In the article entitled “Insensitive Images Unacceptable,” (Nov.15 issue) one of your staff writers chastised Po’ Boys, for the artwork displayed on their walls which portrays a jazz band made up of tar-black figurines.
At first, I had no problems with the article; I simply felt the author’ s enthusiasm about the subject was silly.
After all, she objects because the band members are clearly not Creole, but no one tried to say they were.
My problem comes later in the article as the author goes on to speak about her insult from these images of Blacks.
Why should you be offended?
The fact is that Blacks come in all shapes and colors. Some of us are fair-skinned and some are tar black.
That just adds to the beauty of our ethnic group.
By taking offense to images of dark skinned, big-lipped people, you perpetuate the idea that to be beautiful, you must be light skinned, thin-lipped and basically stray as far from many of the traits characteristic of our African ancestors as possible.
How would you feel as you were reading this article, in which the author advises Po’ Boys to keep these images away from the public eye, if you looked in the mirror and what you saw was a dark skinned, big-lipped person with a large nose and white eyes staring back at you?
When the author tells Po’ Boys to, “be realistic and keep them tucked away in [their] boxes,” isn’t this just as insensitive as she claims the restaurant to be?
When will we learn to appreciate what God gave us, whatever that may be, and realize that we don’t have to look like Beyonce Knowles or Vanessa Williams to be beautiful?
Vanea R. Pharr is a sophomore physics student from Raleigh, North Carolina.