Color My Skin
by Omega
The color of my skin has always been an issue for me. As a young child, I can remember not wanting to go outside because I did not want to tan. I used to pray, in childish naivety, that God would not allow me to get darker. As I got older, my skin did darken and, as usual, when I go outside, my skin does tan. I now think back and consider why I was so set against becoming darker. My parents never told me that being light was good, but that was the message that I clearly heard from the media and casual remarks by people in my life. All of the “beautiful” black people on television had light skin and long, curly hair—that I often heard referred to as “good” hair. I wanted so badly to fit this image of beauty and I was dissatisfied with myself because I could not.
As I entered high school, I became more conscious of how my thinking about color came from the slave master’s work to make black people ashamed of being themselves. I enrolled in an African American Studies course where, for the first time in an academic setting, I learned why I should be proud of being black. For me, being black is not about skin color or hair texture, because these elements vary so greatly among black people. Being black is about knowing our history and how atrocities from the past carry forward to the present. What’s more, I learned that awareness should cause some type of action. So, I cut out all of my language that implied that there is only one type of black beauty, and I began to speak out when others around me said things like, “She’s pretty to be dark skinned,” or “Look at her ‘good’ hair.”
I know that colorism is not an issue only in the black community. Around the world, there seems to be a strong divide between light and dark people in terms of perceived beauty. It’s time that people of all ethnic groups that carry this baggage take responsibility. Stand up and say that beauty is not limited by colors or by colorism.
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