Nivea?s ?White is Purity? ad renews history of racism in beauty
From Kylie Jenner stopping racism with a Pepsi and Nivea?s ad entitled ?Purity is White,? it seemed as if ?Post Racial America? had taken a step back, fallen prey to growing concerns around race relations and conflicts in this country.
Although Black Twitter quickly reacted to the disrespect, the Nivea ad in particular brought back memories of our past battles with the color of our skin being deemed something less than acceptable, and perpetuates the historical pattern of ?dirtying? our identity.
The tone deaf Nivea ad is just another slap in the face by a long history of cosmetic and cleaning products that have deemed black as either being not beautiful, or a subset of beauty not meant for mass consumption. Whiteness has been the beauty standard in America, yet beauty and cosmetic trend just starting to take a shift with more options available for different skin tones and complexions.
This isn?t the first time Nivea crossed the line in what they determined as being acceptable in terms of beauty. In 2011, in a campaign entitled ?Look like you give a damn?Re-civilize yourself,? a black man depicted as well-groomed and cleanly shaved is seen throwing the mask of another black man (presumably his own) with a beard and afro.
This ad caused a great deal of controversy as it pushed respectability politics as the norm, and the idea that natural hair was not a thing of beauty. The notion of ?re-civilizing? was a nod to the fact that black beauty and culture wasn?t seen as a thing of civility in this country.
Nivea apologized, of course, to only be back in the same racial cesspool six years later. Racism and anti-blackness in ads is nothing new, and new ads are eerily close to those of our ancestors? past.
Full mess:
http://thegrio.com/2017/04/06/nivea-ad-history-of-racism-beauty/dssss Trump really has given these gorls some liquid courage to show their true colors
