Light Skin/Dark Skin...the battle continues

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, how often do young black girls hear these words from mothers, aunts, and grandmothers after being persecuted for the color of their skin? The negativity being said by other races that don’t have the experience of living in this society with such natural born prejudice towards them, have no idea how difficult it is to overcome such attacks on self-esteem. So aside from the outside influence of such harsh realities, the naive optimistic spirit does not want to believe that such negative behavior would come from someone within the shared family history that is now pitting our own community against each other. Looking at the black community, generations past, we are still facing resentment issues dating back to the slavery era from outside forces. The light skinned of the community being treated better and spoken to with higher regard than their darker skinned counterparts. All the while, the darker skinned being deemed unsightly and undesirable. Moving forward many years past the freedom from slavery, still separate the light skin and dark skin “negroes” being put to the ever infamous “paper bag” test, we have perpetuated the same ideals without the shackles of slavery attached. Fast forward even further to present day situations where we no longer have the outside influence of the government openly persecuting races, we have the disintegration within our own ethnic communities. Regardless of mixed heritage or full blooded descent, black people judge other black people based on how light or how dark their skin is. No side of the spectrum has it better, because all life has hardships that affect the development of people. Playing to the negatives, they end up harboring resentment instead of lifting up within the community. Black is beautiful no matter the shade, and instead of perpetuating the ideal that if you are lighter in complexion and closer to the European standard of beauty you are better, we need to embrace the curves, the shape, and the shade of every black person to change the imagery put forth. Being a man or woman of color shouldn’t come with requirements of being a certain type of black to be worthy of calling yourself a person of color. When our community realizes that, nothing can stop us except our own imaginations.