MA CUPS ½ FULL

BLACK BERRIES

          I hate the entire stigma against black skin. Everybody wants to be beige. No really, we all want to be sort of black and not black. I don’t get it. Do you know how many women have destroyed their skin in the search of lighter shades? Millions! Let’s start with M.J. No he isn’t a woman but he took the game to a whole new level I mean he defied Gods’ command, you know “Let there be black people”.

          The weirdest thing is that when darker women want to be a shade lighter, lighter women want to be a shade lighter. I don’t get it. Who are we striving to be, white? I used to hate dark skin, yeah and am black I know. It was serious when I was in primary, imagine that, so young! Looking back I wonder how I juggled my studies, play time, adolescence and skin issues. I remember looking in the mirror and trying to see if I got a bit lighter during the night, I can laugh about it now but back then it was no laughing matter. Most of the popular girls were light skinned and it seemed the way to go.

           Come to think about it, I hate the phrase am looking for a tall, dark and handsome man because no man ever says that am looking for a short, dark and pretty woman. No one! And it’s like it is okay for men to be dark but not for women, which is complete bull. Who has ever heard a man say he is looking for a black berry (not the phone) who? I haven’t yet heard one yet they find them. Whether or not we admit it someone/ most people will marry the dark-skinned girls and they will love them completely and that’s not my problem.

          My problem is, what we don’t say is just as harmful as what we do say. My problem is when every black movie is full of coloreds more than blacks, when ever magazine is full of almost black but not quite there. We should have a black magazine and when I say black I mean the very many shades of very black women.

          I have accepted my skin now and by accepting it I love it and wouldn’t want to change it. If you look in the mirror you will realize that there is no way you can improve what you can’t change. Women who have bleached themselves don’t look any better. Their skin looks and am sure feels dry. In the extreme it may even look sick. Unless you are willing to settle for second best it won’t be what you were looking for.

          I want a proper celebration of black skin of pure untainted black berries. This may sound like discrimination against coloreds but it isn’t. Someone should celebrate your skin as well but lets all be honest, the skin that hasn’t been properly accepted, praised and celebrated is the dark skin and I want the time to do that to be now.