Blackface an already Black face
There are many areas to discuss about this. My husband and I were building on this this morning. *sigh* As I watched the video portion I noticed some beautiful outfits, headpieces and Beyonce looked beautiful.
Now, the main shot to discuss, the blackface portion. In the beginning they are paying homage to Black Queens, ok, then to Fela Kuti...? Why do you need to paint her face dark to do that?? Only dark skinned people wear tribal paint? were they afraid it would show up on her caramel skin? Why not just use a dark skinned model or women in the industry? There are sooooooo many strong Black sistrens out there, even models of all complexions especially dark skinned models and why is it that when media/fashion/industry wants to portray a strong Black woman to represent Black women or African /American it has to be Beyonce? She doesn't take a stand when her skinned is lighten for media but she stands her ground when her skinned is painted dark...?? What? I'm confused. What does she exactly stand for? really? Skin hue is a fashion accessory and is only accepted when in the hands of those who choose/decide when it's "appropriate" to be Black or represent Afrocentric beauty.
What is your take on this? Is it offensive, in distaste, acceptable, fashion, beauty, creativity...?
http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/the-thread/beyonce-under-fire-for-blackface-photos-blog-159-shine.html
Pretty stupid idea by the editors & I 100% agree it's demeaning to all Africans by reducing the various people to one "look" or aesthetic. I was just debating the term 'African-American/Canadian" in the same regard that it ignores the fact that blacks are Caribbean, South American, Australian, British...etc etc and also portrays Africa as only one aesthetic. No one would call Charlize Theron an African-american. It's also a shame that almost everyone is encouraged to celebrate their mixed heritage except black people. I hear all the time Irish-scottish and my mom's native or french-german-british mixed. But somehow blacks of mixed race or not are African-americans. If only Origin matters, aren't we all Africans? I think I went way off topic but I really do think a lot of the onus falls on the editors to be more conscientious of their planning especially when celebrating an Icon like Fela in February. I do think Jay-Z deserves a lot of credit for producing such an important work though. Large ups Queen cee , stimulating good morning discussions.