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James Brown perm—we’re finally defining ourselves individually rather than as a group. Because we are not a monolithic group,” she says. “Mike Tyson, I was just watching his show on HBO, and he said, ‘People keep asking me why I’ve got a tramp stamp on my face. If you don’t like it, don’t look! It’s my face.’ I was like, ‘Amen.’ ” Buying Racial Capital: Skin-Bleaching and Cosmetic Surgery in a Globalized World Margaret L. Hunter, Ph.D. Mills College Margaret Hunter (mhunter@mills.edu) is Associate Professor and Edward Hohfeld Chair in Sociology at Mills College in Oakland, California. Her research interests include skin tone stratification in the African American and Latino communities, colorblind racism and discourse, and race and gender politics in hip-hop. Her publications include Race, Gender, and the Politics of Skin Tone (2005, Routledge), “If You’re Light You’re Alright: Skin Color as Social Capital for Women of Color” in Gender & Society, and “Women of Color in Hip Hop: The Pornographic Gaze” in Race, Gender, & Class. Abstract The merging of new technologies with old colonial ideologies has created a context where consumers can purchase “racial capital” through skin-bleaching creams or cosmetic surgeries. The use of skin-bleaching creams is on the rise throughout Africa and the African Diaspora and cosmetic surgery has increased dramatically among people of color in wealthy countries. Public discourse, however, is fraught with tension over these manipulations of the body. This paper examines three competing discourses: 1) the beauty discourse, based on the mass-marketing of cosmetic whitening products, 2) the public health discourse, designed to dissuade potential skin-bleachers by exposing health risks and 3) the cosmetic surgery discourse, created to market cosmetic procedures to the new and growing “ethnic” market. Through analysis of advertisements and public health campaigns this article demonstrates that the focus on individual attitudes in all three discourses obfuscates color-based discrimination and encourages the purchase of racial capital. Keywords: Skin-bleaching, skin-lightening, cosmetic surgery, beauty, race, Africa 143 The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, June 2011 A cursory search on any Internet search engine reveals hundreds of skinlightening1 websites that provide information for would-be consumers about the “best” skin-lightening products and strategies. Lighterskin.org, whiterskin.com, skinwhitening.org, skin-whitening-product.com, and skinwhiteningexperts.com all purport to share with readers the newest information on, and reviews of, skinlightening products. How is information about skin-lightening conveyed today and how do competing discourses frame the nature of skin-lightening differently? This paper investigates three discursive frameworks on skin-lightening around the globe: the beauty discourse, the public health discourse, and the new cosmetic surgery discourse. Each discourse frames skin-lightening, body manipulation, and social actors in different and important ways, revealing much about the global beauty industry, neo-colonial and post-colonial racial ideologies, and the ongoing role of women of color’s bodies as the battleground for these conflicts. Skin-lightening, or bleaching, has reached epidemic levels in scores of nations around the globe, and especially in many African nations including Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Senegal, Mali, South Africa, and Nigeria (Adebajo, 2002; Blay, 2009; Harada et al, 2001; Lewis et al, 2009; Mahe et al, 1993; Mahe, Ly & Gounongbe, 2004; Olumide et al, 2008). Although both men and women engage in skin-whitening practices of various sorts, women generally have higher rates of skin-whitening than men, and women also sometimes apply skinwhitening products to their children (Counter & Buchanan, 2004; Fokuo, 2009). This paper will investigate why women bleach, and why men and women in Africa and the African Diaspora encourage women to bleach their skin. The benefits of light skin, although not universal, are widespread around the globe, particularly in countries formerly colonized by Europe or with a significant U.S. presence (Glenn, 2008; Hunter, 2005; Mire, 2001; Rondilla & Spickard, 2007; Telles, 2006). Throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America, skinbleaching is a common practice as people try to acquire lighter skin and the social and economic status that goes with it (Perry, 2006). Although people in some cultures have tried to lighten their skin for centuries, recent data suggests that skin-bleaching is on the rise, particularly among educated, urban women in the Global South2 (Del Giudice & Yves, 2002; Ntshingla, 2005). What accounts for this recent shift? Glenn (2008) suggests that while historic, European colonial ideologies still have an effect on people, the rise of skin-bleaching around the globe can also be attributed to the constant, current mass-marketing of contemporary images of white beauty. Charles (2009a) suggests that hegemonic representations of white skin are thoroughly rooted in multiple social institutions 144 The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 4, no. 4, June 2011 including education, religion, mass media, and popular culture. Wealthy nations like the United States, Japan, and many European nations create many of the global images of white (or light) beauty (Burke, 1996). In
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