I just finished watching The Tyra Banks Show about bleaching skin amongst African American women. There was a particular woman on the show that daily put chemical bleaching cream on her 3 young sons. By young, I mean like 4, 6, and 8.
It’s one thing to screw up your own body but to subject your children to such madness seems like abuse.
I hate discussions about light skin versus dark skin. I really do. But, if I were to be totally honest, I do notice that certain stars tend to lighten as the years pass.
I just threw in that last picture of Diana just because it looks CRAZY, not because it’s relevant. lol
I would love to hear your opinions.
What does all of this mean? Heck, I don’t know but we can’t pass this madness onto our children. It divides us as people and it’s just wrong.
Don’t forget the most famous bleach-job of all-time: Michael Jackson. Oh, I forgot…he doesn’t bleach. It’s a skin disorder he has. Yeah..whatever…
Anyway, the whole idea of bleaching one’s skin to be lighter is idiotic. It’s yet another example of our own people expressing the discontent of being being who they are. Black is the most beautiful color in the world because it encompasses all the colors of the spectrum. It’s too bad more of our brothas and sistas can’t realize that.
The irony is, all of those mentioned looked, WAAAAYYYYY better before they faded away.
I watched this show as well and I was just stunned! I try very hard not to judge people but I was hurt when I saw all of those beautiful AA women on the stage truly convinced that lightening their skin would make people accept them more. And for the young lady who bleached her three kids, you should have been on Dr. Phil and not the Tyra show because I believe that somebody needs to try to save your kids–your boys who will grow into AA men. How are they supposed to learn to love AA women?
Ladies, you have to be stronger and have more faith in yourselves–and more self-esteem. Stop giving your power away. Please keep in mind that the very people you want to look “better” for are narrow-minded, arrogant and clueless and don’t deserve the credit you give them.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that people who blame their lack of success or happiness on skin color are using that a crutch to not try harder.
Blaming anything outside of oneself for unhappiness is a sure fire way to stay unhappy.
If we realize that God, the creator of the universe loves us, who else matters.
Within a “right black things to say” context, what I’m going to say is impolitic, but I understand why blacks bleach their skin. It’s nice to say that black is beautiful but the world doesn’t seem to think so. The closer to white one looks the better life seems.
Is it right? Well, there’s room for debate about that, but what isn’t up for debate is that it’s real.
L.H.
Are you trying to start some stuff up in here? Sometimes I think that whole light/dark thing is in our(black folks) head.
If you look back some of the most beautiful black women to have crossover success were/are darker skinned. I am gonna do a post on a few of them this weekend so keep checking back.
But case in point, Lola Falana, known as ‘black Venus’ was an international hit, and a dark
skinned woman.
http://www.talulazoeapple.com/apple/2008/05/lola-falana-and.html
Blacks are and have been obsessed with skin colour from the beginning of slavery through the present.
I think it bares mentioning, though, that blacks are hardly alone in prizing fair skin.
For whatever it’s worth, I don’t view physical beauty through the prism of colour, intraracially or interracially. Beautiful is beautiful to me. People who give or take away points because of dark or fair skin are over to me.
L.H.
Well-stated.