I know what you are asking: WTF? Should there be such a thing as the "politics of beauty" if some folks can’t eat, or if there isn’t justice in our age of the new Jim Crow? I’d argue that economics, justice, etc., are meant to bring peace, prosperity and also beauty to a people. I’d argue that the enemies of our beauty—slavery, Jim Crow laws, the prison industrial complex, and the many other sources of black misery, are all products of a racist free market, of racial and racist capitalism to quote scholar Cedric Robinson; that politics can allow us to stand up to racist capitalism and offer the beauty we appreciate to our community.

Where are we at today with the politics of beauty? Well, let’s just say that “black is beautiful” was the rallying cry that moved this community beyond religious struggle, being israelites, and into affirmation. “Black is beautiful,” coined by Adam Clayton Powell Jr, as “black is beautiful, baby,” was the slogan through which black centrist Democrat politics came to dominate. In other words, “black is beautiful” has come to mean pride in a well suited black politician.

When beauty connotes grandeur, ideal beauty is achieved in politics when everything meshes: economics, justice, culture, urbanism, inclusion, human rights, innovation, etc. It is then that life can become beautiful, for the human is emancipated from misery and aims to build a beautiful world that is a reflection of inner peace. It’s what’s meant in our language by black women girls in dresses “getting their lives” to achieve beauty. Beauty also can be achieved, un-ideally, by being a steward of the arts through policy in politics. However it's just dressing life up. It's like saying that a well dressed and physically appealing person is necessarily a beautiful person, which is just not true, but it can be case. The new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture is a shining example of successful politics of black beauty through the arts. Its building, inspired by a Yoruba crown, is an obvious architectural marvel.

Atlanta Mayor, Maynard Jackson, established the very first department of cultural affairs for the city of Atlanta. Jackson’s administration, a shining example of black brilliance, established a phenomenal Jazz festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, now celebrating its 40th anniversary. In our society, when we all know about the sort of fight it takes for a black artist to be his or herself in the free market, we can only wish for someone with a vision for how politics can propel the arts. It would be great if we had a Mayor Jackson's taste for bringing such grandeur through government to hip-hop, a globally influential art form without a major museum, though some are in gestation. Black officials at cultural agencies like the city of Atlanta’s cultural department, nonetheless, do a phenomenal job at putting on amazing events that do justice to the arts.

I’d argue that we focus more than on the arts as the politics of black beauty. I’d argue that the politics of black beauty in the 21st century begin with human rights, the evolution from civil rights that many of our civil rights heroes, such as James Forman and Julian Bond, started. Human rights, alongside education, expressed in our democracy, will bring us more of the human (artist, entrepreneur) that aims to bring happiness to our community—happiness that will be reflected as beauty. Healthier foods, psychology services, are what I have in mind. I’d then argue that the government’s job should be to finance the infrastructure of black beauty. It’s a rallying cry in this community, and accepting the fact will bring us that much closer to the grandeur we’d like to continue to achieve.