a job, lost opportunities, just because of their hair texture, their hairstyle. Same thing for nonwhite people in general,” said Williams.
Linda Hewitt, the library’s adult programming and outreach coordinator, pointed out that organizations and politicians are making some progress regarding discrimination based on beauty standards. She mentioned the CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) – a law in 23 states, including New Jersey – that prohibits racial discrimination in the workplace and public schools based on hair texture and hairstyles such as braids, locks, twists and knots.
Williams also displayed an image of Fair & Lovely skin lightening cream sold worldwide, including in the United States. Skin bleaching and hair straightening are examples of methods that nonwhite people adopt to be “socially valuable” and “get a little bit closer to whiteness, because even just a little bit closer is going to afford you certain advantages you didn’t have before,” said Williams.
According to Williams, Black and Brown people are also more likely to face “disproportionate risks from largely unregulated toxic chemicals and beauty and personal care products” marketed toward them than their white counterparts. She spoke about “chemicals of high concern (CoHC),” toxic chemicals that can cause cancer, developmental deformities in children, hormonal imbalances and more in the marketplace. Referring to recent research and media reports, Williams said societal pressure to conform is a factor in why “Black women are twice as likely than other groups to use hair relaxers. Asian women are three time as likely to use skin lighteners.”
The FDA recently proposed a ban on formaldehyde in hair straighteners, expected to take effect in December. Still, Williams points out that there are cosmetic products with CoHCs marketed toward people of color that “have never been assessed for safety on a federal level.”
CoHCs can be found in toothpaste, lotions, perfumes, makeup, eyelash glue, nail polish, household cleaning products and more. “They’re basically completely unregulated,” she said. But there are things one can do to reduce toxic exposure.
Williams urged people to identify the chemical ingredients of products and purchase and use safer alternatives. She suggested Clearya, an app that helps identify safer alternatives while shopping for makeup, personal care, baby care or other products. She also suggested looking at the Non-Toxic Black Beauty Project database of safe, nontoxic products from Black-owned businesses available on safecosmetics.org. The organization screens for safer Black beauty products to help consumers make more informed purchases. Another organization listing safer products is the Environmental Working Group at ewg.org.
Black women as a consumer group “spend upwards of like $5.7 trillion a year” on hair and beauty products, Williams said, “We have the most buying power in that industry” and can use that money to effect change.
Jen Clarke, a Black woman who owns Woodhouse Spa in Red Bank, was not a panelist or attendee of the program but spoke with The Two River Times about beauty standards.
“Black beauty, in particular, is incredibly dynamic, encompassing a spectrum of skin tones, hair textures and cultural expressions,” she said.
“It is essential to recognize that choices such as hair straightening or skin lightening are personal expressions rather than conformity to a specific standard.”
Clarke said she did not witness women of color conforming to any single beauty standard at her spa, which she said “celebrates the dynamic beauty of women of color.”
The article originally appeared in the December 7 – December 13, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
