Moving to New York and Washington, DC, to build a career for myself in magazine journalism, there was a time when I internalized the racialized and classed messages of high-brow and low-brow art, a time when I believed plain gel manicures were more professional and less intimidating to a world outside of my Caribbean neighborhood in the South. But, as history has shown repeatedly, the establishment will mock Black and brown aesthetics until it’s profitable. Now, many of the same lifestyle platforms I worked for or freelanced at publish Y2K beauty content for a Gen Z audience obsessed with chonga, chola, around-the-way girl, and cafre nail stylings. While many have swapped acrylics for less-toxic manicures like Gel-X and press-ons, the looks are as long, squared, and bedazzled as they were in working-class neighborhoods in the early aughts—except, everyone’s donning the styles.Â
Source link
