Here at Sociological Images, we’re interested in how our standards of beauty are based on a European (that is, light-skinned and straight-haired) ideal. See here and here for examples. A reader pointed out that Syesha Mercado, a contestant on American Idol, has been progressively de-ethnicized.
Here is a photo of Syesha from early in the competition:
Here is a photo of her from this week (end of April):
Am I the only one who thinks she looked prettier before?
However, the stylists have thus far let the white kid keep his dreads:
Thanks for pointing this out, pj!
Comments 4
HighJive — May 3, 2008
i believe castro's parents are colombian. what's your definition of white?
Gwen Sharp, PhD — May 3, 2008
Being from Columbia doesn't have anything to do with one's race, since your parents could be British emigrants who settled in Columbia. And the official U.S. Census Bureau classification is that Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race (since Hispanics are, in fact, a mixture of Native American, European, African, and Asian heritage, with different elements being more common in different areas). So being Hispanic doesn't mean you aren't white. Or Black or Asian or a mixture of everything, for that matter.
Yin — May 4, 2008
You've got a pic wrong there.
Tyler Young — December 9, 2010
Why did you call him a "white kid"? That sounds as passive-aggressive racist as calling a black person "boy". And Jason Castro has a traditionally non-white last name, and his parents are colombian. He also looks mixed. I think that's a hint that he's not just a "white kid."
How do you know she didn't change her hair? Every time a black person straightens their hair we can't just assume it's because some white person made them do it. The number one consumer of hair straightening concoctions are black people, why blame whites for this? Individuals make choices for themselves.