It seems like people of color, especially African Americans have a hard time embracing their roots and their culture. Our society makes it appear like skin color defines who you are...it doesn't. In the African American community, the younger generation appears to put African Americans with lighter skin color above African Americans with darker skin colors. Why is it that the color of our skin has to equal the definition of who we
are? Even though we've all derived from the same ancestors I feel like black people still feel the need to point out the differences between one another. Its turned into a hysteria where if you're light-skinned you're favored over someone with darker skin. for example in hip hop music, you might hear a rapper rapping about cars, sex, drugs, and of course women. The women that are described in their songs are usually "redbones" which is a slang for light-skinned women. When young girls view these music videos, they latch onto the idea that light skin is better, nicer, prettier. While reading an article online at associated content.com, I came across an article about black on black racism: a story about light skinned versus dark skinned African Americans. In the 1984 Miss America Contest, Vanessa Williams, the now famous actress and singer, won as the first African American. Later on, when people found out that she was black, they were shocked because she shares similar features of a white or mixed race person. I think that people in the African American community need to take a step back, look at the bigger picture, and realize that no matter what color we are, we are all the same people period.
Source: Clark-Copeland, Judi "Lightskinned vs Darkskinned" Associated Content News, Published: October 24, 2009
AWESOME! SIMPLY AWESOME!
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Exactly! Being an African American myself i face the exact same issues. However, I am considered a "brown skin" meaning I am neither dark or light-skinned; I am a mixture between the two. For women like me, I am neither frowned upon nor desired, I am simply accepted and left alone. I am never talked about or wanted like the pretty-haired, pretty-featured light-skinned girls nor am I ignored or undesirable like the dark-skins. Though this is a very general rationalization, black people are known to be a very judgmental and hateful race. We are easy to talk about and make jokes about other races and even people within our own race. The issue of dark and light-skins has been a prevailing issue for many years. In agreement to Nickels and Dimes' opinion, the African American race needs to start seeing themselves and a whole and similar community rather than different races within a single ethnicity.
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