You Can Be Pretty (If I Lighten Your Skin)
21 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
I was at a community swimming pool with my sisters and our children on Sunday, and a rather buff 26ish dark-skinned African American male, a smaller just-as-dark (rather handsome) 17ish African American male, and a muscular dark-skinned 18ish African American male were swimming gin the company of two mulatto (sisters, I think; 17ish and 18ish) girls. I escaped the company of my own sisters, who were both positioned in the sun, and went to a shaded area, which happened to be closer to the aforementioned assortment of swimmers.
Apparently, the girls were from Los Angeles because when they expressed to the guys that they hated Texas, they were met with a barrage of expressions that all pointed to the wonders of Texas. Finally, one of the guys (the older one) asked, “If y’all hate Texas so much, why y’all don’t leave.”
“Cause our momma here. Where we gon go?” one of the girls replied.
He countered with “why y’all hate it so much?”
The same girl answered, “Texas got too many black people. They need more light-skinned folks.”
What the what? I think the young girl’s comment kind of hit the brother below the belt because he grew quiet and eventually exited the pool. I thought about his response and how black people have been told for so long that black is not beautiful that they/we sometimes feel inferior when faced and ridiculed by those who are taught or believe that they are the true images of beauty. When did light-skinned become not black? When did mixed become better? I hated to see that brother walk away with his tail tucked between his legs, but it did bring a very important issue to light for me. How many dark-skinned African American women do we see in mainstream Hollywood, representing images of beauty? Men?
Paper bag standards are alive and kicking, but the question we should be asking ourselves is: why do we allow them to be when we are the only people with enough knowledge about our own beauty to define? If we don’t gain our own sense of pride, who will?
