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12 - Appearance Prejudice and Discrimination against Black Women

from Part III - Core Themes in Black Women’s Stress and Distress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2023

Donna Baptiste  and
Adia Gooden
By
Tonya Davis
Donna Baptiste
Affiliation:
Northwestern University, Illinois
Adia Gooden
Affiliation:
Unconditionally Worthy, Co.
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Summary

Appearance Prejudice and Discrimination against Black Women discusses Black women’s substantive experiences of discrimination based on their appearance. Black women experience biases around body features, skin color, hair, personal grooming choices, and other appearance-related variables. Black women also receive constant messages about how they do not meet mainstream beauty standards. These messages may cause women to internalize negative self-images. We offer therapists strategies to support Black women to deconstruct beauty stereotypes and foster cultural beauty ideals to help manage and reject societal invalidations.

Keywords

Black womenappearanceprejudicediscrimination
Type
Chapter
Information
Promoting Black Women's Mental Health
What Practitioners Should Know and Do
 , pp. 288 - 308
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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