Beyoncé opened up about the profound pain of growing up with brown skin and curly hair, revealing that the industry once “whitewashed” her image to fit discriminatory standards. She described the experience as having her skin become a “site of trauma.” Now, she’s released the ultimate statement of defiance—Black Is King on Disney+—turning that very pain into a crown of pride. Click to watch the visual album that became her liberation.

My skin was a site of trauma”: Beyoncé reveals the racist beauty standards that tried to break her, now defied by 1 visual album on Disney+.

Tháng mười một 6, 2025

From “Trauma” to a Throne: How Beyoncé Defied Racist Beauty Standards With Black Is King

Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is a global icon of creative control, but her journey was a long battle against racist beauty standards that tried to break her. The artist has spoken about the pain of this scrutiny, from childhood bullying to having her image “whitewashed” by the industry.

She was finally “freed,” she says, by creating her 2020 visual album, Black Is King—a powerful statement of pride in her roots that turned her pain into a crown.

The Pain: A “Whitewashed” Image

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From a young age, Beyoncé faced criticism for her appearance. Her mother, Tina Knowles-Carter, has confirmed that Beyoncé was “very shy” and “bullied a bit” as a child, forced to navigate a world that often devalued her brown skin and curly hair in favor of Eurocentric ideals.

This pressure intensified with fame. As her star rose, the industry often tried to make her image more “palatable” to white audiences.

Data Point: The 2008 L’Oréal Controversy: The most glaring example occurred in 2008. L’Oréal, for whom Beyoncé was a spokesperson, ran an ad for its Feria hair color in Elle magazine. The ad was met with immediate public backlash for appearing to have digitally lightened Beyoncé’s skin, making her look “virtually unrecognizable.” Critics and news outlets accused the company of “whitewashing” her, a stark example of the industry’s attempt to erase her Black features.

The Liberation: Black Is King

After decades of fighting for creative control, Beyoncé used her power to create her ultimate statement of liberation. On July 31, 2020, she released the visual album Black Is King on Disney+.

The film, based on the music from her album The Lion King: The Gift, was a direct response to the trauma of erasure.

The Statement: Black Is King is an unapologetic and majestic celebration of Black identity. It reimagines The Lion King‘s story as an allegory for the African diaspora, using “the breadth and beauty of Black ancestry” to build a narrative of royalty, power, and self-worth.

The Crown: The film reframed Blackness not as a site of trauma, but as a source of power. This was most evident in the song “Brown Skin Girl,” an anthem written for her daughter, Blue Ivy, that explicitly celebrates dark skin. The song, which shouts out Black women like Naomi Campbell, Lupita Nyong’o, and Kelly Rowland, became a global anthem against colorism.

By creating Black Is King, Beyoncé reclaimed the narrative. She took the very features the industry tried to “fix” and centered them as the definition of beauty, turning her “skin as a site of trauma” into a crown for a new generation.

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