Miss SA Zozibini Tunzi schools those who 'think black is not beautiful'

Zozibini Tunzi has been challenging beauty stereotypes from the moment the Miss SA crown was placed on her head.

It started with her haircut, which caused a stir on social media on the night of the pageant's finale. While many applauded her for keeping her look natural, others felt her short fade was “too basic” for a beauty queen and made snide remarks about it.

At the time, the 25-year-old from the Eastern Cape told the Sunday Times that she didn't take such comments to heart, adding, “I am aware that social media can be a dark place”.

Now, in a frank and powerful Instagram post, Tunzi has elaborated on why she doesn't let “unkind comments” about her “blackness” get to her. 

Addressing whoever “thinks black is not beautiful”, she wrote that she's not quick to take offence because “society has previously been programmed in such a way that there's nothing beautiful about being black. The furthest you are from being fair skinned the uglier you are. That unfortunately has been the universal standard of beauty and it is very difficult for some people to unlearn it.”

To all the “brown skinned girls” who've been at the receiving end of hurtful remarks, Tunzi encouraged them, saying “These comments are exactly why we should keep inserting ourselves in spaces where we have been told we do not belong and we will never make it. It is up to us rewrite the narrative.”