Lipstick Scissors and Needles

My definition of Colorism is a prejudice within a certain race of individuals based on skin color. Colorism is definitely an active problem within the African American society and although it may be an unconscious act, it is one that needs to be brought to attention immediately so that we as a society can work on closing this gap. Colorism is rooted in the times of slavery where very early on it was known that if you were lighter-skinned or "mulatto" you worked in the house performing light duties such as caring for the children and cooking the house meals and if you were darker-skinned you were confined to the fields and forced to perform heavier duties which entailed picking and transporting cotton in horrible weather conditions. Here in recent times it is evident that we are still struggling from these same ideas. I have witnessed first hand individuals from my generation boldly and shamelessly admit that they would rather be associated with a lighter-skinned individual than a darker-skinned one, particularly when it comes to dating, and this way of thinking only leads me to believe that these people are uneducated about THEIR history and openly displaying ignorance. Now there's one thing to have a preference but there's another issue when you choose to discriminate with no reasoning to back you up. In an article titled, "Shades of Prejudice" Shanteam Vedantam states that "skin tone and other racial features.....regularly determine who gets hired, who gets convicted and who gets elected." I couldn't agree more with this statement, I'm sure many have heard individuals say the Barack Obama wouldn't have been elected into office if he was a darker-skinned African American man. How silly does that sound??.....but sadly I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. In order to begin fixing this problem it is the responsibility of society, which directly includes the media and we the people as individuals, to work together on fixing this skewed perception that individuals should be treated differently based on skin tone.

As a darker-skinned African American woman I can definitely say that i have experienced colorism first hand. Constantly i hear things like "Oh, your pretty for a dark-skin girl" or "Hey chocolate" or "i dont usually talk to black girls"....and the sad part is people actually believe that they're giving me compliments when they say these things. WTF! I wish somebody would explain to me how anyone is "pretty for a dark-skinned girl," Pretty is pretty and skin tone shouldn't be a factor in determining an individuals beauty. VERY often people automatically associate light-skinned with beauty without a question, its sort of like an automatic stamp of approval. Very frequently the media praises and showcases individuals with lighter skin making them appear to be more desirable while keeping those with darker skin in the shadow. This type of behavior sends a silent message to society that if an individual is dark-skinned they may not have as good a chance as a lighter skinned individual. Somebody once told me that a pretty brown skinned girl is rare. smh I see pretty brown skin girls daily, perhaps that person was just stuck on the common misperception of beauty and fails to see it.

Because of the constant image portrayed in media of the fair skin,long hair, pretty eyes and slim body being used to represent "beauty," darker-skinned individuals begin to feel inferior and turn to items such as bleaching creams, color contacts, hair weaves and diet pills just to be accepted by a society that looks down on them just because of the color of their skin. There's no need to feel this way everyone no matter what skin color, size whatever you should never feel like you're inadequate. Embrace yourselves and love yourselves I say screw the media and don't associate yourselves with ignorant people who choose to think otherwise. Nine times out of ten they have personal issues they need to work out within themselves.

You're Beautiful.