The Atlantic: Fashion’s Racism and Classism Are Finally Out of Style

[OneMoreDay]

Saw this article and thought of our thread here In case anyone is interested in reading. Thought it was interesting how POC viewed their own standards of beauty. In the Philippines, where most are a shade of brown, being whiter is considered more beautiful like many other areas in the world. Growing up in NY, i was one of very few darker skinned students at the schools I attended, and the standards of beauty we’re definitely Caucasian. ( although I am filipino, not African American, the quote below from the 12 yr old student definitely resonatedWhen I was growing up).
Quote:
Brathwaite’s images have inspired many to see and photograph themselves free from Western expectations. And Kwame Jr believes his father’s work will continue to inspire people, joking that he is of course biased, but that his encounters and the stories he has been told make it hard to think otherwise. “I did a talk at a local high school in LA three years ago, and a woman came up to me and said, ‘I want you to tell your father, thank you, because, I was 12 years old when I heard of him, and up until that point, I never considered myself beautiful.’”
Kwame Brathwaite: Black is Beautiful is at the Columbia Museum of Art until 6 September, the book of the exhibition and The New Black Vanguard are published by Aperture.
The birth of the Black is Beautiful movement http://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20200730-the-birth-of-the-black-is-beautiful-movement

Lighter coloured skin in Asia has been the beauty standard for centuries and has little to do with Western 'whiteness' as a beauty ideal and is more of a classist ideal. In Chinese and East Asian cultures, lighter skin meant you were upper class or moved in upper class circles. Having your children be lightskinned meant some level of association with wealth. In the Philippines, it predates Spanish colonialisation, although colorism was more pronounced after their arrival given their intermarrying with the locals produced Mestizo/mestiza children (typically, the term shouldn't denote lighter skin tone alone, but rather the mixed ancestry). Moreno/morena would describe someone with tanned or dark skin.

 

[lalame]

Our Southeast Asian culture was being sold on the premise of 'representation'. That's my gripe. A movie about Crazy Rich Southeast Asian Chinese being sold to Americans on this premise, and sold back to its Southeast Asian audience with the same premise still attached is quite laughable and somewhat insulting. I have a few problems with it being called Crazy Rich Asians but it being marketed towards in the US where 'Asians' tend to be a catchall term for East-Asians, I can't necessarily call it out on that front alone.

I have no problem with Bridget Jones with because it's not selling me anything. It's a mainstream white rom-com that doesn't pretend to be anything else. I love a Cinderella story or a lame rom-com as much as anyone. I would love to have stories not centered around conversations about racial trauma, or racial stereotypes or what have you. I would love not to have this conversation at all because it's exhausting to constantly have these conversations. But if you're going to sell me a movie based on racial representation, I expect you to at least be honest in its making. Frankly, I have more respect for works that don't market themselves on that basis and yet its racially diverse cast are portraying storylines that don't revolve around race.

Singapore is diverse, even for Southeast Asia (I'm not even mentioning the controversies of the main cast having mixed race Eurasian actors that aren't even mixed Chinese playing Singaporean-Chinese characters). And yet not only do other ethnicities not have speaking roles, they're only depicted as the help. The one non-Chinese speaking role isn't even the race she's portraying. Why did Kris Aquino of all people have to be cast as an Indonesian Princess? She's a Crazy Rich daughter of a Filipino political dynasty. The other Filipino actor (Nic Santos) they cast plays a Chinese person, the hero's second cousin.

Meanwhile, Filipinos are represented in the story as the non-speaking help (maybe they said 'Yes, ma'am.' idk, but that's the extent of it). My Filipino mother was a domestic helper. She's never grown out of needing to be constantly working. She and her sisters had to stop school to help work the farm while the boys got to continue with their education. She had to find work overseas to support the whole family of 7 or 8 kids and send the youngest boy to college (the first in our family). Her father (my grandfather) died while she was away and she couldn't go back for his funeral. Imagine then, your ethnicity being portrayed in a Cinderella tale marketed as progressive and representative, without any semblance of agency or dignity, while your fellow countrymen get to play other races in order to be able to move in privileged circles. Imagine being told just to be satisfied with being represented at all, rather than have no representation.

I would've enjoyed Crazy Rich Asians as the okay movie that it is if all these things weren't things that were glaringly obvious to any Southeast Asians (the author is Southeast Asian, as are members of the cast), things that could and should've been thought of during the production or pre-production process. But all this is telling me, is that we were an afterthought to an American audience. That our culture could be packaged and sold as a product without considering its people. This is what I mean by authenticity, or in this case, the lack of it.

I agree with you they should match actors’ ethnicities with the character. I had forgotten about that aspect of it - I didn’t know about the actors you mentioned but it did occur to me with the woman who played Araminta. That being said I am conflicted because there are so few roles for Asians out there as it is that I am happy to see more get the opportunity and I’m not sure many would if for example a Filipino person could ONLY play Filipino. Whereas white actors don’t get much slack for playing across cultures (eg British playing French). I’m totally of two minds on this, so i am not even disagreeing with you... this is my other mind on it. Ideally it would be totally ethnic appropriate and there would be enough roles to support more diverse talent. It was an opportunity missed for the director.

 

[chicinthecity777]

yes, my parents were Irish and Italian. both oppressed or looked down upon at one time. In fact, my mother's Irish relatives had some derogatory things to say when she wanted to marry an Italian-American

I SO's parents were born in Ireland and came to the UK when they were 18 and built a life here. His Dad said the "good old" days the Irish were very much discriminated against in the UK. There were pubs with signs outside the door saying Irish people were not permitted to enter.

 

[papertiger]

I SO's parents were born in Ireland and came to the UK when they were 18 and built a life here. His Dad said the "good old" days the Irish were very much discriminated against in the UK. There were pubs with signs outside the door saying Irish people were not permitted to enter.

They had to find their own pubs, which were again divided into Catholic OR Protestant, and then there were the Welsh! Bl**dy minefield.

 

[chicinthecity777]

Lighter coloured skin in Asia has been the beauty standard for centuries and has little to do with Western 'whiteness' as a beauty ideal and is more of a classist ideal. In Chinese and East Asian cultures, lighter skin meant you were upper class or moved in upper class circles. Having your children be lightskinned meant some level of association with wealth. In the Philippines, it predates Spanish colonialisation, although colorism was more pronounced after their arrival given their intermarrying with the locals produced Mestizo/mestiza children (typically, the term shouldn't denote lighter skin tone alone, but rather the mixed ancestry). Moreno/morena would describe someone with tanned or dark skin.

Yes! In the old days, having a lighter skin means that you don't need to do hard labour under the sun, e.g. working in paddy fields.

 

[sdkitty]

I SO's parents were born in Ireland and came to the UK when they were 18 and built a life here. His Dad said the "good old" days the Irish were very much discriminated against in the UK. There were pubs with signs outside the door saying Irish people were not permitted to enter.

I guess a lot of it had to do with Northern Ireland and religion

 

[doni]

[

I guess a lot of it had to do with Northern Ireland and religion

I think it had more to do with being poor and rural. Isn’t that often the case?

I do believe it is not really fair to compare the fate of Irish and Italian emigrants in the US (or the UK), terrible as that may have been, with what went on under slavery. The Irish may have been asked to use a different pub, and the Italians may have been ridiculed and belittled. But neither were denied the simple right to father and name their own children and build strong families that would offer support through hardship. Neither were deprived from their human nature to be subject to the laws applying to cows and goats. The slavery of Africans in the Americas is one of the most horrific things humankind has done.

 

[tuowei]

Yes! In the old days, having a lighter skin means that you don't need to do hard labour under the sun, e.g. working in paddy fields.

Yes, and I was taught that being plump was the ideal in some dynasties because it meant having enough to eat to be plump.

 

[sdkitty]

[

I think it had more to do with being poor and rural. Isn’t that often the case?

I do believe it is not really fair to compare the fate of Irish and Italian emigrants in the US (or the UK), terrible as that may have been, with what went on under slavery. The Irish may have been asked to use a different pub, and the Italians may have been ridiculed and belittled. But neither were denied the simple right to father and name their own children and build strong families that would offer support through hardship. Neither were deprived from their human nature to be subject to the laws applying to cows and goats. The slavery of Africans in the Americas is one of the most horrific things humankind has done.

you're right....I agree slavery is the worst
however, while you may have a point about the poor and rural part, I do think the Northern Island part was very significant too....that "war" went on for many years

 

[chicinthecity777]

[

I think it had more to do with being poor and rural. Isn’t that often the case?

I do believe it is not really fair to compare the fate of Irish and Italian emigrants in the US (or the UK), terrible as that may have been, with what went on under slavery. The Irish may have been asked to use a different pub, and the Italians may have been ridiculed and belittled. But neither were denied the simple right to father and name their own children and build strong families that would offer support through hardship. Neither were deprived from their human nature to be subject to the laws applying to cows and goats. The slavery of Africans in the Americas is one of the most horrific things humankind has done.

So are the wars between the settlers and native Americans, the genocides in Africa, the middle east, east Europe and parts of Asia etc etc.

 

[sdkitty]

So are the wars between the settlers and native Americans, the genocides in Africa, the middle east, east Europe and parts of Asia etc etc.

we could get started on Native Americans....they really got the shaft

 

[tuowei]

I get it, Asians are the furthest thing from a homogeneous group and I can't expect Asian Americans (or specifically East-Asian Americans) to have the same experiences I do as a Southeast Asian. But America, in addition to its military strength and geopolitical hegemony, is also a cultural hegemony with the might of Hollywood, the big bucks, and the power of marquee movie star names. ...

Some years ago I foolishly decided to have an exchange in the comments section of Purseblog and was "school(ed)". Your comment reminded me of it and I hope it gives you a laugh.
(P/S: I find linguistics fascinating but it is not my area and I am forever learning. My understanding of the definition of racism includes 1.0 Prejudice 2.0 systemic racism and 3.0 social differences founded on race, but I only included the Miriam Webster 1.0 definition in this exchange)

 

[OneMoreDay]

Yes! In the old days, having a lighter skin means that you don't need to do hard labour under the sun, e.g. working in paddy fields.

My mother toiled in the paddy fields with her family and their beauty ideal was always light skin. No one in Asia looks at a white person and thinks 'I want white skin'. Most Asian people (Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Malay, Thai, etc) look at their lighter toned brothers and sisters and say 'I want their lighter skin-tone'. If you look at the big names in Filipino showbusiness, they're usually lightskinned. East Asian entertainment is dominated by porcelain coloured skin-tones while anyone with a tan stands out. Pick any upper class social circle in Asia and they'll usually have light skin. Strikingly, quite a number of Asian royals and their extended family members don't seem to care as much about skin tone, having tans from outdoor pursuits like polo, or sailing around on yachts, etc. I'm guessing since they're already at the top of the social hierarchy, they aren't concerned about skin-tone.

 

[minnnea]

we could get started on Native Americans....they really got the shaft

Natives I believe all over where there were ”white men”. In Scandinavia/Russia the Sami people.

 

[chicinthecity777]

we could get started on Native Americans....they really got the shaft

They really did, didn't they?