When Black Ain't Beautiful, Skin Bleaching is a Global Issue (Repurposed Post)

I recall my sister buying Ambi Fade Cream when we were in high school. She said it was for blemishes, I knew otherwise. She still hasn't shaken her esteem issues around her color and beauty.

This is not just an African-American issue, or a black issue, but a practice that is rampant across the globe. Lighter is beautiful in Western aesthetics.

When Sammy Sosa's photo revealed the dark brown Dominican's attempt to look like a ligher Latino, it opened the flood gates of the worldwide bleaching phenomenon that has never been excluded to women.

Then the recent photos of Vybz Cartel, murdering his complexion to make it appear an ashen, yellowish color akin to a zombie, deepens the conversation of serious issues within the African Diaspora around colorism. Back in the days, I guy would just marry a light-skinned girl or white woman. You know, do it the genetics way, but we all know that, that method is like rhythm birth control, sometime the timing is off so doesn't work all the time.

Vybz, if you thought you got no action because of your skin then, you can cancel any hopes now.

Removing myself from the sarcasm, Vybz is whitewashed and zombified, inside and out. But celebrity whitening isn't new. The king of skin bleaching, Michael Jackson made it damn near acceptable for people to appear like ghosts, if they got money and have talent. The other day I had to do a double take when I saw a photo of Rihanna. Damn, since when did she get that white? Talent question aside.

But why marry light, when cosmetic surgery can repair what you don't like? In 2002, boxer Percey Oblitei Commey lost a fight, plus got his ear torn almost off, his skin peeled and a gash on his cheek due to the incessant skin bleaching and plastic surgery to Europeanize his African features. He was laughed at by his country-folk, but lots of women and men there were rubbing toxic bleaching tonics on their arms and legs as they bawled in laughter.

Photos taken from Village Voice article by N. Jamyla Chisholm.

The fact is, skin bleaching has heavy and irrepairable health consequences. In Africa, users of the bleaching began to be diagnosed with skin cancers and tumors after prolonged use. And in all developing or low-wealth areas where people of color reside, tons of bleachers are imported without the approval of any federal or governmental agency.

Africa is a haven for skin bleaches that can kill. One report speaks of a Nigerian couple that created a skin whitener that was primarily bleach, killing people in the UK. One report showed that one bleaching cream contained chemicals similar to Draino, a plumbing liquid that is used to unclog pipes.

According to a great skin bleaching site, an article on bleaching in Africa stated:

“The humidity, vectors, ignorance, way of life of people and skin bleaching which now starts at an early age have compounded the situation and Ghana is gradually moving towards an epidemic stage,” Dr Edmund N. Delle. Dr Delle, Dermatologist and founder of Rabito Group of Clinics said tampering with the skin, and skin disorders compromised beauty, and led to withdrawal from society.

However, I must mention, bleaching expands outside of the borders of Africa and its Diaspora. The products found in Africa are just a touch of what you see throughout Asia, America and Europe

Though this article highlighted men who bleach, still, more women practice skin lightening because it is often related to marriageability. (Click photo to hear an audio blog about Asian whitening)

 What folk don't talk about is the pressure to be white is prominent in Asia. In ads throughout Japan, Korea, China and India, celebrities are used to promote how whiter skin leads to better partners and more success.

In India, Bollywood stars often promote skin bleaching cream, and companies in the US often take their skin bleaching ventures to the East, like Dove (Fair & Loveley) and Garnier. So much for Dove's beauty advertisements in the US that celebrate true, inner beauty and expose photo shopping.

This Indian add promotes fair skin as beautiful.

One blogger, Will Robinson describes this issue:

The infatuation with light skin can’t be blamed on the British. There has always been a connection between skin color and caste in India, though overt displays of the caste system are less pronounced nowadays. In India today, caste usually is manifested more as class. Most upper-caste/class Indians are lighter skinned, and most darker Indians are lower class (though being light-skinned doesn’t automatically make one upper-class/caste).

In Africa and the Caribbean it is heartbreaking.

If you ever see an African woman or Caribbean woman who has tons of make-up on, it might be due to the damage caused by lighteners. I saw that a lot in Africa.

Unfortunately, getting lighter has become steeped into daily rituals of women and men who seek attractiveness of the skin tone of their former colonizers. There is something about cultural Imperialism that holds firmer than military dominion any day.

A couple of years ago a Nigerian scholar told me that James Brown's song, "Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud" was a spiritual epiphany to his mother who cut out her perm and wore her black skin with pride.

There is a need for an affirmation, that black skin is in.

The Plight of Dark Skinned Girls & Women

I remember my big sister wrote a letter to Ebony magazine, asking them why they always portrayed the children models with fair skin and wavy hair.

My sister, who is brown with thick lips and hips, never got an answer. She lives with shame to this day of her complexion. So much so, that the fathers of her children are fair-skinned. Nope she is not a hood rat, but on her second marriage with a medical degree, and still is not happy with the skin she inherited.

I really wish she could see the beauty we all see in her, and see she is worthy of being adulated and revered like all women.

All of my sisters, including me are a darker shade of brown. I clearly remember having the door slammed in my face by some brothers who opened it for my fair skinned-roommate, the first week I was at Florida A&M University.

They called her redbone. It was the first time I ever heard that name. I asked her what that was, and she explained. Since my mom comes from Louisiana, color complexions varied much in my family, and my folks never favored in complexion. So it was disturbing to be in Florida where color really mattered in most social circles.

I am not saying that I was immune to it. Growing up in Los Angeles, the choice pick was a light-skinned man with pretty eyes and good hair. However, in the black community, to have a physical feature that was as far from being associated to "black" was a luxury and serious bonus when it came to beauty points.

What I mean by that was to have light skin, or a fine nose, or wavy hair, or long hair, or light-colored eyes, brought adoration. So to be big-bootied, big-boned, dark, with kinks was considered inferior. And I have seen so many girls who desired attention would give their bodies and souls to the first bidder, just because they wanted to be wanted.

Still, dark-skinned black girls and women are suffering in many ways.

And it is not a figment of the imagination. Ask why CNN continuously casts fair-skinned newscasters, especially "black" women who are racial-ethnic rainbows. Or why Carol's Daughter, the natural hair care mogul, has all fair-skinned models to represent the line, when dark-skinned women put stock in that effing place.

It hurts to not be liked or loved because of skin color. Getting passed over for a lighter woman, or being treated like shit because you are darker does monstrosities to the self-esteem.

It is disgusting and disheartening when black people still devalue a color that everyone craves. Then, black women must get appreciation from others in order to feel beautiful

This video points to the pain of many.


Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.

And though I love this song by Black Star (Talib Kweli & Mos Def) it boggles me that Mos Def married a bi-racial stripper after being with her for less than a week. It killed me a little inside when I saw his wife because all the time I had been rocking that song, it felt like he never was really singing it to me.

Blog on, EcoSoul

I Think I Pissed Off My Light-Skinned Friends

I'm going to have to start this brief note with a statement used by some of my Caucasian friends. "I'm not color struck, some of my best friends are light."

With that said, colorism is such a touchy topic in the African-American community that I think I touched a serious nerve.

With my recent post with Fantasia and colorism, I got some really great replies---some that were fiery red hot and some that vehmently disagreed. And I do understand, black is black in many mainstream circles, but black can be another thing in other ones; especially black circles. And still there is a stigma of darker hues.

America does have a racial hierarchy, but also a color shade hierarchy that has created a serious divide in all communities of color. To the point that we still play into them.

So let me restate my point. I agree that Fantasia's assessment of her being targeted for her extra-marital affairs because she was darker than Alicia keys was wrong. BUT I do agree that in her career, like so many other darker-skinned female performers, she has gotten the short end of the stick.

And until black women stop using skin lightener to be "beautiful" then I stand by my words.

That's all. But I still love me some light-skinned folks...including my honey dip.

Colorism Does Matter in the Case of Fantasia

It is unfortunate that Fantasia had to address the issue of colorism at a time when unwise decisions and straight gutter behavior in her personal life undermined the truth of skin color preference in the media that has been going on forever.

Before I start my piece, I too as a married woman would’ve been on the hunt for Fantasia, right after I dealt with my hubby. So I speak as a sister who is in love, and celebrates the sacredness of marriage.

Now let me continue…

I cringed at Fantasia’s reality show (especially her coon brother Teeny) and oft-bad hair days of many unflattering shades; but I cannot turn a blind eye on how much negative press she has gotten since her emergence into the limelight or should I say blind-light.

Fantasia, a functioning-illiterate, high school drop-out and young single mother when she won the American Idol competition became the butt of jokes that many people snickered loudly after she publically confessed her educational flaws and social status.
She became the ignorant welfare-mother with the predictable dead-beat black baby daddy that we oft-hear too much since the Moynihan reports of the 1950s.

Fantasia fits perfectly into the quintessential black woman that mainstream America imagines—uneducated, lonely and poor. The fact that she is darker in her brown complexion with broad facial features and big-ole booty, made it easier for the jokes and perceptions to continue.

She is the Jezebel, the Mammy, the Sapphire, the Aunt Sarah and Peaches in Nina Simone’s infamious song, “Four Women.” Hell, look at how Nina Simone herself got treated. Or for that matter, Shirley Chisholm, Cicely Tyson and even Gabrielle Union who can’t land a job if she sucked every director in Hollywood.

Fantasia is aesthetically displeasing from the lens of a supremacist mindset that has never embraced brown-skinned ladies as the epitome of beautiful.

Truth be told, America is still trying to convince them that Michelle Obama is pretty with its overemphasis of her grace and charm.

It took an exposé of her affair for Fantasia to articulate what she had been feeling and thinking for a long time. Hollywood, America, and the black community still operate from a skin color hierarchy.

Of course her claims were done in wrong timing. I agree that her accusations were misplaced and serve as no excuse to contributing to the disruption of a family and fellow black woman; but her charges of a biased, color-eyed media are dead-on.

This is the part of the industry I loathe. High-yella folk (still) get all the fun, and frankly much of the good jobs. Of course they are surveillance and limited, but it is a truth that they enjoy a certain movement than those who are more closely associated to our African ancestors.

I often scratch my head when I look at the African-American correspondents of CNN—especially the women. It is as if dark-skinned people don’t exist in intelligent, professional, and savvy upper-echelon circles.
Or at the very least, have a degree.

The romantic love scenes, the “girl-next” door embrace, the Beyonce, the Rihanna, the Zoe Saldanas, the Vanessa Williams and the Alicia Keys are proffered the carte-blanche (pun—intended) or at least a second chance----even when they eff up.

When Fantasia and the Alicia Keys affair were running simultaneously, I also asked for simple, fair coverage about both matters. Keys not only had an affair with a married man, but Keys’ now hubby then fuck partner, Swizz Beats, had a newborn at the time when she began the role of mistress.

Swizz’ ex-wife, Mashonda Tifrere, was so upset over Keys & Beats affair, that she wrote an open letter to Alicia Keys. In it she states:

If you are reading this Alicia, let me start by saying, you know what you did. You know the role you played and you know how you contributed to the ending of my marriage. You know that I asked you to step back and let me handle my family issues. Issues that you helped to create.

This affair was followed by Keys’ pregnancy and public celebration of a South African traditional ritual to protect the child she will be birthing any day now. And of course, a glamour-filled wedding.

Fantasia’s shenanigans weren’t any better, but you know more about her personal matters because they were the topic of even “Good Morning America.”

Though I acknowledge the quasi-publicity stunt in Tasia’s suicide attempt and confusion of a typical side-chick behavior like thinking her married man really loves her, you cannot dismiss that her color is more of a liability in the media eye.

A book titled Bits & Pieces of My Truth, has a poem that speaks volumes to the colorism darker-skinned sisters’ face.

Fat, Black Ass
Ain’t it funny
More like two-sided
Darker-skinned men get projected
To be Mandingo Gods
Masculinity walking
True blackness in the flesh

When a sister appears
10 shades darker than mahogany
We just sit her in a corner
Disgraces of black women’s beauty

We be two-faced
Brothas rockin’
Hues dipped deep in midnight skin
Accepted, adored flavors to consume

Let his complexioned twin sister
Walk her black ass in
We silently cringe
Or look away

But maybe
If she had a slant in her eyes
Or waves in her hair
We be like
‘Oh, she cute—to be that black.’

And don’t let her be fat
It’s a fact
Her fat black ass
Would be a walking eye show

People silently gawk
Staring terrified at her black to bone
Black to the core
With all that back it up ass
Would remind us of Aunt Jemima
But she ain’t ya mama
She is a walking affirmation
That our roots run deep
Beyond ‘Roots’ series 1 thru 6

And fat black ass
Got people turning away
Turning slightly
Turning their noses

Her mighty epidermis is melanin-dominated
The world loves it
We hate it
She reminds us of who we are

Beauty unaccounted for
Her worth displaced
Somehow this fat black ass sister
Has become a discredit to her race

It’s funny
Every man wants to taste her
But is forbade to spend the rest of their lives with her
She would just make
Blacker babies
That look like…
Ain’t that ya mama?

She cute...to be that black! Candid Words on Color Wars in Black Communities

I have ample respect to Tameka Foster Raymond, wife of R&B singer Usher for writing a candid essay on her difficulties of dealing with colorism in the African-American community.

For those of you who do not understand the term "colorism," it is a practice and worldview based on the bias of color tones. As a result of whiteness and the European aesthetic being propogated as the standard of beauty, many cultures and peoples perpetuate generations of bodily and psychological damage of attempting to obtain these phenotypes as much as possible.

In particular, European features such as pale skin, blond hair, blue or light-colored eyes, and a-line, slender facial and body features are preferred. In the African-American community and really in America, there is a social phenomena in which favortism in many different designs, is expressed by those who have these features.

It is exhibited most blatantly in film, television, videos, and all forms of media. Mrs. Foster-Raymond’s essay talks about her sordid experiences with this issue in the following writing…

I am a dark-skinned African American woman with features that reflect my ancestry. Debates regarding Light vs. Dark and other biases have plagued our race for years and continues to impact millions of Black women. The deeply rooted intra-racial contempt that lies beneath this inane "compliment" is the reason I've chosen to spark dialogue surrounding the topic of self-hatred in our culture. It saturates every aspect of our lives, dominating the perspectives of our generation as a whole. We culturally are so influential, at times inadvertently, that we affect all with the words we utter and the images we portray. It lends to the theory of systemic racism. I'm authoring this piece because I'm miffed by this reality and would like to share my views on these subjects.

It is a fact that many African-Americans are often mixed with an array of other ethnicities (as am I), which allows for the spectrum of our features to be as distinctive and special as we are diverse. Why is it felt that the more diluted our traditionally African features become the more aesthetically acceptable we are considered? It was said in the 1960s and the sentiment seems to be forgotten, "Black is Beautiful." Wow, nearly 50 years later and is that now only meant for a specific shade? Nonetheless, I believe the beauty of our people and splendor of every individual is reflected in our varying features and hues.

Click here for more of Tameka's thoughts

I absolutely love this poem....