Why Black Women Don't Need Plastic Surgery

By: Deric Muhammad


For centuries society has paraded the white woman before the world as the standard of beauty. People the Earth over have been psychologically programmed to believe that blonde hair, blue eyes, and skinny nose with a 98 pound frame to match represented the ultimate euphoria to the human eyeball.
These deceivers even went so far as to give us a falsified portrait of Jesus that looked just like a white woman. If I’m lying, I’m dying.
These lies so permeated and poisoned Black women’s view of themselves that they negated their own Black beauty by bleaching their hair and skin, wearing colored contact lenses and doing whatever it took to look more like our former slave masters daughters. Please do not be angry with me sisters, but you’ll have to agree that your permanent is really a temporary. I won’t go any further along those lines, lest I start receiving death threats (smile). One thing that I learned from my mama is that you do not talk about a Black woman’s perm.
But what I seriously want to talk about is the Black woman’s mind. Back in the day some sisters were so sick that they would place clothespins on their noses in hopes that it would thin out like white folk. Some would bite their lips when they smiled to make their lips look thinner when posing for photos.
But then a memo started circulating among white women. It said “Black women are beautiful”. And the starter pistol sounded throughout the world that the race among white women to look more “ethnically exotic” had begun. The new bar for beauty was set based upon the darkness of their tan, the thickness of their lips, the shapeliness of their figures, etc. This fixation with the Black woman’s features ultimately exploded into surgical breast augmentation, buttocks implants and collagen lip injections. Some would even bake their bodies in the sun so long that they ended up with skin cancer. Yes, the Black woman’s beauty was a beauty “to die for”. The only problem is that I don’t think that my sisters quite got the memo.
Let me stop and express my sincere condolence to my brother Kanye West who lost his mother to what appeared to be complications from plastic surgery. I do not wish to come off as insensitive or disrespectful, as I believe that Dr. Donda West was one of the most brilliant, educated and beautiful Black women that we had. May God be pleased with her.
But I pray that Black women take a lesson from that last chapter of the life of Dr. West and take a deeper look into self and reevaluate what true beauty is and identify it’s source. True beauty does not come from being “butylicious”, no disrespect to Beyonce. True beauty is God himself and everything that he creates is a reflection of His beauty.
Scientists set out to explore the Earth to find the beginning of mankind and the oldest fossils that they could find were the remains of a Black woman. She is the original woman; that from which all man and woman came. Because she is original, she does not have to copy any other. She comes straight from God. You can’t get anymore beautiful than that.
I refused to go Houston’s Museum of Natural Science and see the display of “Lucy” the million year-old Black woman’s bones. Do you know why? I see “Lucy” everyday sitting on the corner of 288 and Southmore begging for change. Only problem is “Lucy” doesn’t quite see herself.
Since the Black woman is mother of the Earth then she should accept her divine responsibility as the standard of beauty. It cannot be achieved through plastic surgery. You are a queen. Queens historically dawned gold and diamonds, not “plastic.” As a queen, you must carry yourself with pride and dignity at all times. Your self-esteem must be wrapped up in your relationship to God and the knowledge of your history; not in 36-24-36. Don’t listen to what R. Kelly says, because he has no clue of what the real standard of beauty is. No real man likes a “dumb dime” anyway.
The Bible (Proverbs 31) gives, what I believe, is a good idea of the characteristics of a beautiful woman. It is the chapter where the King Lemuel’s mother is teaching him what he should look for in a woman. She is termed the “virtuous woman”. You should read it. Nowhere is plastic surgery mentioned.
Now I know that sometimes we look in the mirror and see things that we don’t care to see. And brothers we must do a better job at reassuring our women that they are beautiful. However we must be realistic. Stress, fast food, lack of exercise and Chimmy Chan wing dinners are all factors in the Black woman’s struggle to maintain her original beauty. And if they need a little tightening, then we must encourage them by going to the gym with them, eating healthy foods with them and thanking God for the Black woman who has shouldered our burden like no other woman on Earth.
My sisters the key to beauty is found in your faith in God. Once you find the strength within it will empower you to lose that weight, stick to that diet and reach your goals. You will feel better that you improved on yourself through hard work and faith. There is a health crisis in the Black community. We lead in heart disease, HIV and AIDS, prostate cancer, etc. We’ve got too much surgery going on in the Black community as it is. We don’t need any more.
What I am saying is that mental and spiritual surgery must first take place. And if you desire to improve yourself physically then do so. But always remember that you have already been crafted by a “supreme surgeon”, God himself. And only when He is pleased with us are we truly beautiful.