Washington Bath Parlor Presents The Complexity of Complexion

I was reading a book and came across an image of a vintage advertisement by Pear’s Soap Company. The ad depicted an image of a bath parlor in which a white man was serving a black patron. The white character was presenting soap to this black patron. The transparent soap is marketed as it’s so good for the complexion it would wipe clean unwanted coloration… I guess.

The image hit me hard… not in a ‘the audacity’ kind of way but it hit me in a conscious way. I doubtingly believed the marketing campaign understood the power of the imagery and message that was being presented. I thought of the continual challenges in the Black community in which there’s always this underlined dispute of who is or isn’t black enough. The perceptions and misperceptions of how a black person is supposed to look, talk, and/or act.‘For improving the complexion’ here I thought of the physical changes black folks have made to make themselves less black in appearance, either to be more accepted within our own culture (too black) or by the white race (light enough to pass for white or less threatening). The painstaking practice to straighten nappy hair has been around for years. This has been an ongoing argument to this very day… is a black woman trying to be white-like if she perms or straighten her hair. Michael Jackson and a host of others people and ethnic groups have and do bleach their skin. Media practices photo shopping black subjects to make them appear lighter in print.

I say regardless whether a black man bleaches his skin, speaks the Queen’s English and graduate honors from Harvard. A black man will be black when he looks in the mirror. If he was born black, his black ass will die black… regardless what racial category he or others may attempt to appoint him/her. In this painting I address a number of different challenges/issues/conflictions that are complexities of a race of darker and lighter complexions. Keep in mind these complexities poses a challenge in all men of color across a multitude of cultures other than Blacks in America.