Fifteen years ago, the developers of Tarzana's gated community of Silver Hawk Ridge named their streets for European resorts; a Swiss ski resort inspired the development's guarded and gated entryway, St. Moritz Drive. St. Moritz's name traces back to the deaths, in the third century, of some legendary soldiers known as the Theban Legion, who came from Africa's Upper Nile and were martyred in present-day Switzerland. The site of their killing became a sacred place of pilgrimage for European Christians, and hundreds of churches and dozens of cities were dedicated to their commander, who became known as St. Maurice (or Moritz). Difficulties arose when European artists developed the skills to portray people realistically - and when Europeans learned what African men actually look like. To make Maurice more palatable, artists responded by “giving” the saint white skin or European features; but eventually, a powerful, pious black man proved too provocative. St. Maurice - black saint for a white world - could defeat the enemy, but he could not overcome Eurocentric culture's narrow ideals of physical beauty and perfection. As our twentieth-century history reminds us, it's been a struggle not yet entirely won.