#BlackOutDay Was Beautiful
Zendaya’s social media contribution: “#blackoutday #weareallbeautiful”(Photo: Instagram)
If you were perusing social media yesterday, you may have come across #BlackOutDay, a hashtag hallmark of a social campaign designed to celebrate black beauty and eradicate racial stereotypes. It was one day where the world was flooded with positive images, and it was a beautiful thing.
Why is your newsfeed suddenly full of good looking people? An example of the contributions to #BlackOutDay (Photo: Twitter)
The campaign was a call to action to counteract all the negative images of black people in the media — those of violence, murder, and incorrect stereotypes — and replace them with positive photos that portray the rainbow of beauty and life experiences within the black community. Every social media platform was flooded with spectacular snapshots of people of color, feeling and looking gorgeous and proud. Every skin color within the rainbow of the African-American experience, every conceivable hairstyle, eye and lip shape, was displayed for the world to see, and it was a wonderful thing to behold.
Lupita Nyong’o and Elmo filmed a special episode to discuss skin color (Photo: Sesame Street)
From a beauty perspective, it was an opportunity to highlight something other than a European standard of beauty, one that has left out women of color unless they conform. Every hair texture, every shade of skin and color of eye has a place, and all of it is amazing. #BlackOutDay took control of social media, to let the world know that the black experience is more than conformity to widely-accepted beauty standards. Instead of waiting for the world to represent more diversity of color in advertising and positive coverage in the news, the community took it upon themselves, and the call to action caused many to do more than show up; they showed out and it was exquisite.
#BlackOutDay was beautiful. We need more days such as these.
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