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I was six years old when I was made fun of my skintone. I was told I was too dark and that my rich melanin was synonymous with being ugly. What I didn’t know at my young age was how media and society would continue to perpetuate that narrative.
A thread about my experience/ https://twitter.com/itsafronomics/status/1337568319403126784
A thread about my experience/ https://twitter.com/itsafronomics/status/1337568319403126784
Many people don't know this, but growing up, I attended predominantly white schools and thus became the only or one of the only in a sea of white students until the age of 18. My skin color, from the very beginning, was noticeably darker just because of who I was around.
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I think for me, however, the pit feeling in my stomach that came along with being darker was really cemented when I noticed that other Black people didn't find me beautiful. At the time, I didn't know that colorism was what it was called. I wanted to hide.
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Apart from being an adolescent with whole host of insecurities, I felt DEEPLY insecure about my skin to the point that I considered bleaching.
I eventually didn't because I was a 12/13/14/15 year old girl who couldn't afford it, but I hated being dark-skinned.
I eventually didn't because I was a 12/13/14/15 year old girl who couldn't afford it, but I hated being dark-skinned.
There were two critical moments that changed it all for me:
1) Coming across an absolutely stunning picture of a dark-skinned woman who looked like me.
2) @Lupita_Nyongo winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in all of her melanated glory. I literally cried.
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1) Coming across an absolutely stunning picture of a dark-skinned woman who looked like me.
2) @Lupita_Nyongo winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in all of her melanated glory. I literally cried.
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The battle of colorism is real, and it's global. The largest markets for skin bleaching are India and Nigeria. Southeast Asian countries revere light-skin, which is why many of the Southeast Asian actresses you see are white passing. This is also true of Latinx actresses.
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The roots of colorism predate video vixens in rap videos and Jim Crow. Colorism is rooted in the dehumanization of Black and Brown people and stems from Slavery and Colonization. It is the internalizing and projecting of the harmful ideal of melanin equating inferiority.
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I've written a couple threads on this, but I just want to say that bi-racial and light-skinned Black folx have privilege in spaces of power because of their proximity to whiteness and I think @Zendaya breakdown of this fact is salient:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/zendaya-colorism-hollywood_n_5ade10eae4b0df502a4e529f
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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/zendaya-colorism-hollywood_n_5ade10eae4b0df502a4e529f
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All in all, educate yourself about what colorism is, listen to dark-skinned Black people when we speak on our experiences, and try your best to unlearn harmful ideals that allow colorism to still be pervasive in communities of color. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
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Y'all already know the vibes. Photography was done by my main girl @Sublime______ . Follow her for melanin rich photography.
