hello my name is ann edwards im 16 and reside in sugar land, tx. i am italian-brazilian and african american
in my family they believe that light skinned females are more attractive then dark skinned females. as a child, as my brother played outside, i had to stay inside and watch CNN with my mother. im not light but brown which makes my parents upset. all my cousins are light and they used to laugh at me because i was darker. when i was 12 my grandmother in Sao Paulo bought me my first bleaching cream and i have been addicted since then. every day for the past four years, i take five or four bleaching pills, apply bleaching cream and lotion 2x a day and use papaya soap 2x a day. i break down when i go on long trips beause i can't bleach myself or stay outside too long for the fear of getting darker.
i hate that i do this but i have too. why you might ask. well, with more black celebrities then ever the more self respect i should have. right? wrong. on tv shows, movies, commercials, and hip hop videos, what do most black women have in common? either they are mixed or light skinned. and because of this trend most black men prefer lighter black women or white women. i didn't want to believe this but after reading many articles on bleaching and colorism, it is indeed true. i don't hate that i am black but i have been treated better as i have gotten lighter. people say they like me "yellow" instead of brown. im trying to break of this addiction but everyday im reminded that white is right.
i title this colorism because there seem to be a preference for light or mixed blacks then dark blacks.
im hoping that i can discuss this issuse with y'all because i am having to do this on my own. many people around me bleach, mostly indians and asians.
thank you
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Hey sweetie! My name is Rika and I am a lightskinned African Ameican. But growing up I always wanted my sisters cocoa skin I think it is beautiful. I am 27 years old and I will not pretend that colorism doesn't exist it does but baby love yourself. In my neighborhood it was that way but being the light skinned small one wasn't all it was cracked up to be. I had very few female friends and not even my sisters trusted me. Add on that i had staight A's in school and you get a lot of fights. I fought because I was light skinned and you are harming your skin to be light. At some point I learned to love me and ignore thse who refused to see the inside of me and not just the outside. So to you I say stop!!! You are beautiful the way you are.
I love because i want to loved not to be judged!
I recently moved from Nashville, TN. The area that I lived in was entirely the opposite. I'm a lighter shade of asian ~~, and I've grown quite accostomed to racism from every which direction. Actually, I was shocked
first moving there to find that the school was naturally segregated- the half of the school who were racist black people (I got made fun of for saying african-american, and the half who didn't care so much about skin tone.
Quite frankly, I was descriminated against for not being black in the first place, and I couldn't even speak about certain things without getting jumped for some sort of ridiculous misinterpretation. The people who had lighter skin were insulted even more than the few white people who attended.
It never really bothered me that much, I've always stuck out for something stupid or another, and unless it's by my family I've come to accept that people will always -to a degree- be fashion sheep. In this way I've always been glad that my immediate family has been far past that (despite once it splits to father's side, they hate the everyone, and mother's side hate whites, yada yada). It's everywhere, nothing we can do about it. Different areas view differently.
It takes strength of character to evercome the mind of the masses, and don't forget it's only a select FeW people who control the entirety of the media, among the similar number who control fashion.
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~ Raven
STAND for SOMETHING.
I dunno if it's just my computer, but my whole comment isn't showing up, it stops at >...
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~ Raven
STAND for SOMETHING.
Avoid using angle brackets (> and it's other half). These indicate HTML formatting, so text after the other half of that sign will disappear.
~C
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~ Raven
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When I was a kid I was a victim of Nosism. When I was eleven my nose was broken by a grounder out in left field. Because of that it grew large and crooked. To make it worse I come from a family of prominent noses. Kids made fun of me and I have suffered self esteem issues ever since. Nosists discriminate hatefully on the nosist idea that smaller noses are more desirable than toucan beaks. It's horrible. When will the oppression end? Full rights for the nosly endowed!
I found your post pretty funny because I'm white and I've always wanted darker skin (well, at least a tan). I'm one of those super-pale freckly redheads, so I've never been able to tan in my life. Every time I'm in the sun for longer than 10 minutes I get a sunburn, and it blisters easily. All of my friends and female family members are constantly tanning or using tanning lotion. I finally realized how stupid it was to fight against fate, I'm just meant to be pasty :)
I know today's media doesn't do a very good job of portraying black women, they usually DO stick to the light-skinned ones. It's definitely prejudiced, but you've got to consider that Hollywood only shows women who are super thin and "beautiful" also. So what happens to us fatties and uglies? It's the same for those of us who are too light or too dark, we're left to feel bad about ourselves.
Don't give it too much thought, Hollywood rarely ever supports real women. You've got to realize that the only reason people like light skin better is a result of years of racism that teaches blacks, asians, indians, etc. that they aren't beautiful enough as they are, and that to fit in they have to be "white". Don't give in to the racism, realize that you ARE beautiful and that by not playing into a system like that you are helping to deconstruct it. Maybe that way, when our daughters come into this world they do so without being forced to conform to outdated and severely crude ideals of feminine beauty.
-JP
thats soo true!!
i was on AOL the Latino version and they showed celebrity with and without makeup and i noticed that all but one darken there skin to make it look bronze or an orangie color.
one article that i read about what most men find attractive, they prefer darker white and Asian women and lighter black and Hispanic women. this is something i have noticed in my school. lots of white girls get tans especially cheerleaders and dancers. on tv you don't really see pale women unless you move to India or Asia. and i try not to go by what Hollywood thinks is pretty but due to the trend, lighter black women are in.
i remember two years ago i would always compare my skin to other black women(still do) and i would always envy the ones who were lighter than me. and today i went to the dentist and there was a fair skinned black woman there. i noticed how other black women looked at her constantly and then i also noticed that they were looking at me too. i have become so light that i don't really like it anymore. i'll try to show an picture of me of today. i think i have permanently depigmented my skin. i hoping that by next year i will stop completely.
stay lovely
Whatever happened to personality and the quality of a human being over skin color? Goodness...
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~ Raven
STAND for SOMETHING.