I understand your perspective, but I actually don't take it for granted, at all, that my readers will assume that race has nothing to do with beauty. For myself, I grew up in a suburban environment where whiteness was the standard, and as a mixed-race person I am still very much trying to unlearn what internalized racism has done to me. When I write, I assume that there are many others out there who are similarly trying to unlearn the beauty standards we grew up with--which for me was much closer to Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" than it was to modern fourth-wave antiracist beauty norms.

I am very glad that there are other women out there who did not grow up like I did, who do not have to undergo the painful process of unlearning racist norms. For me, it is still very much a process. My intention is to speak to that process, authentically and honestly, rather than to pretend that I was not raised as I was or am out the other side of it when I am in fact not.