Name: Randy & Lorraine (LiiqeRiish)
Age: 20
Location: Gaborone Botswana
Submitted by: (liiqeriish.tumblr.com/ Lorraine Kinnear/liiqeriish.blogspot.com)
Photographed by (Shike Olsen)
Black is Beautiful…sigh
There are moments when I think that the collective desire to be seen as beautiful is a direct challenge to the white gaze.
Often times, I read posts here on Tumblr about how Black beauty is trashed by white hegemony. I agree wholeheartedly. Thus, there are many blogs devoted to Black beauty.
Personally, those blogs don’t interest me because they still play within a very messed up system.
I understand the need to see ourselves in positive light. At the same time, I wonder if that is enough.
Are we truly resisting the status quo or are we trying to make space for ourselves in it?
Nowadays I focus more on my humanity - my personhood. That, and that alone should be enough for me to be treated with respect. Not my perceived beauty.
POC should not need any qualifiers in order to get the respect that is theirs by default.
My good friend and photographer Maxim Vakhovskiy has been working on a photo project about the natural beauty of black women. Now this has become a book called Black Venus, Vol. 1. It’s a collection of portraits celebrating black womanhood and everyday black beauty. I think the book is superb and everyone should check it out. Learn more about the book and find out how to get it here: http://blackvenusproject.com/book/
(Source: theblackwoman, via afrohaircrazy)
