Brown Skin Lady...where ya goin?

Im watching Tyra...cuz yeah Im that freakin bored. Anywho the topic is skin bleaching. This practice is so interesting to me. The panel of women are umm... of darker complexion, I guess society would consider them chocolate. A cacao sista like myself...hmm...they are more milk chocolate but they are talking about how they bleach their skin to be better accepted within society. This one woman poured liquid bleach on her face because she was that desperate to have light skin. Really? Why are we still doing this to ourselves in this day. Its 2009. Black people have fought, survived and died to be considered black HUMAN BEINGS why would you give them back that power by perpetuating the idea that being black is a negative thing.

I grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. Yep white country. And my family being as dark as we are SCREAM African when we we are in a room. I remember being teased as a child for being dark but I think because my parents raised me to be proud of being African and this was how a Ghanaian was supposed to look. In my eyes I was who I was supposed to be so when kids would call me Blacky, Black Ass, Charcoal...etc. It may have hurt my feelings because they made it into a group effort to ridicule me but it didnt scar me. I was like, ok, you called me black ass. I am black...including my ass so what part of that is supposed to be offensive. You are stating the obvious. There was an instance when we were in a group, I think I was about 9, smart mouthed 9 of course. Anyway we were in a group in school and this one boy who was not that much lighter than me was trying to talk up a latina girl who was very fair and he got clowned, I laughed. He says"shut your black ass up, you so black". And everyone laughed of course but I just kept my composure and was like "so what, Im black. My skin is black and smooth. I can see every lil pimple you have on your face, bet you wish you had some of my black to cover it up dont you." That was the end of that conversation.

I remember my mother using bleaching creams but that was for the purpose of lightening acne scars. She never used it all over her face. My mother, the super christian, instilled us with the idea that we are as God made us and there is nothing wrong with how he made us. I had cousins in Ghana that did skin bleaching as a ritual. They live in the Ghana and still this cancer of European ideals have infected their society and effected the way in which they see themselves.

I will never be light complexioned nor do I ever want to be. I have a family that instilled that pride within me to not be ashamed of my skin color. I still get the comments. Damn she black as hell. I was walking with a friend of mine and a group of older BLACK men talking amongst themselves, one of them yelled out I like the Darky, the other said mmm...I like the Red bone. WTH??? Are you serious???? Did you just call me darky? And her Redbone??? Umm. first of all this is not 1902...use your words, flip thru a thesaurus or sumthin and think of another word for dark. Dont' t just add a Y to black and dark cuz its easy. Dont be all the way ignorant. But I still get that. Ive been with light skin friends out and about and I see the eyes shift from me to them. They have lighter skin, "good hair" and some people are still trapped in that mind set that either side is better than the other. Im not saying to be darker is better than being light. I am saying that I am a dark skin Ghanaian woman and I love being the complexion that I am. That is the beauty in being black, different hues, different cultures. After all that black people have been through how can people now slap our ancestors in the face with a no thank you, Im going to concede and conform to European ideals of perfection. Europeans will continue to make us feel inferior as long as we accept that treatment. Seriously, if you dont have pride in you, how can you expect others to.
Im just sayin....

Brown Skin Lady...where ya goin?