Honest Talk

I am from Atlanta, GA. In Atlanta, there is a huge issue of dark skin vs light skin. We have been indoctrinated with the belief that light skin is more beautiful than medium or dark skin. Along with this we start to value features that we associate with being light skin like pink lips, brown or light eyes, and puffy hair. A girl could actually be really really non-attractive but as long as she is light skin and has puffy hair then she is considered pretty. The affects of this bias toward light skin women and men (that’s another post) has been great in the Black society. It promotes self hatred as well as unnecessary tensions inside the race. There are more positive characteristics or stereotypes that are associated like being smart and sophisticated. If you don’t believe or agree with me, then look at black movies and notice the roles of the light skin and dark skin girls. You will notice a pattern.

This is not a new issue, so why bring it up? I think that it is an issue that is bringing down the Black community. As a brown skin (African American) woman, I personally have experience pain from this problem. Although I feel I am pretty attractive, I have been told that I was too dark or dark like a UPS truck- which shouldn’t be an insult, but at the time I took it as one- therefore I was deemed undesirable. This type of interactions (where you are told being darker means you aren’t pretty) causes brown skin and dark skin girls to resent light skin girls.

Now, I still notice the bias most Black men have but I no longer feel that lighter complexions are better than mine. The problem I have isn’t about self-love, but it is my personal attitude towards black men. Yes; my frustration is now with black men. I have no problem with light skin girls because they haven’t actively done anything. They can’t help and surely wouldn’t fight against the privileges awarded to them because of their skin tone.  Black men(generally) have actively perpetuated the self hatred many brown and dark skin women through instances like mine.