The Murmer of Bees is a historical fiction novel written by Sofia Segovia that follows a family in Linares, Mexico, and the journey they have with a little boy who comes into their family after he is found under a bridge surrounded by a swarm of bees. The boy’s name is Simonopio and he has a clef deformity and is unable to speak. The townspeople of Linares label Simonopio as a devil, but his adoptive parents, Francisco and Beatriz Morale still bring him into their home like their own son. When Simonopio is around age ten, the Morales have a son named Francisco Junior. As Simonopio and Francisco Junior grow up together, they form an amazing connection and bond despite the age gap and communication barriers. Despite Simonopios’s physical inabilities, he is able to protect his family by predicting both good and bad endeavors through his senses.
The character development between Simonopio and Francisco Junior is my favorite aspect of the book. Although Simonopio is unable to speak, he still is able to connect and form a strong and unique bond with Francisco Junior. Readers can learn a lot from the relationship between these two very different individuals, although they are from different families, and cannot communicate- they still find ways to get along and help each other. As I read this book, I focused heavily on Simonpio’s identity. He was adopted into a family and was looked down upon by others in his town because of his inabilities. As I began reading I figured Simonopio would fit the character mold of a subaltern, as he was unable to speak and make his own story. As I read on, it was quite clear that Simonopio could speak, just in a way I hadn’t imagined would be possible, his way of communicating is what protected his family through tragedies occurring at the time. In the reading Recitaff, it was interesting to see how much someone without a voice can make an impact on other characters, I looked at Simonopio’s influence on his family and townspeople similar to Maggie from Recitaff. Although the two couldn’t speak, they had huge impacts on the people’s lives they were in. Simonopio is first abandoned and then welcomed into a world that fears and judges him for his differences, through his family’s support and personal embrace he defies the odds and is able to build a strong identity and protect the people he loves and leave a lasting impact. There are many things that can affect communication between two individuals, some being; cultural differences, language barriers, incapabilities, distance, and as seen in Simonopios life: not being able to speak- how does Sofía Segovia show readers that it is possible to communicate with anyone, no matter how similar or different, even when a voice can’t be heard, and what can this tell us about two individuals or cultures?
Segovia, Sofia. The Murmur of Bees. Amazon Publishing. 2015.
Hi guys, my name is Lily Collignon, and today we’re going to be talking about colorism, but specifically, colorism seen in the beauty industry. So what is colorism? The national conference for community and justice, also known as the NCCJ defines colorism as a practice of discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. I’d also like to run through some statistics that can also explain colorism further. A 2016 University of Georgia study showed that employers prefer light-skinned men to dark-skinned men, regardless of their qualifications, from MS magazine, dark-skinned defendants are more likely to be convicted and receive the death penalty than lighter-skinned ones. So these are just a couple of examples of how colorism can actually affect people’s lives negatively, and the different abilities that they can have.
So, where does this all come from? And where did this obsession over a lighter complexion begin? There are many events in history that created this ideal of light skin, and I’m going to walk you through a few of them. To start out, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The only women who had pale complexions were those who didn’t have to work outside, so pale skin was associated with wealth and high class. But then in the 19th-century women began consuming arsenic wafers that would make their skin paler because of the association with the class in lighter skin. Also in India, around the same time, they had white rulers, which are said to be the reasons why many Indian people fascinate lighter skin. So again, they’re associating the white rulers with power and their wealth, and it’s associated with lighter skin. In the 1950s colorism continues, advertisers are now marketing products to African American women that are said to lighten their skin, which is supposedly going to lead them to be more beautiful, more socially liked can even marry better
In one of our in-class readings, the story of my body by Judith Ortiz Colfer. She delves into her upbringing and the many physical components of her life that have shaped who she has become. In her early teenage years, she remembers hearing a Puerto Rican woman say, “I hope my baby doesn’t turn out prieto, which is slang for dark and black.” This is an example of how colorism has affected an individual who feels as if her daughter or son- if they had darker skin wouldn’t be as liked, or have the same abilities as somebody with lighter skin.
In the past decade, there have been tons and tons of products marketed to everyone solely for whitening and brightening the skin. Today I’m going to talk about Tarte makeup that launched a brand new foundation. And it only had 15 shades. And I’m going to put the link to the article as well as a picture so you guys can see this for yourself. So the shade range ranges from 15 shades. And if you look at this picture it’s quite stirring. Only three of these shades are for darker-skinned people, and there are many many more shades of other individuals out there with darker skin complexions than just these three shades. The other shades are all pertaining to white skin. After much controversy tarte insisted that they had more shades coming that are already in the work. I’m not sure whether I believe this or not, especially because I looked into it, and tarte actually launched their quote-unquote full shade range of the foundation. In February of 2020. So that would have been 13 months after this swatch photo, and when the first 15 shades came out. I think it’s great that they ended up having more shades for people but at the end of the day, they came out with 15 shades that were completely prioritizing and pertaining to individuals with lighter skin.
Tarte isn’t the only makeup brand that has been guilty of colorism. Even right now if you were to look at Ulta which is a makeup store and you scroll through the concealer page, you will notice that almost every concealer shade on the cover page pertains to a lighter skin complexion. How does this affect the black community? Well, I have no idea. But I did do some research and I found in an article black voices colorism is a plague in the black community. Jacey Bledsoe interviews fellow students on the topic of colorism and asks them a series of questions. I read through all these questions I found it particularly insightful, but my most favorite question and the response comes from DeDjreanna Thames. And she says “it affects the black community because the world is already hurting in discriminating against us as it is. It doesn’t help that we are putting each other against one another as well because we are too light and dark, instead of fighting the fight against America together. We are fighting each other.” I think that Thames makes a really great point here. And she’s basically just trying to say that- And I mean it’s just putting it into perspective that there are many problems in the world and one of them is equality and discrimination and, and just making everybody equal regardless of skin tone and for individuals to be saying you’re too dark, or you’re too light.. is just taking us in the wrong direction for a diverse yet unified nation. I would like to make the argument that much of the beauty industry chooses to other members of the black community with their marketing efforts and product availability in relation to skin tone, the beauty industry looks at individuals with white and light skin as the one and prioritizes them because this skin tone is associated with idealistic beauty in what’s favored by society.
Beauty brands are continuing this horrific act of colorism and discrimination by continuing to sell these products and market mainly to individuals with lighter skin. I certainly think the beauty industry has the power to reshape ideologies and show that all skin color is beautiful ideal and valid. A lot of the time, makeup is associated with feeling pretty or dressing up, or feeling beautiful and looking beautiful. Right. And when big brands, choose to only market their products to individuals with lighter skin, they’re saying that only these individuals get to feel beautiful, but all colors are beautiful and invalid in able to feel pretty right. If you’re interested in a brand that supports black individuals and has a diverse shade range. And prioritizes all skin tones equally. Check out Juvias place, I actually have a product for them. And I really like it. They have so many shades and they market all their products using shades starting from dark to light, which was the first makeup brand to do that. So a lot of the time when you go to makeup counters, you’ll see products. And you’ll notice the next time you’re in there, but it’ll be like light to dark. Why, why, why is it not like medium to dark to light or dark to light it’s just interesting that’s just one of those things, but Juvias place if you go to their cameras you’ll see dark to light and even if you look up their page, you’ll, you’ll see uh, it’s just really cool, and you’ll see the difference to compared to Tarte per se. But yeah, a lot of the start to change colorism and is going to begin with the decisions that you decide to make in society. And thankfully tarte fixed their problem to a degree and didn’t just leave it. I don’t even know if they came out with an apology, but they were certainly othering black people when they came out with this line and making white complexion the one and it’s just interesting to think about it in that perspective.
But yeah, thank you so much for listening, and even you can make an impact by putting a stop to colorism just by the choices you make in society and the products in brands, you choose to buy and support. Thank you so much for listening. I’m going to link all of the articles of everything and some photos for you guys to look at just to get even more understanding, obviously, I’m not a pro on this topic I’m still learning as much as you guys are too and it’s just very eye-opening to read these kinds of things. So, thank you so much again, and I look forward to reading your guys’ “Yo is this podcast”s! Thank you.
Work Cited
Adamu, N. (2019, March 21). Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching. Welcome Collection. https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/ee63db55ad29f4e9078a5244e9f23f8c0be4f9dd_arsenic-complexion-wafers-smithsonian.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&w=1338&h=
Baragona, L. (2018). Fans are furious after Tarte unveiled its new foundation that cater almost entirely to white people. The Insider. https://www.insider.com/tarte-cosmetics-shape-tape-foundation-range-2018-1
Bledsoe, J. (2020) Black Voices: Colorism is a plague in the black community. Indiana Daily Student. https://www.idsnews.com/article/2020/11/black-vocies-colorism-is-a-plague-in-the-black-community
Newby. B (2019) Tarte Relaunched Shape Tape Foundation Due To Shade Range Outrage. The Reviliest. https://www.revelist.com/beauty-news-/tarte-relaunched-shape-tape-foundation/14634
Ortiz, Judith Cofer “The story of my body” Osman, N. (2019, April 4). Under the skin: How lightening creams exploit the beauty myth. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/skin-lightening-creams-are-they-exploiting-beauty-myths-south-sudan
Sankaran, S., Sekerdej, M., & Von Hecker, U. (2017). The role of Indian caste identity and caste inconsistent norms on status representation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00487
For the past several weeks, I have become very aware of the injustices in our society, and specifically, in the beauty industry, and it’s something I cannot unsee. I have always liked beauty products and never saw an issue with brand diversity until I began to look for it. I realized I had never noticed beauty diversity because I was never affected by it, because most, if not all beauty products were marketed to people who shared the same skin tone as me.
I first noticed the extreme and gut-stirring lack of exposure of darker skin tones on the Ulta Beauty website as I browsed through several products. Here is a screenshot I took a few weeks ago. Notice anything?
Each of the product images used as the cover photo to market the products is for an individual with fair skin, which is ultimately for white individuals. There are countless concerns I have with this screenshot, as it delves into a deeper issue of beauty standards and how ideals have been built on white beauty standards, making black individuals feel less applicable of said “beauty”. Not only are many products marketed to white people, but also we see products that have words like “lighten” or “whiten” complexion, which suggests that having darker skin isn’t beautiful. In an article that explores these issues and how companies have slowly started to combat these injustices, Osman writes, “there’s a booming market for skin lightening products, despite the moral and physical concerns associated with some cosmetics”. The issues that surround beauty ideals with a light skin complexion, come from far wider reasons than cosmetics. For instance, in the realm of status representation, lighter skin was a social signifier for rank and superiority (Sankaran 2017). European women who were already white would even try to be paler
by ingesting arsenic wafers to lighten their complexion (Adamu 2019). Issues surrounding beauty ideals with fair skin have stemmed from centuries ago and it’s an injustice that has been furthered by beauty brands and society. In Ortiz Cofers story, “The story of my body”. She mentioned many of her physical attributes that established her beauty as she grew up. Cofer has memories of others looked at her skin and she mentions hearing a pregnant Puerto Rican woman say, “I hope my baby doesn’t turn out prieto” (slang for dark and black” (Cofer pg. 2) Cofer also has an unforgettable memory with her skin complexion when the supermarket clerk calls her skin dirty. Lighter skin has been a beauty ideal for many generations, and marketers have used these ideals as a way to market to consumers. Beauty brands are furthering these injustices by the ways they choose to market their products. All skin tones are beautiful and valid, and every person regardless of what color they are should feel valid to make themselves feel even more beautiful with makeup.
Worked Cited
Adamu, N. (2019, March 21). Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from
Osman, N. (2019, April 4). Under the skin: How lightening creams exploit the beauty myth. Retrieved March 23, 2021, from https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/skin-lightening-creams-are-they-exploiting-beauty-myths-south-sudan
Ortiz, Judith Cofer “The story of my body”
Sankaran, S., Sekerdej, M., & Von Hecker, U. (2017). The role of Indian caste identity and caste inconsistent norms on status representation. Frontiers in Psychology,8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00487
There comes a time when trying to help someone, and hopefully, change their ways for the better, actually hurts more than helps. Achebe tells this story in the novel, Things Fall Apart. We meet an individual, Okonkwo, who is proud of his clan and their many rituals and traditions they have in the town of Umuofia. All of this is gone in an instant though when European colonizers pressure the people of Umuofia to adopt their ways. In doing so, their traditions have nearly vanished, and the love for rituals and celebration no longer drives the people of Umuofia. This story exemplifies the destructive effects of both colonization and reconstruction of an already well-functioning society to change into something they’re not, and in doing so, traditions, culture, and unique lifestyles are lost.
The United States has recently decided to reduce aid in Africa. While this may seem like a bad thing, many in Africa actually think that it will be a time where their country can learn to flourish and grow on its own, and bring back some of the cultural values they once had (Kwemo, pg. 4). When Americans go over to Africa and try to enact change by educating and creating new churches, they fail to recognize the already standing norms and cultures that Africa has.
Another way that Americans have also delved too deep into another culture is through adoption. Adoption is amazing in itself because a child can be provided a loving and safe home, but when there’s adoption between two different cultures, the traditions, and heritage of that individual are swept away (Coolman pg. 1).
While American Missionaries have a passionate goal to help struggling countries, very few missionaries go into the development of their churches and schools with an open mind, which in turn hurts the culture of that country. John Donnelly, suggests that there should be coordination and partnership between Americans and countries in Africa to see what help is most effective. Donnelly also states that “if you’re going to a foreign country, you have to learn from local people what is best.” (Donnelly).
It’s essential to recognize that differences in cultures are good, and other cultures shouldn’t impose their values and norms on others unless they genuinely think it’s best for that society. If the change occurs, it should be done out of harmony and knowledge of a culture.
Worked Cited
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor, 1994. Alcorn, Marshall.
Coolman, Holly T. “White parents adopting Black kids raises hard questions. We can learn from them.” America, The Jesuit Review, 8 July 2020,
Kwemo, Angelle B. “Making Africa great again: reducing aid dependency.” Brookings, Brookings, 20 April 2017, www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2017/04/20/making-africa-great-again-reducing-aid-dependency/.
Martin, Michel. “Missionaries in Africa doing more harm than good?” NPR, Faith Matters, 20 July 2012,
