Why so much hate for LSLH women? I get this question asked of me frequently via emails. The question stems from my use of the acronym LSLH to describe light skinned women with long hair who are revered by black men and the media as the ideal standard for black woman.

And maybe as a subconscious consequence of that the media reverence for LSLH women, we now see 90% of black women wearing long, bone straight wigs and weave, and/or buying skin lightening cream in bulk.

Thank God for women like talk show Diva Tyra Banks (and even Solange Knowles) who sees the long term hopelessness in substituting our own natural beauty in favor of a media manipulated standard of black beauty.

I totally disagree with blogger AverageBro, who, in his post about this subject, cautions his white readers to “watch this one from the sidelines,” as if white people aren’t savvy enough to understand the complex issues surrounding self-hate and media manipulation of black culture.

This isn’t about me or about black women who stand by while their men parade their LSLH chicks around them and their children. It’s about a media and society at large that attempts to subjugate strong black women by means of substituting our blackness with acceptable light skin mixed women, who then turn around and whine that black women aren’t accepting of them.

Here’s an excerpt from AverageBro’s post:

One interesting pattern I always see develop on black gossip blogs is when a black guy with some level of fame is seen out with a black woman. If the woman is lightskinned, with long hair (a term so common it even has an accepted acronym: LSLH), the guy will inevitably be pelted with all sorts of insults in the comments section about how he dislikes “real” black women, and probably wants a white girl anyway.[1] On the other hand, a black man seen with a brownskinned woman (a term that doesn’t have an acronym of its own), he’ll usually get commended for “keepin’ it real” and “staying true”.[2] For an example of this paradox, just Google the terms “NBA player’s wife” and “Denzel Washington’s wife”.