In this add from the 1940s that used to market beauty products to Black women, the erasure of blackness is emphasized. It was actually a marketing campaign that products would reduce or bleach the blackness of women’s skin. While I find this add repulsive and highly controversial, it reflects the priorities of some in that time period. In fact, this add recalls a satirical novel by George Schuyler called Black No More, in which the main character, Max Disher, undergoes surgery to change his visible ethnicity from black to white. Schuyler writes about Max observing some black people while in his new white skin on page 44 of the anthology, Dark Matter, “The Negroes, it seemed to him, were much gayer, enjoyed themselves more deeply, and yet they were more restrained, actually more refined...He felt a momentary pang of mingled disgust, disillusionment, and nostalgia. But it was only momentary.” Schuyler clearly conveys in this section that every ethnicity has something to offer, and Max realized that when he left behind his original heritage and had to observe it from afar. Schuyler seems to argue here that you always want what you cannot have, and skin color applies to this epistemology. Therefore, even if a technology was created that could make every person a member of the same visible race, it would be hurtful to culture to engage with this technology because the special aspects of all the cultures that are blurred out would be felt deeply by society. The technology would leave holes in the fabric of society.
