It’s time for a Black and POC Pinterest: I’m tired of adding “black” at the end of my image search

If you’re African American or even a POC like myself who loves all things beauty; makeup, hair, weaves, wigs, skincare, nails etc, you most likely have a Pinterest account.

Also, If you’re also a black women your search usually includes: red lipstick black women, blonde highlights dark skin, pink lipstick black girl because let’s be real if we don’t include the 'black’ or ‘African American’ portion the first options we see are no black people. This is a problem!

My beautiful cousin, Eileen who lives in Ghana, loves experimenting with hair color. She sent me a message discussing her frustration after spending 2 hours searching for images of dark skinned black women with red hair. After 2 hours of searching, she was only able to find TWO images of women that “matched” her complexion. 

I’m thinking okay maybe I can find more on my end. WRONG.

Chile. The images she found were the only images that popped up during my search. I could barely find any additional images to send to her and honestly this is my everyday struggle when it comes to finding inspiration for beauty looks. 

Take a “walk” with me as I try to ask questions I may not have the answers for:

Is there a lack of available content which showcases African American’s and other POC in beauty?

Hell no, there are millions of people on social platforms like Instagram that do showcase many different beauty looks. There are plenty of African American’s that fit these search options and post their content online.

Are women with darker complexions not experimenting with beauty and documenting them? 

Possibly, I mean this is why I do what I do! I want to create more content which showcases different beauty looks so that there’s more options available to find inspiration from. BUT the content has to be showcased and that’s something the media and these websites must take the initiative to do.

Is Pinterest taking the initiative to search and showcase this content? If they believe the content isn’t present why hasn’t there been a push to encourage the creation of it?

I mean, I haven’t seen it, these companies have the resources to do all of this. The fact is maybe it’s not a priority and most likely there’s a lack of POC working behind the scenes to encourage this push. The images are definitely present but search platforms like Pinterest aren’t taking the initiative to prioritize the need for this type of content and actually searching and/or encouraging the creation of it. 

Pinterest introduced a filter; when you search for certain beauty options you can then filter it by choosing the tone circle that’ll populate options to match your skin tone.

Chile this was an ABSOLUTE FAIL! 

The majority of times I chose the last darkest hue circle, women that were much lighter would show even white women would still populate in the darkest filtered search option. So I stopped using it and went back to my old ways of typing in African American, Black, or dark skin.

The fact that Pinterest added this feature shows that they realized there was a need for it. But the work doesn’t stop just by adding this one feature.

Google I see you too! The fact that when I type in high bun and only NON-POC populate really pisses me off. The fact that a diverse set of women from many different ethnic backgrounds with many different high buns aren’t displayed is an absolute FAIL on Google’s end and needs to be fixed immediately. As we all know, Caucasian women aren’t the only ones that wear high buns.

My homegirl just stated when she typed blunt bob into Google only white women with bobs appeared, huh?! Why are we still in our year of Black is King 2020 do we have to type ‘black girl’ at the end of a beauty search in GOOGLE, outrageous.

Bottom line: Pinterest and Google have got to do better, if you’ve been preaching diversity, inclusivity, posting black squares, yada yada yada, give us a product which delivers what you’re attempting to stand by. This is a prime example of the necessity of a diverse workforce and why this starts internally with hiring more POC. There are so many beautiful women of color with darker tones around the world that I want to see as options and I’m sure they’d like to see themselves too.

I’m encouraging Black people even POC around the globe who have dark skin to create and show off their creations and ultimately we do need our own image search app. I’m also encouraging brands to use people of various skin tones to advertise their product offerings (all lip shades, hair colors, etc.) so more options are present.

What I appreciate in my cousin’s overall message was her encouragement for me to continue what I’m doing. She continuously reiterated how there’s a desperate need for more images of women with deeper darker tones to be showcased online. Looks like I still have plenty of work to do.

-By Lady Adelaide

Share your thoughts, I’d love to hear what you think!