Kenya : Kenyan woman defends her skin bleaching
- Thread starter dunwiddat
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Some of us do get carried away when we talk about melanin and pigmentation. I remember a few years after I moved to GA, I borded a private bus to get us to a rally. I wounded up sitting beside this very dark-skinned sister who said she was an assistant pastor, however she didn't sound like a very good one. During that 11 hour bus trip, I told her I was struggling with allergies, something I understand a lot of people from different states suffer when they first move to GA. I told her I already had trouble adjusting to cold air, especially the cold air that they use to blow through the air-vents right above our heads in those cubicals at my old job. I haven't caught but two colds since I left that job. Anyway, she told me the reason I was having these problems was because of the admixture in me. Although a lot of blacks would have took that as a compliment, I didn't know how to take it. But it was really an insult. That's when I really realized how bad it was with the skin-tone issue here in the South. It's a lot worst down here than the black people in the North realize. They seem to have similar issues for light-skin as the whites have for blacks altogether, unless you're from down here. Even a lot of light-skinned individuals have issues with other light-skinned individuals they don't know. Perhaps it's always been this way in the North too, but it seems to be on steroids down here in the South, and getting worst.
When we speak of self-hate, people like to automatically think it means dark-skin. But the hate between non-darkskinned blacks is underrated in many cases.
When we speak of self-hate, people like to automatically think it means dark-skin. But the hate between non-darkskinned blacks is underrated in many cases.
Most brothers like those chocolate easter bunny complexion sisters with no blemishes, the ones that almost look as though they taste like real chocolate. But I saw something different when I met my doctors nursing assistant several years back. She was about Jennifer Lopez's complexion, even had her body, but much smother baby looking skin. She had real long silky black hair with a face looking like a girl in her very late teens at the most. She had this yellowish, reddish, and brownish tone to her skin all in one, with absolutely no blemishes. She had this type skin that even if you pinched it, it wouldn't leave a red mark for the rest of the day like you see on a lot of light-skinned sisters, especially the ones we like to call red-bones...which isn't a turn off by the way. After about 3 or 4 years I found out she was in her mid 30's. I almost fainted. Then she told me she had a white mother and a black father, which shocked me, and made the "bi-racial aging faster" theory that much more of a mindset. She said people always confused her for Portre-rican, Mexican, or Brazilian, ect... I just couldn't see any sister with a backside like that having a white mother.
One of my best buddies is a bi-racial brother. Sometimes I don't know how long that friendship is going to last...you know how that go. But he didn't get blessed with that young gene this bi-racial sister got blessed with...I'll just leave it like that. My crazy half-brother would get drunk and call him Howdy Doody. But don't all bi-racial people walk around with reddish brown hair looking like a so-called Howdy Doody, or his sister in this case.
So if I had to choose between who had the prettier skin between the chocolate easter bunny type and this nursing assistant, there would be no winner. It's all in the glow of the skin and what they do to take care of it.
One of my best buddies is a bi-racial brother. Sometimes I don't know how long that friendship is going to last...you know how that go. But he didn't get blessed with that young gene this bi-racial sister got blessed with...I'll just leave it like that. My crazy half-brother would get drunk and call him Howdy Doody. But don't all bi-racial people walk around with reddish brown hair looking like a so-called Howdy Doody, or his sister in this case.
So if I had to choose between who had the prettier skin between the chocolate easter bunny type and this nursing assistant, there would be no winner. It's all in the glow of the skin and what they do to take care of it.
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Another thing the sister on that bus said to me that was ridiculous came after she asked me what I was mixed with. After I named what I knew, she said "Don't forget African". Was she so color-struck that she wanted me to tell her that I was African-American too?...I guess so. I get tired of certain individuals thinking they have the right to require non-darkskinned people to prove they don't think they're too good to identify with the rest of the race. When she asked me what I was mixed with, it was obvious she was asking me what was mixed with my blackness, the way a person would ask any African-American. Trying to remind me I was still black after asking me that, showed just how ignorant and brainwashed she really was. To make it so bad, she thought she was doing her job by telling me that. I'm afraid that's still a rampant mindset with a lot of us. It was best that she never asked me in the first place. Talking about some out-dated thinking.
For the record, I do NOT think of the color shade, i.e., light, dark, brown-skinned, of a brother or sister when I speak of black self-hate. The "black" in the phrase means "African," as in African self-hate, not the literal color of one's skin. As in someone asking a clearly black person what they're 'mixed with' and they say, "Portuguese, Chinese, Mongolian, French Huguenot, Spanish Basque, Mexican and Swedish." Regardless of their skin shade, that's black self-hate.
I am kind of lost. are you saying that it is African self hate if a clearly black person asks another clearly black person what are you mixed with and they reply with one of your mentioned descriptions?
My bad. Should have said: "I'm Portuguese, Chinese, Mongolian, French Huguenot, Spanish Basque, Mexican and Swedish," yet do not list African as a race of heritage. In short, giving a shopping list of every drop of every race/nationality blood BUT black/African.
And trust, I've seen it. Only no one asked what they were "mixed" with - usually, as in the instances I've witnessed, it is volunteered info.
Now this here I can kinda agree with, as I know a lot of blacks have a habit of doing that, including all their heritage except African...when nobody really asked them, or brought up the topic. However this sister on the bus tried to size me up into that category of blacks, and she was wrong because she brought up the topic by asking me. As dark as she was, if I had asked her the same thing, and she knew she was mixed, like most dark-skinned African-Americans really are, than the last thing she would have said was African. I'll put money on that.