As my fellow Americans and possibly some Canadians know, it is Martin Luther King Day. And a lot of my posts lately have been in anticipation of that. But I couldn't pick a really concise topic for this particular post until, a few hours ago, I was on Trevorspace (the social networking site for queer youth that is, lo and behold, not Tumblr) and saw a new thread title in the forums: "Being a different color".
Curious, I clicked on it, and read the message of a relatively new user who was calling himself Little who explained that he was one of the only black students at his mostly-white school and that he was thinking of bleaching his skin to fit in.
And that really sucks. Why should light skin be so celebrated in our screwed-up society? Every time a black girl tells me that someone told her she's "pretty for a dark girl", as if dark-skinned black women aren't beautiful as their dark-skinned selves, I just want to punch whoever said that to her.
She's beautiful, with and regardless of her dark skin, and it's absolutely horrible that she has been told otherwise. Her skin is a part of who she is. Little's skin is a part of who he is, and it's an awesome part. The Civil Rights movement really helped strengthen the idea of 'the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice' but we still have a lot of work to do.
That said, I'm white and can't answer for people of color on colorism and racism, because I've never experienced those things. So I'm providing you guys with this poem. Because while I can't, Tova can.
Hopefully, with with the advocacy and honest courage of black writers like Tova Charles, and the celebration of black voices in the media and in real life, Dr. King's dream will indeed come true.
That hasn't happened yet, but happy Martin Luther King Day.
Curious, I clicked on it, and read the message of a relatively new user who was calling himself Little who explained that he was one of the only black students at his mostly-white school and that he was thinking of bleaching his skin to fit in.
And that really sucks. Why should light skin be so celebrated in our screwed-up society? Every time a black girl tells me that someone told her she's "pretty for a dark girl", as if dark-skinned black women aren't beautiful as their dark-skinned selves, I just want to punch whoever said that to her.
She's beautiful, with and regardless of her dark skin, and it's absolutely horrible that she has been told otherwise. Her skin is a part of who she is. Little's skin is a part of who he is, and it's an awesome part. The Civil Rights movement really helped strengthen the idea of 'the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice' but we still have a lot of work to do.
That said, I'm white and can't answer for people of color on colorism and racism, because I've never experienced those things. So I'm providing you guys with this poem. Because while I can't, Tova can.
Hopefully, with with the advocacy and honest courage of black writers like Tova Charles, and the celebration of black voices in the media and in real life, Dr. King's dream will indeed come true.
That hasn't happened yet, but happy Martin Luther King Day.
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