Honesty Hour: Beauty and Ignorance

Beauty is a word that describes the more desirable aspects of life.  Kind, clear, soft, open, honest, loving, free, happy—all of these words come to mind when I think of the word “beauty.”  However, in today’s society, beauty is often pinned to physical characteristics as opposed to sentiments and values.  These accepted physical characteristics are further restricted to certain parameters—slim figure, European features, long, flowing hair, light skinned, pretty eyes, mixed, exotic—the list goes on and on.  Very rarely is beauty attributed to the more earthy ideas—kinky hair, darker skin, or a curvy body shape.  My question is this:  What have we allowed to dictate our idea of beauty? Can we blame the European conquistadors who invaded native lands and shoveled an entirely new lifestyle down the throats of indigenous peoples?  Can we blame the slave masters who used differences in complexion as a manner of weakening and controlling what was already viewed as a weak race? Can we blame music artists who perpetuate these one-note ideas of what an attractive person really is?  Or, should we be blaming ourselves for feeding into the foolishness and living knowingly in its trenches?  In an effort to keep this article concise, I will reduce my opinion to a few simple ideas:  If you’re ignorant enough to reduce beauty to a particular skin tone or nationality, then, simply put, you’re ignorant.  If you’re ignorant enough to bypass someone because they aren’t light enough for you or exotic enough for you then, simply put, you’re ignorant.  If you’re ignorant enough to overlook an entire race because you view them all as uneducated then you are, simply put, ignorant.  If you’re ignorant enough to say via actions alone that while a black mother raised you a black mother will not raise your children, then you are, simply put, ignorant.  Granted, you can’t help what you like.  However, when you focus so intently on pursuing what the media coins as desirable that you become blind to the beauty around you, the loss you incur is monumental.  The purpose of this blurb of thought isn’t to convict or condemn anyone.  Instead, I implore you all to think about why you pursue who you pursue and if in doing so, has anything been given up or compromised.  Think about it.