Skin Bleaching? Do you do it, what do you think?

[LaShanda Henry]

Did you watch Tyra's show on skin bleeching. I had to watch it and cringe not out of disgust, but out of embarrassment because I too had my skin bleached as a child. I don't do it as an adult, and I am all about loving the skin I am in, but as a Jamaican I know that my people have a BIG thing for Light Skin Girls and Coolie Babies. I hate talking about it with friends who want to have a pretty light skin child. My son is dark just like me and he is the cutest baby to me! Black mom and black dad.

Arg, I can go on about this one, so how about you just chime in and tell me what you think.

lh

[Vonshae']

Good topic. For a while I thought this was a dead issue. WRONG! WRONG! (said like Charlie Murphy) Anywho, I am not dark nor am I light but, I wish I was darker than I am. I LOVE dark skin. Especially on a man. It just does something for me, girl! ;-) So may times, I see a light skinned black female who is drooled over by guys who isn't pretty by far. What's with that? I don't have any jealously issues because I know that I am beautiful, mind, body, soul and heart, and I couldn't be any more beautiful if I were any lighter or any darker. It bothers me though, how my darker skinned sisters are looked over and their beauty is often not seen. I think its sad. On the topic of bleaching, I didn't think that could be done. SERIOUSLY! How can you get it even? Black is SO SO beautiful. We need to teach our kids the irrelevance of skin tones in the black community.

[Franda Graves]

It is so interesting that you would bring up this particular topic. Growing up, it seemed that the symbol of Black beauty was a very light-skinned woman with long flowing hair. There were times that I wondered why I had not been given these "beautiful" attributes. I believe that these thoughts have been passed on to our young kids through the media as well as in our schools. Who, over the age of 40, cannot remember the light skinned kids being called on to do projects in school, answer the difficult questions, represent the school or the class and cheer the sports teams. Even now, how many times do we cross the street or hold tighter to our purse because a darker-skinned brother is appraoching us. How many times have we judged a neighborhood as being "bad" as we survey the number of darker-skinned brothers and sisters live there. How many times have we looked at a "wanted" poster and thought he doesn't "look" like a killer, bank robber, rapist,etc because the brother is light-skinned. I live in a country where bleaching is commonplace. I had never really heard of it before coming here to Saudi Arabia. There are people here that have the impression that if one has blond hair and blue eyes, they are smarter than any other Westerner. I am amazed at the definition of beauty that we have been taught to believe. We have to use dialogue such as this in our homes and schools so that the generations to follow understand that beauty is more than skin color, hair texture, etc. Beauty is what God has given each of us, just because.

[msladydeborah]

If the bleaching is being using to even out skin tones that is okay. But I am one of those women who believe that no matter what color hue your complexion is~it is all good.

But I also realize that within our culture there are certain shades of skin coloring that seem to envoke different responses and feelings. Being too light is a problem and on the other end of the spectrum a dark complexion seems to bring about a negative response. This is a habit that I would love to see us break up and discard.

We are a beautiful people. We need to be mindful of the fact that we are created from a gene pool that is filled with different shades. They are all good.

If an individual is bleaching to remove traces of who they are~that indicates that they are not comfortable living inside of the skin that they are in.

[Audrey Holden]

As you know we go through faze in life and of course I went through because I wanted the attention that the light-skinned young ladies was getting and I felt very sad when I was not getting that attention so of course I tried to change the color of my skin, I say that to say this with age come knowledge and with knowledge come insight so I am so glad that my skin did not change permanently because I would not be the beautiful chocolate skinned that I am today.