We already know that Black is beautiful, but for the first time in history
the top beauty pageants in the country have simultaneously elevated this truth.
Three Black women are currently wearing crowns as the 2019 Miss USA, Miss Teen
USA and Miss America.
When Cheslie Kryst’s name was announced as Miss USA on Thursday she
completed the historic trio with pageant winners 2019 Miss America Nia Franklin
and recently crowned 2019 Miss Teen USA Kaliegh Garris.
Kryst, who represents North Carolina, is a civil litigation attorney who
received her law degree and MBA from Wake Forest University.
People across social media marveled at Kryst’s natural hair and noticed that
both she and Garris bypassed any form of hair straightening.
Garris told Refinery21 that while some people tried to
convince her to straighten her hair for the Miss Teen USA competition, she
opted for her natural curls because when she’s wearing them, she feels
confident. The Connecticut native is still in high school but plans to
attend Southern Connecticut State University’s nursing program as she
plans to become a trauma nurse in the future.
Franklin represented New York and holds a master's degree in music
composition from UNC School of the Arts. She is an opera singer and an advocate
for arts advocacy.
In 2012 Black women simultaneously wore crowns as Miss Teen USA and Miss
USA.
Congratulations to these 2019 beauty queens. Together they exude beauty,
brains and Black girl magic!
We’ll be tuning in later this year when Kryst represents the United States
in the Miss Universe competition.
Article was taken from “Becauseofthemwecan
My comments: I have always regarded beauty
contest as a waste of America’s time because they tended to focus too much
attention on cosmetics as oppose to a women’s personal qualities. As the saying
goes: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. What one might find as beautiful
may not be my idea of beauty.
Over the years,
the pageants started to focus more attention on the contestant’s personal qualities
as oppose to cosmetics. Never the less, historically, these contestant winners have
mostly been white; thus, promoting an image of white women and men as being the
personification of beauty in America. But we need to ask why this is now
happening at a time when our community has once again come under attack because
of our skin color.
Some might agree
or disagree, but here is my analysis of why this is happening now. It is
associated with “White Guilt”. White men and women who are responsible for determining
the winners of these contest are trying to send a message to people around the world;
see, we are not so bad because we allow beautiful black women to win contests
that were once only open to white women. This does not tarnish our image as a
beauty people because we have always considered our women and men beautiful in
the eyes of God. Let’s thanks them for
the honor of recognizing our beautiful women while we continue our struggle for
equality in America.
Raymond Glenn
No comments
Post a Comment