Bleached Skin Isn’t The New Black.
By Folake Kuye Huntoon ⋅ February 2, 2009 ⋅ 
A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a Tyra Banks show that caught my attention. First of all, I have to give Tyra some credit. Personally, I think Ms. Banks can be a little on the annoying side because she talks over her guests, and audience, however, I appreciate her intentions. I appreciate what she stands for and the sort of issues she directs media attention to. This particular day, she had women on there who weren’t happy with the hue of their skin, and therefore turned to bleaching their skins to become lighter.
This was especially bothersome because a few of the women went as far as bleaching their kid’s skin as well. These folks, whom I pitied so much, claimed that light skinned women were more beautiful, got more attention and that they defined beauty in every sense of the word. To take this even further, one went as far as saying that in the black community and amongst black women, there’s a beauty stereotype. Light skinned women are favored by black men, and deemed prettier.
Say what??? I was shocked. These were African American women too. Frankly, this was a first for me. Call me naive or ignorant, but I thought only African women bleached their skin. Truly. This is not so. All blacks do - the ones that do bleach, that is. African Americans, Jamaicans, Africans, etc. I mean these women bleach so bad that while they get lighter, their skin begin to deform and turns green or even burns (it turns dark). I think this often happens when they can’t either keep up with the cost of bleaching creams or they have gone way too far with it. There are some that bleach, but forget to get their knuckles/fingers, so you can pretty much tell that they are not naturally light, while some bleach just the face and from their neck down, they are dark as hell, and you are like..uhm..seriously??? Whether you get it professionally done or on your own, bleaching your skin signifies a serious problem within.
And just so you know, men are not excluded from this as you can see from the picture above. Yes, those are all men (Jamaicans), and I read that this is pretty common in Jamaica. As a matter of fact, more men are bleaching these days than women. The same goes for Senegal, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
What sort of insecurities can you be possibly going through in your life to make you want to bleach your skin? Are we going to date this back to colonialism? We can certainly argue that fact, but are we going to go there and play victim?
So, ok, you are an adult, you bleach your skin and you claim it’s your prerogative. Obviously, you are not happy with who you are, you have a low self-esteem or perhaps don’t see yourself as beautiful. But to bleach your kid’s skin too? Are you serious? What sort of message are your sending to them? Why are you making them self-conscious as if it isn’t hard enough as it is to be a kid of color in America?
And do you understand the hazards?
It is rough enough for kids in school because they get teased by the most mundane things, but should consciousness come from home? Or shouldn’t home be where they turn to for comfort. Knowing that beauty comes in all colors and all forms, etc.
What is the representation of white/black/light skinned beauty? What happened to being proud of your skin color? I love my skin. I get tons of compliments for being this dark, I especially like getting darker over the summer, because I get shinny.
Should we blame society for this? Is society placing light-skinned black women on a pedestal and terming that as beauty? Are these folks victims or they really need to start taking responsibility for their actions and stop pointing fingers? I thought we had progressed from this and the media has somewhat embraced black beauty; have we not? Of course, it’s not completely equal yet and certainly not where we’d like it to be, but we are not helping the situation by changing our skin tone.
I am really concerned about the kids too. I’m concerned about the messages that we are sending to these kids.
Be black/dark and proud. Love your skin gracefully. We are responsible for and representing a younger generation. If you are in the beauty, image or modeling industry and it’s tough for you to get ahead because of the color of your skin, may be it’s time to raise awareness and break the cycle instead of feeding into the stereotype. Don’t become a victim of nonsense. Let’s accept and represent all forms of beauty.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE: Skin bleaching industry is a 1 billion dollar industry. I heard that some of these creams have mercury and arsenic in them. Not only does bleaching lead to skin cancer, facial hair, acne and sorts, it can potentially lead to death.
Please send this to your friends and spread the word. Also, click on the following link for stats and more information on this issue (Thanks, Solomon) http://www.nigeriancuriosity.com/2007/02/complexion-complex.html
Credits:
First pic: Essential bloom Reference: Jamaica Gleaner News
Second pic: Found the pic through research and can’t find the site any longer. Would love to credit the site and photog. Readers, please feel free to send me msgs if you find the source.
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