Black skin is beautiful. Regardless of what you read, the message you get from the media and sometimes even within family, black is beautiful and goes with everything under the sun. Why would some black people hate their beautiful skin? They hate it because they see it as ugly, dirty, something to be ashamed on because that's what they have been taught.
At the root of this self hatred is racism. I felt sad when I saw the picture of a beautiful Jamaican woman who had bleached her skin ugly. What is even sadder is that she has not recognized the internalized racism, the legacy of colonialism and discrimination that underlie her decision to bleach her skin so that it could look lighter. Instead she saw it as "changing her looks."
Black people and especially black women suffer from a state of internal unease about themselves. White women also suffer from this to some degree but their suffering is adding on to themselves to the standard of beauty defined by media standards. Black women want to erase themselves which is the stark irrationality of it all. Why?
The ways in which black women look at themselves is the ways in which the white male looked upon them and assigned them a particular place in society which is always near the bottom. White men have once claimed that blacks were not human, incapable of learning, forbid them to be educated and relegated them to the most subservient positions in society - that of servitude - serving white people and looking after their children. In most of the colonized societies, white people were the ruling class. They were seen as efficient, educated, refined and as having the authority to rule. In each of the countries they went to the modus operandi was to divide and conquer. Those who were closer in looks to the white folks were awarded with slightly higher status than blacks. To be black came to be seen as "losers" "people who were lazy, not smart" and such negativities. The colonized all tried to be or look closer to the source of power, the white people in order to receive the blessings from the lordly colonizers. In time, these folks who were also exploited and denigrated by whites came to see it as their right to also lord it over blacks. Blacks were facing discrimination from anyone who appeared lighter skin and they were rewarded by being giving privileges not awarded to blacks.
Blacks in many countries were not allowed front desk jobs, because their black skins might not be appreciated by customers some of whom were also blacks. After years of this kind of pollution, one can imagine that many blacks would not think highly about themselves, even love themselves. Many blacks confess that even in the homes of black people children with lighter skin were preferred over darker skin siblings. How do a race get over this legacy? Through education, deep soul-searching education. Black people have to learn to be comfortable with themselves, they have to learn to separate the lies they have been taught from the truth and they have to internalize that.
Black is beautiful, sophisticated and goes with anything. It is flexible, educated, sensual and exciting. How can we get blacks to learn this, live it and walk in the grace of their blackness. They have seen blacks have climbed to the top of the ranks, have made in space, science, technology and everywhere in spite of their late start. These are exceptionally beautiful people. But Carlene does not know this at a conscious level.
BBC photo: Carlene 35, Jamaican descent
