Black women deal with racism and sexism every single day. And, in this country it can be at times relentless. The erasure of our beauty happens constantly. As Paul Moony says, “Cute on them. Ugly on us.”
White women have always benefited and profited from looking like black women, undergoing cosmetic surgery to enhance their lips, eyes, cheeks, and yes, even buttocks to become beautiful all while failing to acknowledge the beauty of the black woman. White women, cultural influencers, in particular, are online with a cultural appropriation and exploitation that is called “Blackfishing.” Blackfishing is where they change their physical appearance with makeup and use traditional black hair styles to look more like black women, in some cases even passing as black.
Aubrey O’day has bypassed all of that. She has gone to a further extreme. Using Photoshop, she simply replaced a photo of beautiful black model, Symara Templeman, with a photograph of her own. She plopped herself right into the place of this actress and model. Further, she stated the photo was taken in the Mojave Desert. In reality the photograph was taken in Namibia. Not only did she erase the black model, she also whitewashed the location.
Normally I would not have blogged about this but it seems Aubrey doesn’t want anyone to know she stole this photograph. She has been working overtime to remove comments about the theft. She blocks anyone on Instagram who points it out. Myself included. But, she can’t block this blog.
Black women are amazingly beautiful. Our skin, our hair, our bodies are the ultimate standard of beauty. However, these racist acts of cultural appropriation against black women must stop!
~Kai
Follow me: @KaiNicole on Twitter, @KaiFlyMommy on Instagram. And, buy the best dating book for women, Date Like A Woman!
Photo: Instagram
