This is a blog mainly to get a grasp on what is a common problem within african american culture. Since it’s black history month, why not right? Let’s start with what plagues us the most, the fact that a lot of us are not comfortable in our own skin.
It’s easy to blame society or the media for the reason that black women rush to buy blonde extensions, fix our noses and wear blue contacts, but is that really the case? Growing up we were taught that black was beautiful, the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice. Now it’s the “long haired thick red bone” or “Yellow Model Chicks” who get all of the love. Men who’s mother’s are the brownest of the brown are chasing after women who are so racially ambiguous they can’t trace half of their roots passed their grand parents.
So what do we as women do? We change our features. Our hair gets straighter, longer and lighter. Our noses pointer, our skin lighter, our eyes change color. Even our clothes are italian. But wait, like all fads do, things change once again. Now everyone wants a latina chick, preferably something that resembles a Brazilian.
Now what do we do? Black women get injections to make our butts look entirely too large for our bodies, our hair gets bigger and more curly, we bronze our skin to give it a golden glow, then we say we’re dominican, puerto rican or belizian knowing we’re nothing more than straight up BLACK!
Since when did being black go out of style? There was a time when everyone wanted to be us. Our style was envied so much that people dressed like us, talked like us, enjoyed our music. I even know a few white women in their early thirties by the name of Kiesha. So what happened? We complain that black men don’t want us, but honestly, do we even want ourselves?
I’ll say this, I struggled with hating being the “dark” girl in a flock of light skinned women. I’m still that “dark” girl. I’ve come to terms that I’ll always be that “dark” girl. As I grew older I learned to love everything about my skin, from the way certain colors look on me, down to the silkiness and deliciousness of my chocolate tone. This month forward ladies, lets work on keeping Black in style!
