As you guys now I've been trying to weed out the freaks and nutjobs etc from my life.
Anyway, h:upset:ere in the UK the newspapers have been full of stories about Beyonce, accusing her of having bleached her skin. I posted something on my Facebook page saying that I don't think Beyonce has necessarily bleached her skin and that I wished the newspapers would stop with all the stories. A Facebook friend then sent me the following message. Am I wrong to feel she is a bit unstable?
"Hi, I feel compelled to write to you this morning following your posting yesterday about Beyonce, and skin-whitening among women of colour. I found yours and your friends comments about the article in the Daily Mail on the subject completely uninformed and short sighted, as well as extremely damaging. I kept thinking, I hope there aren't any young girls/women of colour reading this. It really surprised me because I know you to be an educated, self aware black woman. It felt as though the article had struck a raw nerve in some of these women, who may well have used/are still using dangerous skin lighting creams themselves. There was something defensive in yours and your colleagues comments. I thought the reactions to the article were also dishonest in the extreme, because although some expressed an opinion about blond wigs, none admitted to, or rejected the use of skin-lightening creams themselves. On the contrary, most seemed to be quite comfortable with their use, without considering clearly the implications. I found this really shocking!
Of course the article by Yasmin A-B was "not over the top" - it was saying the "unsay-able" among us about black self-loathing.
Of course the use by white women of fake tanning and sun-beds does not carry the same cultural, historical or racial significance as the use by black women of skin lightening/whitening creams. It does not carry the same resonance at all, and to say it does is evasive in the extreme, and downright dishonest. I kept thinking, what are these women hiding, and what are they hiding from?
Of course it's not that art directors, photographers and others cannot get the lighting of black skin right. No, they willfully lighten our skins because they perceive light/white skin as more beautiful, in the same way that a lot of black people do, consciously or unconsciously. Interestingly, white people in charge of the construction of our image, now think that we also prefer to see ourselves as "lighter" or white. I've had direct experience of this myself, as an actor and filmmaker. I'm sure we're all self-aware enough, and educated enough to know what's going on here!
I could go on and on about this but I won't. Just to finish by saying that I removed your name from my friends list because of the strength of my feeling over your posting. I went out afterwords and it came up in a conversation I had with friends; and to some extent I now regret having done so. But it was how I felt at the time.
Anyway I hope you understand now that I am very passionate, and honest about my beliefs. That of course will never change.
Have a nice weekend."
Anyway, h:upset:ere in the UK the newspapers have been full of stories about Beyonce, accusing her of having bleached her skin. I posted something on my Facebook page saying that I don't think Beyonce has necessarily bleached her skin and that I wished the newspapers would stop with all the stories. A Facebook friend then sent me the following message. Am I wrong to feel she is a bit unstable?
"Hi, I feel compelled to write to you this morning following your posting yesterday about Beyonce, and skin-whitening among women of colour. I found yours and your friends comments about the article in the Daily Mail on the subject completely uninformed and short sighted, as well as extremely damaging. I kept thinking, I hope there aren't any young girls/women of colour reading this. It really surprised me because I know you to be an educated, self aware black woman. It felt as though the article had struck a raw nerve in some of these women, who may well have used/are still using dangerous skin lighting creams themselves. There was something defensive in yours and your colleagues comments. I thought the reactions to the article were also dishonest in the extreme, because although some expressed an opinion about blond wigs, none admitted to, or rejected the use of skin-lightening creams themselves. On the contrary, most seemed to be quite comfortable with their use, without considering clearly the implications. I found this really shocking!
Of course the article by Yasmin A-B was "not over the top" - it was saying the "unsay-able" among us about black self-loathing.
Of course the use by white women of fake tanning and sun-beds does not carry the same cultural, historical or racial significance as the use by black women of skin lightening/whitening creams. It does not carry the same resonance at all, and to say it does is evasive in the extreme, and downright dishonest. I kept thinking, what are these women hiding, and what are they hiding from?
Of course it's not that art directors, photographers and others cannot get the lighting of black skin right. No, they willfully lighten our skins because they perceive light/white skin as more beautiful, in the same way that a lot of black people do, consciously or unconsciously. Interestingly, white people in charge of the construction of our image, now think that we also prefer to see ourselves as "lighter" or white. I've had direct experience of this myself, as an actor and filmmaker. I'm sure we're all self-aware enough, and educated enough to know what's going on here!
I could go on and on about this but I won't. Just to finish by saying that I removed your name from my friends list because of the strength of my feeling over your posting. I went out afterwords and it came up in a conversation I had with friends; and to some extent I now regret having done so. But it was how I felt at the time.
Anyway I hope you understand now that I am very passionate, and honest about my beliefs. That of course will never change.
Have a nice weekend."
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