"We Real Cool": Beauty, Image, and Style in African American History

Will we ever eradicate racial prejudice? Scholars have offered a variety of formulae even while most disagree as to even what race is! From Anthropology to bioscience, even DNA research suggests human beings designed racial difference, color variance, and class distinctions for specific reasons. "We Real Cool" explores evolving aesthetic perceptions—how beauty has symbolized power throughout the ages, the ways it has been used in images, politics, and commerce. How racial difference is used to typify beauty in media, in advertising, in American culture explains how diverse groups influence the public—from celebrities to politicians. This book looks at what Black American women have done to change their images dating back to the nineteenth century, and why it worked. "This is a richly textured study that explores the dynamics of black aesthetics by broaching ... such widely varied texts as hairstyles and folk beliefs." Tabitha Kanogo, author, "African Womanhood in Colonial Kenya" "We Real Cool" is an important study of how African Americans... generated a culture that was... not simply a reflection of whiteness." Leon Litwack, Pulitzer-Prize winning author