From The New York Daily News…
Beyonce taking heat for new pale-skinned photo promoting latest album
Milky complexion could simply be the result of bright lighting and not Photoshop flourishes
By Michael J. Feeney and Nancy Dillon / New York Daily News
White-hot superstar Beyoncé Knowles is taking fresh heat for a new pale-skinned photo promoting her last album.
The new mom, who weathered similar accusations of photo snow jobs in 2008 and 2011, is shown lying on a leopard print couch in a slinky black monokini, with straight blond hair, bleached eyebrows and nearly alabaster skin.
The milky complexion could simply be the result of extremely bright lighting and not Photoshop flourishes, critics conceded. But either way, some believe any amount of whitewashing sends a damaging message — and the star should know better by now.
"It’s like, Again? Are we here again? I think in a lot of ways shes culpable because there’s history there," said Lincoln Anthony Blades, founder of the popular race-conscious blog ThisIsYourConscience.com.
"She's not saying explicitly you have to lighten your skin, but it does carry that inherent message," he said.
It was summer 2008 when beauty behemoth L’Oreal denied accusations it digitally lightened Beyoncés honey-colored skin in an ad for hair dye. Last year, she faced criticism for the blond, unusually light-skinned photos accompanying her fourth solo album, simply titled “4.”
Ugandan-born British writer Yasmin Alibhai-Brown blasted Beyoncé for turning her back on her African-American roots.
"I despair for the youngsters who see those images," she wrote in London's Daily Mail.
Filmmaker D. Channsin Berry, whose documentary “Dark Girls” looks at issues facing black women with darker skin than their peers, told The News Beyoncé is “doing what she needs to do to be accepted worldwide and keep those sponsors happy.”
“I wish she had people around her telling her that God doesn’t make mistakes, that you are beautiful the way you are,” Berry said. “What does something like this do for a young girl who’s so impressionable and … says ‘Mommy, I want my skin to look like Beyoncé’s,’ that’s dangerous.”
Blades agreed and said he’s concerned about the rise in popularity of skin-bleaching creams.
In Harlem, Rochelle Mosley, the owner of Salon 804, said the singer is being given a hard time.
“That has been around since the beginning of time. Lighter has always gotten over,” said Mosley, a dark-skin woman. “I don’t think she’s trying to be a white woman. I think she’s trying to be herself.”
But stylist Ayanna Lockett, who also works at the same salon, disagreed:
“It bothers me,” she said, looking at the photo. “I think she went a little too far.”
Beyoncé’s publicist did not respond to a request for comment.
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