Integration. It's the future, women.

Ran across an interesting article this morning from the Atlanta Post via Black Girl with Long Hair about how Black-owned and Black-specific beauty companies are being phased out. I learned that Black people didn't own almost any of the companies that make the products we use most regularly from Chris Rock's comedy/documentary Good Hair, and I can't say I was really surprised even then. (You can't tell me relaxing your hair isn't conforming to White standards if ONLY WHITE PEOPLE sell relaxers. #I'mjustsayin) And I don't think I was really even aware that such things as Black-specific makeup brands even EXISTED until I lived in Chicago, which evidently has a large enough black population that CVS sells things like Black Radiance. It excited me to see a whole company devoted just to selling beauty products for Black women, but truth be told, I had just as many issues finding products I wanted from that line, because there was less variety than is provided by the larger cosmetics companies. And no matter who I buy from, I've never found a powder that matches my skin tone perfectly--concealer is a joke. So I think this move towards companies targeting brown-skinned people in general, regardless of race/ethnicity (or curly-haired people in general, regardless of race/ethnicity) is good because it will provide more variety. It allows for increases in specificity, because sure I'm a Black woman, but there are probably women in South America, Latin America, and maybe even the Middle East or India who have skin tones very similar to mine. I have a close friend who is Korean--the last time he went to get a haircut, his stylist recommended that he deep condition with olive oil...hair texture transcends racial categories too. [The jew-fro is another example.] As much as I support Black nationalism, I think my ideal fight is minority nationalism...all peoples of color need their needs to be addressed. If it's hard for us, imagine how hard it is for people of even more diverse shades of beautiful.