Confront Tag

Decolonizing beauty advertisements is crucial because the industry moves toward greater inclusivity. Last yr’s renewed social justice movement illuminated the responsibility beauty corporations must be anti-racist. Progress is underway, but further reflection is required by way of marketing, experts say. “De-centering whiteness” is imperative, as “this can be a multiracial world,” said Nikki Khanna, an associate professor of sociology on the University of Vermont who has written about colorism, particularly in Asian culture. “In India or in other parts of Asia, for instance, white women — oftentimes blonde hair, blue-eyed — are used because the face of products which might be marketed to women of color,” Khanna said. “It’s an issue that goes well beyond skin-whitening and skin-lightening,” she continued. “It’s reflecting cultural norms...