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"You're too dark." The breeze from the spring day blew in from the window and lightly touched my mahogany skin. I was just coming home from school and was trying to escape the heat from outside. As I lied in the comfort of my bed, sprawled out in my white sheets, my mother barges into my room. "Jasmine, I want you to start using this cream for your skin," she says in a thick Nigerian accent. "What is it," I inquire curiously. She explained it was a cream to "enhance" my complexion. "You're just getting too dark." It was at the odd age of 13 that I felt there was something deeply wrong with my skin tone. After that incident, I began to realize that growing up with dark skin equates to being unattractive, uneducated, and having a low socioeconomic status in society. …show more content…
Can we hold slavery accountable for the beauty standards that we may experience in America today? Eurocentric standards of beauty travel farther than we may even be able to see. As I got older the rules of colorism began to change. The comments I received about my skin shifted from "being too dark" to "you're actually pretty for a dark skin girl." These back-handed compliments allowed me to know that being of a darker shade is still not attractive in general. It is something that can be explained as "I'm not deemed as beautiful therefore I am not beautiful and those two are not mutually exclusive." If I hadn't come across this quote when I was younger who knows where my self-esteem would be at this point. How can we recondition our ideas about colorism? Knowing where it begins as well at knowing that this is a subject that needs to end with us is incredibly fundamental. Change comes with education, acceptance, and support within the Black community. Allowing stereotypes to be broken down and shedding a positive view of those with darker skin tones in the media can help shape the way we think about his
Some people argue that one is born with racist tendencies, but it has been shown that when one is a child they have no sense of race or color. Color has always been a problem when it came to relationships, and even mother and child. In her article In Strangers’ Glances at Family, Tensions Linger, Susan Saulny states, “Mrs Greenwood was shopping when the woman behind her, who was white, asked once she realized, by the way they were talking, that they were mother and child. “It’s just not possible,” she charged indignantly. “You’re so...dark!”” (Saulny, 2). This is common among interracial couples. People get confused when they see a mixed race child, Saulny gives a good example with this passage. The older white ...
But why, and who had them convinced that they were better than me? The solution to my problem was the media. When I picked up a magazine or turned on the television, the women depicted in these articles and movies resemble women of the lighter skin complexion. The lighter-skinned women were perceived to be smarter, wealthier, prettier, and even happier. They didn’t look anything like me they were flawless. Now, that I have the knowledge I know that these images are carefully airbrushed and manipulated to give that sense of flawlessness. But instinctually, as a 12-year-old girl viewing these images, I quickly compared myself to these images. Teens of my generation are extremely vulnerable to strong external forces whether it’s drugs, alcohol, violence, sex, and the media. Looking for validation from society would seemingly be the worst thing that you can possibly do because you leave yourselves vulnerable to becoming a victim. Nobody teaches us how to feel: self-confidence was something that cannot be taught. But, for a while I did experience periods of low-self esteem. No one would've suspected because somehow I was still able to maintain this chill, down-to-earth persona. One day, I decided that I wasn’t going to let people get the best of me. I needed to be happy; and at this point in my life I was not going to let anyone deter me from my happiness. The best way to gain my
Your skin pigment or the amount of melanin in you skin has the ability to change your whole outlook on life and determines if you will possibly have fewer or more challenges to face during your lifespan. The amount for melanin that an individual has according to society can determine if you are either the ugly duckling through societies eyes or if you are a beautiful swan. In this short paper I will be discussing the Dark Girls documentary.
As a child, my family never really talked about race to me as much as what I would assume other families did with their children. The main way that I first learned about race was when I watched television or went to preschool. Once I started feeling the urge to ask questions about why other people look different compared to (me physically) was when they started to talk about it a little more. They told me that there are different kinds of people in the world and that everyone looks different, yet some people that look different belong to the same group of people. They gave me a few examples of what these categories were and I eventually saw more examples as I started moving up through grade sch...
I wanted to wear brand clothes/shoes they did, I wanted to do my hair like them, and make good grades like them. I wanted to fit in. My cultural identify took a back seat. But it was not long before I felt black and white did not mix. I must have heard too many comments asking to speak Haitian or I do not look Haitian, but more than that, I am black, so I always had to answer question about my hair or why my nose is big, and that I talked white. This feeling carried on to high school because the questions never went away and the distance between me and them grew larger. There was not much action my family could take for those moments in my life, but shared their encounters or conversations to show me I was not alone in dealing with people of other background. I surrounded myself with less white people and more people of color and today, not much has
Settler colonialism is different from colonialism. Colonialism is to control or conquer another country for natural resources, labors, and military powers; however, settler colonialism is to conquer, but also it is to banish all indigenous people and settle into the country. And, settlers insist that they are the indigenous people. The United States of America is the settler colonialism country. The stereotypes about race, class, or gender were created because of the formation of settler colonialism in the past. These social categories of race, class, and gender are essential to the establishment of the United States. Moreover, the past settler colonialism formation in America still affects its political and economic systems.
The Colonial Period, beginning in the early 1600 's with the founding and settling of Jamestown, signaled a new era in the New World. The Spanish had already conquered and colonized a great deal of Central America, and the French had established a strong fur trade and relatively good relations with the Native American 's of North America. Native American 's were succumbing to diseases in alarming numbers, and growing more wary of the arrival of even more Europeans. It is true that during the 1600 's to almost the end the Revolutionary War in 1781 was a time of “many mixtures of powers, conflict, and rivaling interests,” but the “dominant narrative” of that time varies from culture to culture and generation
The social desirability of a tan is a modern phenomenon, beginning in the 1920’s when the French designer Coco Chanel decreed it as a fashion look. The concept of obtaining a tan without going outdoors became increasingly attractive (Aldige). Today’s media influences everyone, but especially young people, to feel like they need to have that beautiful dark skin color to look good. Teenagers, caring more about their social status and appearance, are looking past the obvious risks of skin cancer. Teenagers ages 12 to 17 are visiting tanning salons in record numbers. This trend presents a huge level of concern, as studies have shown that the risk for skin cancer increases when tanning begins at a younger age. With this fad being so popular, teens are always finding themselves at the tanning salons, becoming nice and crispy.
Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood as a kid sanctioned me to perpetually become aware that I was different from my neighbors. Through some social interactions with my friends in elementary schools, I quickly descried that my appearances, such as my hair, eyes, and nose was different from my peers. For instance, my hair was a lot darker than most of my peers’ hair and the texture of my hair was different from most of them. “Grow out your hair” were phrases that lingered throughout my childhood days, where I had my hair at a very short length. Throughout my childhood, I longed to try to be a part of the dominant group in society such as the Caucasians, but I did not do anything to be a part of the bigger group in society. Instead,
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At a young age, I already internalized so much self-hatred because of the color of my skin and hair. I struggle with this immensely since I’d watch Disney movies, that only popularize one racial demographic, and the only person that I could semi look up to was Princess Jasmine from Aladdin. But there was no real representation of minorities when I was growing up, so I strived like any other person would to be a Disney princess. I always asked my mom to put weave in my hair or do something with it, so I could have long flown hair like Princess Ariel, from The Little Mermaid movie, or strive to look as beautiful as Princess Aurora when she was sleeping. And I continued to struggle with these ideas that what is beautiful was to be white. And I just couldn 't comprehend at the time, that I was already beautiful just the way I am. It wasn’t until I got to high school, where I somewhat shed these ideas on what was beautiful. I just realized that the media and the movies are essentially fake and photoshopped. And the models for the tv and magazines were too boney and hungry. I got used to my curves and by the body by that time. But I didn’t really show forth pride for my melanin nor color. I just accepted the fact that I was black and born that way. I didn’t realize how rich and important my color is as well as my culture. It was until I started school, here in the University of Boston,
The Association of Black Psychologist (ABP) (2013) defines colorism as skin-color stratification. Colorism is described as “internalized racism” that is perceived to be a way of life for the group that it is accepted by (ABP 2013). Moreover, colorism is classified as a persistent problem within Black American. Colorism in the process of discriminatory privileges given to lighter-skinned individuals of color over their darker- skinned counterparts (Margret Hunter 2007). From a historical standpoint, colorism was a white constructed policy in order to create dissention among their slaves as to maintain order or obedience. Over the centuries, it seems that the original purpose of colorism remains. Why has this issue persisted? Blacks have been able to dismantle the barriers faced within the larger society of the United States. Yet, Blacks have failed to properly address the sins of the past within the ethnic group. As a consequence of this failure, colorism prevails. Through my research, I developed many questions: Is it right that this view remain? How does valuing an individual over another cause distribution to the mental health of the victims of colorism? More importantly, what are the solutions for colorism? Colorism, unfortunately, has had a persisted effect on the lives of Black Americans. It has become so internalized that one cannot differentiate between the view of ourselves that Black Americans adopted from slavery or a more personalized view developed from within the ethnicity. The consequences of this internalized view heightens the already exorbitant mental health concerns within the Black community, but the most unfortunate aspect of colorism is that there is contention on how the issue should be solved.
“Color preference is a cousin of racial prejudice, and like prejudice it is closely linked with the urge to obtain and keep power over others.”(Harvard University). The preference for lighter skin has been alive for centuries. In Spain, having a light skin tone meant you were full of pure Spaniard blood versus if you were of a darker complexion, you were not seen as worthy to even reside in the Spanish empire. Today, skin complexion dictates a person's ability to achieve employment at all. According to Berkeley, darker people want to be lighter because they believe it will make them more appealing for courting, employers, and even to seem more intellectual. Economically, it is proven that lighter complexion men have a better chance of employment compared to their darker skinned counterparts. Not only this, but proven statistics from UNCP show that darker skinned blacks are more than likely to have lower socioeconomic status, education, and marriage rate in comparison to lighter skinned blacks. .
One day I was visiting my friend who happened to be white, and as we were walking around his neighborhood I noticed that I was getting weird looks from his surrounding neighbors. Of course, I’m different because I’m a dark skinned Hispanic with a white kid in a white neighborhood.
“First of all, we’re teenagers, we’re born to have acne and second of all, it doesn’t matter. His smile shines brighter than anything and I’m—“