When Barack Obama got elected, and called himself a "mutt", I wrote a little bit about my experiences growing up black, yet mixed; spending every summer with a blue-eyed grandfather (on my mom's side) and having a black father and noticing — feeling — like my family was "different" from other families. Different from the ones I saw in school, or on TV, where all the black people went to McDonald's in the "black" commercial and all the white people went to McDonald's in the "white" commercial. (I was born in the early '70s, you see.) Once, my mom was supposed to pick me up from school, and a teacher pointed at some other girl's (dark-skinned) housekeeper, and said, "Is that your mom?" An honest mistake, but one that blew my mind — I'd only ever thought of my mom as she actually was; olive-skinned, half-Irish, half-Chicksaw. But I was also deeply aware that the teacher was trying to match me up with someone because of my skin color — just putting brown with brown. A "traditional" view of a family, but a narrow one, to me, even as a kid. (What if I'd been adopted?)

But the number one thing this multiracial person hears, over and over, is "What are you?" I cannot even count how many times this question has been asked of me and my brother and sister. "A human," I answer. Better yet is the question: "What nationality are you?" American. Or, wishing to avoid lengthy explanation: "Black." In New York, I get, "Black? But Dominican, right?" No. Black. From where? From the United States. What part? New York. And your parents? From the United States. But before they got to this country? They were both born here; one in Nebraska, the other in Georgia. I promise you that at least once a month, a cab driver thinks I am lying about this.

With interracial marriages increasing (this report claims that 1 in 13 marriages are mixed race, with the most prevalent being white-Hispanic, white-American Indian and white-Asian) there should be more and more "mixed" kids in the years to come; the census data claims that more than half of the multiracial population is younger than 20. And even though there weren't very many multiracial figures in the public eye when I was a kid, these days, in addition to our nation's president, there's Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Vin Diesel and Rock — and people like Fo, the "blaxican" on Cycle 12 of America's Next Top Model. So hopefully the narrow view of families and questions like "what are you?" will subside, and people — both multiracial and not — can just go about the business of being human.

Multiracial People Become Fastest-Growing US Group [AP]

Because when the question is what kind of experience black women have when shopping the beauty market, the answer is bleak. Stephanie D. Smith writes:

African-American women spend $7.5 billion annually on beauty products, but shell out 80 percent more money on cosmetics and twice as much on skin care products than the general market, according to the research. That difference comes as African-American women sample many more products to find the ones that are most effective on their skin.

"She spends a lot, but there's little satisfaction. What keeps us buying is the hope that this product will do what it's supposed to do," said [celebrity makeup artist] Sam Fine.

So despite being generally ignored or marginalized by mainstream magazines, black women spend billions of dollars on cosmetics, desperately searching for something that works. According to Smith, Fine also said he believes that the typical African-American shopper is "more likely to buy products from aspirational labels — Chanel lipsticks and Versace perfume, for example — than brands that are associated with celebrities." Could it be because many of the black celebrities who pitch cosmetics — Halle Berry, Beyoncé, Rihanna — represent only a light-skinned sliver of what the general population of African-American women look like?

Fine also noted that older black women are overlooked by the beauty industry: "There's no face of aging in the African-American community," he said. "There's Sharon Stone and Christie Brinkley, but no one who's African-American." Do the cosmetics companies actually believe the old saying "black don't crack?" Or do they honestly have no interest in tapping into that $7.5 billion a year?

Essence Panel Explores Beauty Purchasing [WWD]

Earlier: Marie Claire: 15 Years Of Good Skin; 2 Black Women
Cover Girl's Use Of Gays & Blacks: Progressive? Or Pandering?
Beyoncé's L'Oreal Ad: Lightened?
Beyoncé: Double Takes
Whose Fault Is It That The Ethnic Women In Magazines Are Whitewashed?

Miss Black Sacramento and Miss Teen Black Sacramento were crowned over the weekend. When they first began, mainstream pageants like Miss America had rules barring black women from competing. (Although since 1984, six women of African descent have been named Miss America.) The Sacremento Bee asks the obvious question: Do we still need race-divided pageants? Notes reporter Ed Fletcher:

Among the thousands of beauty pageants across the country, scores cater to specific ethnic groups. Miss Black Sacramento, Miss Black California, Miss Black America, Miss Latina California, Miss Latina, Miss Asia Sacramento, and Miss Asian America are just a few.

But instead of asking if we still need ethnic pageants, shouldn't the question be whether we need pageants at all?

Here's something else to consider: Maybe more pageants ought to be like the Miss Black Sacremento pageant? Unlike Miss America or Miss USA, there is no swimsuit competition. More points are offered for talent than beauty. Winners get scholarship money, but while they are preparing for the pageant, they learn other skills:

In the months before the young ladies take the stage, they meet every Saturday for workshops to refine their skills: walking gracefully, giving interviews, public speaking.

On April 25, the eight competing in Miss Black Teen Sacramento and the eight in the adult competition sat down to learn dining etiquette – starting with how to set a formal table.

While Miss America claims its pageant "exists to provide personal and professional opportunities for young women to promote their voices in culture, politics and the community," and focuses on scholarships, there is still a "lifestyle and fitness" category of competition — also known as Swimsuit. Miss USA has always been a "bathing beauty" or swimsuit pageant and was founded in 1952 …by Catalina Swimsuits.

Clearly, the young women who apply feel that there is a for competitions like Miss Black Sacramento. In doing so, they become part of a community, showcase their talents, earn cash for school. It seems silly to ask if it's outdated, when the same could be asked of all similar competitions — including Miss America. But if you're gonna have pageants — and not, say, nationally televised Mathlete competitions — why not to have ones which are ethnically specific? And shouldn't more of them nix the swimsuit portion?

Miss Black Sacramento Pageants Spark Delight — And Some Doubts [Sacramento Bee]

Image of Miss Black California USA via Miss Black Los Angeles Pageant.]

Luckily for everyone's sanity, she -unlike Danielle Crittenden at the Huffington Post - isn't doing it to try to make some large statement about women's oppression or to show off her own ignorance. She and her co-workers are doing it as part of a large documentary and book project, "to discuss American identity, Muslim identity, and find out how well this country upholds its ideals in a post-September 11 world." Woldt, in fact, is wearing it to try to see if Americans are as racist as we think we are.

The project itself sounds really interesting, from interviews with a variety of Muslim-Americans from all walks of life with roots in many different countries. So, I hate to bash the project as a whole or suggest that someone like Woldt shouldn't be doing it. But the one problem with playing dress-up in traditional Muslim garb as an obviously-white woman to expose prejudice is that prejudice against Muslims and assumptions about Muslim women are also deeply rooted in race.

Woldt isn't going to get looks or questions the same way an Arabic Muslim woman or an African Muslim woman would because she's white and, with that, comes a basic assumption that she's choosing to wear a garment for reasons that are her own. I mean, no one is going around arguing that the U.S. government needs to free Hasidic Jewish women from the confines of their wigs and modest clothing, right? No one is trying to get Mennonite or Amish women to free themselves from patriarchal religious structures that have them clothed in bonnets and long pioneer-woman type dresses (in some cases). No one is trying to get nuns to ditch their habits or their vows of chastity. And, yet, there is a very basic assumption that, for the (mostly) brown women who wear hijabs, abayas or niqabs for religious reasons, that they must be freed from the yokes of their oppressors — even in this country. Because, of course, if they knew they could choose, of course they wouldn't.

Which is, of course, not to say that some women aren't forced to dress more modestly than they might otherwise choose. It doesn't mean that no women are harassed - here or abroad - for their clothing choices, be they modest or immodest. But what is does mean is that you can stick me in an abaya and send me down South and far fewer people would look askance at me because I'm a white woman wearing it - and because people will assume that it's my choice and not someone else's.

Muslim In America: A 'Voyage Of Discovery' [CNN]
Related: The Veil Does Not a Prison Make [Muslimah Media Watch]

The funny thing is that in most of these videos, there's usually at least one woman present, and she's enjoying the extraction more than anybody else. What is it about pimple-popping that is so appealing to women? [Well, I have some ideas! -Ed.]

Here's a warm up clip. Proceed at your own risk, people.

Here is a clip of girls popping a pimple on a friend's butt.

This might be one of the most disgusting lancings you'll ever see in your life.

Here's one of a girl popping a zit on a guy's back. Actually, this might just be one of the most disgusting things you'll ever see in your life.

Here's a guy who has a zit on his chest that is so big, it looks like a third nipple.

More bacne.

This guy has a clogged pore in his eyelid and went to a doctor to have it scooped out. His girlfriend is gleefully recording the entire thing.

Woman and children filming a guy squeezing about a gallon of puss out of his neck.

Remember Neveen from Bad Girls Club 2? Here she is squeezing a boil out of her armpit.

By far the worst one. After you watch this, you will never want to eat soft white cheese again.

Related: In Grossness And In Health [Salon]

Eh, we've previously discussed Unilever's hypocrisy. Meanwhile, it is important to reiterate that this ad is incensing for the same reason that the lack of black models in magazines and on catwalks ought to fill you with rage. As long as human beings believe that "fair" means "beautiful" — that dark is ugly and unfashionable — magazines and beauty companies are going to appeal to us with images of white skin. The more we see white skin in magazines and on catwalks, the more we'll believe that it is the ideal. I've posted about this before, but please: Watch this video by Kiri Davis, (fast forward to 3:40 if you have to) in which young children point to identical black and white dolls and proclaim the white doll "good" and the black doll "bad." It's a 2006 recreation of a 1950s test, with similar results.

Skin-Whitening Adverts Ignite Race Row In India [Independent]

Related: A Girl Like Me [Google Video]
Earlier: In India, Fair Is Handsome & Dark Is Doomed
Indian Women Whiten Their Skin, Fight The Patriarchy
Skin Deep

Here's the White Beauty commercial being aired in India:

The vile attitude toward dark skin is reflected in the way the cosmetic companies market these products. The TV commercials for Fair And Handsome feature men who are sad outcasts and can't get women because they're too dark. Just a little cream and the ladies swoon over their new, light complexion!

Ages and ages ago, there was a time when darkness, as a concept, was not evil. Darkness was the night, the soil, the strongest trees, the womb. Mysterious but nourishing, alive, full of power. White was for death and sickness. Thousands of years later, civilization, slavery, societal hierarchies, xenophobia, fear of disease and ignorance have flipped the script, so to speak. All too often, around the world — including in this country — black is bad. (Please refresh your memory with this video by Kiri Davis, in which young children point to identical black and white dolls and proclaim the white doll "good" and the black doll "bad." It's a 2006 recreation of a 1950s test, with similar results.) I wish I didn't have to keep typing these same words over and over again, but here goes: This is the same reason we counted the number of black models on the fashion week runways and look for black models in fashion magazines. If the world around you reminds you every day that your skin tone is neither fashionable nor desirable, how can you be expected to think otherwise?

In India, Fairness Is A Growth Industry [Washington Post]
Related: Fair And Handsome commercial [AOL Video]
Fair And Handsome commercial [You Tube]
Fair And Lovely commercial (Moral: No matter how good an actress you are, you can't be a star unless your skin is pale!) [Daily Motion]
A Girl Like Me [Google Video]
Earlier: Can One Woman Make A Difference? Maybe, If She Works For A Global Beauty Company
Indian Women Whiten Their Skin, Fight The Patriarchy
Study:Men Are More Attracted To Women With Lighter Skin
Skin Deep
Modeling Matriarch Continues To Demand Diversity On The Runways
Is Prada To Blame For the Lack Of Black Models?