The example of Time's portrayal of Simpson reveals how America associates dark with bad and light with good. This sets the stage to my paper because it introduces us to how ideas such as these can affect decisions, beliefs, attitudes and essentially our lives. In this paper, I examine how African-Americans are portrayed in the media, particularly in magazines by analyzing how the cosmetic brand L'Oreal revealed Beyonce with skin-alterations in their ad and Queen Latifah's change in performativity in Covergirl ads. I argue that images in magazines can work to reinforce ideas on white superiority and through portrayals of black celebrities appearing more European send messages to the black community that this is how they should want to look like. Before beginning my analysis on the magazine advertisements, I discuss how colorism has evolved. Next, while analyzing the L'Oreal ad, I use a semiotic analysis approach to help show how the media works to reinforce the idea that light skin and European features are superior to dark skin. Lastly, I examine magazines' portrayal of Queen Latifah's identity and how it appears to change during the 1990s to 2012 through a discourse analysis. Through my examination of Beyonce 's appearance in the L'Oreal ad, and Queen Latifah's performativity in magazine, I am able to provide examples of how several magazines work to continue spread the idea that light is better than dark and if one is dark they should attempt to look light.
Before beginning my analysis of the images produced by different magazines, it is essential that I set the stage by explaining the importance of my topic and why magazines altering the appearances of African-American celebrities should be acknowledged and discussed. The history of the United States proves again and again that white skin is privileged over other shades of skin such as "brown" or "black." What has not been so clear for all Americans to see is that there is also privileging within racial categories of lighter skin people. I am interested in this topic because as a bi-racial female, I feel that this phenomenon is something that affects my life. In the United States it is common to hear about white privilege but people usually do not talk about privileges that exist within minority races such as ones in the African-American community. As a bi-racial female, I have what is considered to be "light skin." I know that I am treated differently from females who have dark skin by African Americans and typically am given more opportunities from dating to job opportunities. I do not necessarily agree with this privilege but at times I do find myself using it to my advantage. I wish to examine this phenomenon and dig deeper into how the media works to reinforce the tension between people of different skin tones and continue to push the idea onto the public that light skin is more beautiful than dark skin. Lastly, I hope to convey that magazine portrayals of African-Americans are wrong and painful. The media reinforcing ideas of superiority and inferiority allows for the false ideas to continue to spread and the tension within the African-American community to grow.