Black Like Me

While standing waiting in line, I overheard the conversation between a man and woman in front of me. “Wow, you’re beautiful!” the man exclaimed. “What are you mixed with?” Immediately a scowl was planted on my face, as I could not control my disbelief and disgust.

I’ve seen this scenario play out quite too often. The young lady he was flirting with was African American. I’m not ruling out the possibility that she may have had some diversity in her ancestry. It was upsetting that he associated her attractiveness to that of another race. Why do her good looks have to be attributed to her being mixed? Why couldn’t she just have been deemed beautiful and fully black? This instance is a result of the European standards of beauty being forced in the African American community. For years black women have been taught to denounce their kinky hair texture, broad features and dark skin. They have been taught to praise fair skin, fine hair, thin noses and smaller lips. I think it’s insulting to praise one and denounce the other.

It’s sad that the elitism associated with lighter skin is still prevalent today. Why do people have these notions (that light skin is prettier)? Why do they think this way? The preferential treatment all stems back to the days of slavery. There was the divide between the house negro, a slave with lighter skin and the field negro, a slave with darker skin. It was common that the house negro was biracial. The house negroes would have lighter skin, due to their part European ancestry. The offspring of the slave master was given lighter house work versus working outside in the field doing strenuous labor. Working in the home with the master was a mark of social status amongst African Americans, as the house negro’s role was “elite” and came with special benefits. The house negro was usually well dressed and was often afforded the opportunity to receive an education.

Skin tone has always been irrelevant to me. Society should get rid of the notion that “lighter is better”. The original intent of distinguishing a significance between lighter skin and darker skin was to create division amongst blacks. I think that we should reverse this logic and unify and uplift all beauty instead.