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Lucille Clifton's "homage to My hips" paints a picture of Black women's struggle in life and how they don't allow those trials and tribulations that they are put under to stop them from achieving self-determination. This poem connects to my theme because my theme is about Black beauty, not just what you can see from the outside but also the inside. Black women's perseverance and courage are what I consider beautiful. Clifton uses the symbol of someone's hips to display that nothing will hold a Black woman from achieving her own freedom.

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homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton | Poetry Foundation

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"It had occurred to Pecola some time ago that if her eyes, those eyes that held the pictures, and knew the sights—if those eyes of hers were different, that is to say, beautiful, she herself would be different. Her teeth were good, and at least her nose was not big and flat like some of those who were thought so cute. If she looked different, beautiful, maybe Cholly would be different, and Mrs. Breedlove too. Maybe they’d say, 'Why, look at pretty-eyed Pecola. We mustn’t do bad things in front of those pretty eyes'" (Morrison 46).

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The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is about a group of young Black girls, Pecola, Claudia, and Frieda, during the Great Depression in Ohio. It touches on Black girls being robbed of their innocence, the effects that Eurocentric beauty standards have on the Black community, and how all of that is placed onto Black girls. It's a very heart-wrenching story about Black girlhood. This story connects to my theme because it touches on how not being seen as beautiful has contributed to the plight of Black women and girls. We can see this mainly through the character of Pecola, who is dealt the worst hand of cards. Pecola lives in an abusive household and faces bullying and vitriol from people in her community since she is perceived as beautiful due to her Afrocentric features. All of this abuse from those around her leads her to self-hatred. These beauty standards affect not only how we treat others but also ourselves, and Morrison gives somewhat of a deep dive into how these beauty standards negatively affect the psyche of Pecola.

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The Beauty of Black by Margaret Burroughs

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The Beauty of Black by Margaret Burroughs

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"The Beauty of Black" by Margaret Burroughs tells the story of how Black people have been schooled to see themselves as ugly and those who are closer to Eurocentricity to be beautiful. At the poem's end, Burroughs highlights that that shouldn't be our reality and how Black is beautiful. She covers things like featurism, colorism, and texturism within her poem. This connects to my theme because Burroughs makes the point that we need to flip the switch regarding how we view beauty when it comes to Blackness. Although Burroughs' poem is pretty general when it comes to the type of Black person she's addressing, I would argue that this would hit the hardest when it comes to Black women because we are held to those standards more compared to the men in our community

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The Beauty of Black by Margaret Burroughs | Poetry Foundation

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Portrait of Madeliene by Marie-Guillemine Benoist

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Portrait of Madeliene by Marie-Guillemine Benoist

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Portrait de Madeleine by Marie Guillomine de Benoist is a portrait of a Black woman. This painting is very culturally significant because this was the first notable time that a Black woman was being painted and not in the position of being a maid to a White woman. I would argue that this is the first time that a Black woman is being painted in a way that they are being portrayed as a figure of beauty. This connects to my theme in this, by Benoist, a Black woman's beauty is being acknowledged; she is the model, and the painting centers her.

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Looking at literature like The Bluest Eye and The Beauty of Black, why is it essential that Black girls are taught that they are beautiful?

Even though my theme covers Black beauty, why is it important to acknowledge Black women's perseverance and courage through their struggles over being seen as just beautiful, even though I would argue that their perseverance and courage are beautiful themselves?

Something that was brought to my attention when I first saw Portrait de Madeleine was how Black women have a history of sexualization. When it comes to the Portrait de Madeleine and knowing that Black women have a history of being sexualized, would you argue that their fetishization and sexualization show that they can be seen as beautiful?