Beyoncé, Blackface and the Standard of Beauty

Beyoncé, Blackface and the Standard of Beauty

Check out this new commercial for L'Oréal's Double Extend Eye Illuminator featuring Monarch pop diva Beyoncé Knowles. Being a mascara commercial, of course there are a lot of all-seeing eye shots but paired with the word "illuminator" and you can get an idea why L'Oréal, the world's leading cosmetic company, is using Beyoncé as it's spokeswoman. Illumination is of course the ultimate goal of the elite, who control the world.

Just in time for the end of Black History Month, last week, images of Beyoncé Knowles from L'Officiel magazine stirred up some controversy over one particular picture where her face is cosmetically painted a much darker shade than her natural skin tone. Wasn't her beautiful skin dark enough for the photographer or makeup artist on set? The film and theater communities of the world are full of historical instances where Caucasian actors have had "blackface" for roles where they were supposed to portray African-Americans, which is why this particular photo shoot was questionable to some, who felt L'Officiel as well as Knowles should have been more empathetic to the sensitivity of such a potentially offensive idea.

Traditionally, a Caucasian actor would have his face covered in a layer of cocoa butter, then a thicker layer of burnt cork or black grease paint. They would then create an offensive stereotypical caricature of a black person for humor, not giving any thought to dehumanizing nature of their act. The practice was popular during the 19th century, propagating American racist stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky on the plantation" or the "dandified coon." This so-called art was popular for about 100 years, starting in the states in the 1830's and qickly making its way overseas. Thankfully, by the time of the civil rights movement in the 1960's, the practice was already less popularized by a decade.

Even Bert Williams, an African-American stage actor, the only black member of the Ziegfeld Follies (a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931), had to wear blackface during his performances, which shows just how humiliating the practice was really meant to be.

Modern day blackface has appeared on such comedy shows as "The Sarah Silverman Program" on Comedy Central and one of my favorite's, "It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia" on FX, attempting to bring humor by exposing the demeaning nature of the practice. The films "Ghost World" and Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" also portray the racist aspects of blackface.

This is a video montage of blackface from Spike Lee's "Bamboozled."

Beyoncé wears a West-African inspired headdress and traditional dress.

Images courtesy of BeyonceFan.com

She looks just as confused as us. While I understand that she was heavily inspired by the late great Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, I can't comprehend why she or the fashion shoot director or photographer would think this was an appropriate homage to the musician, especially when Beyoncé is a music artist herself. Couldn't they have given her a saxophone or guitar pose with?

Fela Kuti was a talented multi-instrumentalist musician and composer as well as a pioneer of afrobeat music and a human rights activist and political maverick from Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. Fela helped popularize the mix of Jazz, Funk, psychedelic rock and traditional West-African chants and rhythms including the African tinkerpan percussion instrument. His band was notable for featuring two baritone saxophones, whereas most groups were using only one.

The leopard print fabric Beyoncé is seen wearing above has been pointed out numerous times on this and other blogs for being triggers for Beta/sex kitten slave alters of mind control slaves. While in this alter, the victim may assume an identity of not only a primal sexual alter ego, but that of an actual cat.

Until I started researching these themes myself in early 2009, I had to wonder why a woman in her late 20's and a mother of two would still be referring to her vagina as her "pussy." Makes more sense now. Britney Spears is wearing a costume inspired by the film "Metropolis," where the character Maria is taken by the elite "thinkers" and used to create a robot that looks like her in order to control the blind masses of "workers."

In Britney's latest video, "Hold It Against Me," she is surrounded again by her blind worshippers.

Beyoncé wore a similar robotic Maria costume while performing at the 2007 BET Awards.
Her belt even has several rows of gold pyramids.

Lady GaGa was photographed by David LaChapelle wearing a similar costume she wore in her "Paparazzi" video.

Images courtesy of BeyonceFan.com

Images courtesy of BeyonceFan.com

Image courtesy of BeyonceWorld.net

Image courtesy of BeyonceWorld.net

She still manages to rock the Oz programming with her pink heels (ruby slippers).
Image courtesy of BeyonceWorld.net

This is not the first controversy over the alteration of Beyoncé's skin. L'Oréal was accused of digitally lightening her skin tone in ads for their Féria brand hair dye in 2008.

The company denied digitally altering her skin tone for the ads.
As if she really dyes her hair at home, with a product out of the box from the drug store.
She probably spends more on her hair in a month than most women do in a year.

Beyoncé has a naturally light complexion and in certain light, it can appear even lighter with makeup.
She looks like GaGa--Madonna rather, in this image. We know how much the Illuminati love their slaves blonde.

The Illuminati programmers select their victims based on specific criteria which include sexual appeal (pedophilia is common so this applies to children as well as adolescents and young adults), ability to dissociate (female candidates have greater abilities since females have a higher tolerance for pain [i.e. enduring a traumatic, often provoked birth]), intelligence, creativity, natural talent (which can also be programmed) and of course bloodline. The preference is a Caucasian blond-haired blue-eyed child or toddler if one can be found. The standard of beauty has been programmed into Western civilization so much during the last two centuries but is actually almost as ancient as the programming methods (repetitive torture, rape, drugging) themselves, which were developed by the Ancient Egyptians.

Pharaoh Cleopatra VII (Κλεοπάτρα VII) and her siblings were inbred from Macedonian and Egyptian bloodlines genetically engineered to produce a fair skinned heirs to the Ptolemaic dynasty. Pharaohs were worshipped as gods since the Egyptians believed that the pharaohs were direct descendants of the gods who had walked the Earth and ruled Egypt in prehistoric times. The belief that fair skinned beings who had descended from the sky is not unique to the Egyptians but any Egyptologist/Egyptian Paleontologist will tell you that they have the best kept records of these gods who were living beings worshipped by ancient man.

Kim Kardashian, whom recently has twice now been portrayed as Cleopatra, is probably the closest modern depiction of the legendary queen, being of Armenian descent herself...as opposed to Elizabeth Taylor who played the role in the 1963 classic "Cleopatra" or Angelina Jolie, who is supposed to play her in the remake next year. Hell, Beyoncé would make a better Cleopatra than Jolie. Jolie is however, the current mark for the standard of beauty in Western civilization, often holding the title as "the world's most beautiful woman," although, I don't remember voting.

When butcher and all around douche-bag Christopher Columbus stumbled onto the New World, he and his equally douchey men were greeted by Native American tribes people who asked if they were gods. They only asked if they were because other light-skinned beings in ships were said to have descended from the sky, brought knowledge to the indigenous people, then left but promised to come back. After the native people were told that Columbus and his men were not the returning gods, they invited them to stay and wait for their returning gods, which they then told them about. Columbus took advantage of all the generosity and curiosity of all the Native American tribes throughout the New World. Not only did the Spanish bring new diseases, viruses and parasites with them, they too acted like a deadly virus that spread and killed hundreds of thousands of human beings.

In many Asian cultures, fair skinned and Western facial features are so coveted, the cosmetic industry surrounding skin lighteners is expected to cross the $2 billion mark by 2012, helping the total global skin lightener industry to become an estimated $15 Billion business by 2015.

Many of the original chemical agents that were being used to treat age spots, sun damage, uneven skin tone were being used (even abused) to lighten the skin overall but are now being questioned as to whether they are carcinogenic, or cancer causing. Many of the unnatural fragrances in skin care products are well known carcinogens. Hydroquinone, the active ingredient in most over the counter skin lighteners, has been linked by the Food and Drug Administration to the skin-disfiguring condition called ochronosis.

Dermatologists such as Dr. Susan Taylor have gone on record against the FDA's position on banning hydroquinone for being a carcinogen. Dr. Taylor, in 2006, said "Most reports have been from Africa after a prolonged period of daily use--sometimes 10 to 40 years--and in high concentrations. In this country, there have been maybe 200 cases out of millions of users. To me, that means it is a very infrequent problem." She also notes that there is has been no direct link from hydroquinone exposure to cancer in these users of the product. Dr. Susan Taylor is the director of Skin of Color Center in New York City and assistant professor of dermatology at Columbia University.

Skin lighteners have made headlines in celebrity culture thanks to Michael Jackson, during the 80's and 90's and more recently, in 2009, with baseball player Sammy Sosa. Michael said on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," in February 1993, that he suffered from vitilogo--a rare skin condition where melatonin, the body's natural skin pigment, is no longer produced as much as normal. This condition made MJ's skin very uneven, which is why he reportedly had to use hydoquinone creams and even allegedly injected the drug directly into his scalp to achieve a more even skin tone. After the singer's death from "acute Propofol intoxication" in June 2009, the autopsy report confirmed that the singer had vitiligo.

Sammy Sosa surprised baseball fans when he showed up to the Latin Grammy's in November 2009 with extremely pale skin. He later denied rumors that he was suffering from vitiligo or that he was "bleaching" his skin. He told the press that his skin was lightened with an elective "rejuvenation process."

While many celebrities have come under scrutiny for allegedly lightening their skin, the trend of tanning to darken one's skin has gone relatively smoother. It's only when someone gets a little too orange with their spray tan that they are noticed. While spray tans are considered a safer option to tanning beds, which are known to lead to melanoma skin cancer, the most deadly type of skin cancer, they almost never give the natural look of real tans. Tanning is even known to lead to so-called tanning addiction, where people spend thousands of dollars a year on tanning and tanning products, despite the known risk of sun or ultraviolet ray damage.

While some Asian women are trying to lighten their skin, there are also those who are taking the fight against the standard of beauty to the extreme with the Japanese ganguro (literally translates as "black face") fashion trend. Young women sport deep tans with "high bleached" or orange hair, black ink eyeliner, white lipstick, metallic eyeshadow, false eyelashes and plastic or swarovski crystal facial gems. Ganguro fashion peaked in the year 2000.

From Bad Tans.com

Many products on the market labeled for skincare are full of preservatives and other harmful chemicals that eventually build up in the body as foreign toxins with continued use. Just as organic food is more expensive than processed food, organic skin care products are typically more expensive than what is found bombarding the shelves at local drug stores. One of the easiest ways to limiting the amount of exposure to said toxins is by finding products that meet your own personal standards of safety and health and eliminating the use of products that carry known contaminants.

Besides insulation, temperature regulation and excretion, human skin plays an important role in what the body absorbs to other important organs. Any product you place on your skin is absorbed into your body and effects all of the other organs including your brain, heart, liver and kidneys. There are a number of essential oils (tea tree, lavendar, jojoba), herbal extracts (green tea, aloe vera, chamomille) and even fresh fruit and vegatables (lemon [juice], carrot [juice], cucumber) that you can replace man-made products with to keep your skin looking and feeling its healthiest.

Too much of anything, whether it be water, salt, sugar or sun exposure can be bad for your skin. Dermatologists are doctors, so of course, they are going to push prescription medication on you before they tell you what organic remedies are best to use. I am no dermatologist but I've been to several to deal with acne issues as a teenager and none of them did anything except prescribe me chemical creams, antibiotics and even Accutane, which is known to damage the liver and has been discontinued by the FDA. It wasn't until only a few years ago that I realized that my diet had a lot to do with my breakouts...even though several doctors repeatedly told me that diet doesn't affect acne. I noticed that I broke out when I consumed a lot of sugar and salt. Processed foods contain a lot of both. If I knew then what I know now, I could've saved my parents a lot of money and myself a lot of time.

Even sunscreen has come under fire recently with the news that the zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in many sunscreen products can induce free radical formation in the presence of light and that this may damage these cells. Many dermatologists still say that the benefits of sunscreen outweight the potential negative effects of the spreading of cell damage caused by photo-mutagenicity with zinc oxide, especially for fairer skin people. Hats and a protective layer of cotton clothing can also greatly help against sun damage.

As a Diné (Navajo) man with fair skin thanks to years of interaction between my people and the English, Spanish and Irish traders, I have dealt with my own issues with racism and prejudice because of the color of my skin. I've been called a "prairie nigger" by ignorant Caucasian kids at boarding school and "blanco pinche verga" (or something to that effect that was "fucking white dick" in English) by angry Mexican-American kids in public high school. When you're multiracial, you grow up not really sure where you belong. I imagine it can't be any easier when the false idols you look up to make the lines between what is and what is not appropriate even fainter by lightening their skin with chemicals and makeup or darkening it with man-made UV rays. All I know is that one day, with all of this great racial intermixing, we will likely end up the same color and all that really matters is that we are all the same color on the inside.

Skin is the human body's largest organ and it protects our other vital organs from invading solar rays, man-made pollutants and even other entities like viruses. Skin is not meant to be abused as a reason for segregation or as an excuse for hatred that has lead to genocide on more than one occasion on human history. Skin is a gift. Reading the active and inactive ingredients on a bottle of moisturizer or other skincare product could go a long way. We know the evil powers that rule the world have put fluoride in our water and chemicals in our food to shorten our lifespan and deteriorate our health. Opting for a more natural solution for skin and hair care is a small step in a great journey to a better life for not only you, but the people you care about.