The beauty of Black women gained broader recognition with the growing number of them holding popular beauty titles. The fact was reinforced in 2018 when Black women held all of the major beauty titles at one time.
Well, now, the sexy of Black is being given the recognition Black women always knew it deserved. For the fourth of the last five years, PEOPLE Magazine’s Sexist Man Alive is a Black man. Actor Michael B. Jordan has been crowned as 2020’s Sexiest Man Alive.
Jordan, known for his critically-acclaimed performances in “Fruitvale Station,” “Creed” and “Black Panther,” was revealed as this year’s winner last month on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
Jordan told the magazine that the honor is a “cool feeling.”
The “Black Panther” actor succeeds Idris Elba in 2018 and John Legend in 2019 as PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson took home the title in 2016. But you have to go back 20 years before that to find the previous — and first — Black man to be named PEOPLE’s Sexiest Man Alive.
That was when Denzel Washington broke the awards diversity drought. While Black men may be the “new” sexy, in the award’s 35 years, only five men have received the honor.
The 33-year-old Jordan said the women in his family are “definitely proud of this one.” He credits his entire family for supporting him throughout the years.
“When my grandmother was alive, it was something that she collected, and then my mom naturally reads it a lot and my aunts as well,” Jordan said. “This is one that they’re definitely going to have a special place for.”