While I believe that our rich culture should be appreciated and celebrated all year round, I couldn’t help but post this special edition of the Bird Bitch blog. On this last day, Sunday, February 28th, 2010 we are giving a shout out to all the Black women who bleach their skin, in hopes of getting rid of just a little bit of who they are. LMAO
The first time I realized the significance of skin bleaching I was a freshman in High School. I had a friend, (who is probably reading this because the world is too damn small) that I ran into on the first day riding the train into the city. We hadn’t seen each other all summer and got to catch up on the ride, something was noticeably different about her that I just couldn’t put my finger on. Is she taller, more developed? Maybe, but that wasn’t it. A week had gone by and our morning ride had become a ritual.
On the second week, I had as promised brought some pics from the senior trip and last days of junior high to share with her and that is when it became clear. Homegirl was multiple shades lighter than in the pictures. In realizing this, my stupid ass asked with concern if she was ok? She acted like she didn’t know what I was talking about. Assured me she was fine and continued reviewing the pictures. Of course I pressed the issue, “so why are you so light now?” and we all know how this story ends our morning train ride was no more. LMAO
That was too many years ago to count, we were kids and I didn’t really get it. I believe then it was definitely more taboo, no one mentioned it when they saw people whose faces were lighter than their hands or who clearly like this old friend where lighter than the last time you saw them. I was fortunate, to have come up in a family where everyone took pride in ourselves and our culture. Today, it seems like skin lightening is far from taboo. In fact, when you walk into some beauty supply stores in predominantly black neighborhoods, there are displays right behind the counter and sometimes as you walk in filled with a variety of products to lighten the skin. It is 2010 and I still get a chuckle out of the females who come to the counter to purchase these products. Many of them who don’t bother to lighten any other part of their body besides their faces and necks. They order their poison of choice and then reach out their beautiful brown hand to pay for their pale discolored face.
Don’t misunderstand my chuckle, I am not laughing at these women. I am laughing because it amazes me that it is 2010, almost 20 years since my episode on the train and now not only is this craziness not taboo. It is as normal as purchasing and using any other “beauty” product. As a people many of us are delusional.
I have a friend who told me once that her grandmother used to scrub her and her sister with special “soap” back in Jamaica to make them better. Another friend whose grandmother would literally put bleach in the tub for her and her brother to wash in, every summer when they would visit her in Alabama. While what they did was not right, they came from a different time and experience. We are under the impression that we have gotten somewhere in the last centuries, that we are no longer like our ancestors and elders. We are strong women, we take care of the world and make miracles everyday. We do it while being proud and loving who we are. I don’t believe that, I will venture to say that we may be worse off than they were. As women, we have sat back and allowed the presence of self hatred to seep into our lives and we have refused to kick it out. So if you are reading this and you bleach, or know someone who does, trash those products or do something useful with it like clean the curry stains off of your counter top or distress those fave jeans of yours. Find something to love about you every single day and be a better example for our girls of love.
So we started off this tangent with a little sarcasm and humor, but underneath it all there is a serious message here. Women need to wake the f#@$ up. We dictate who, what, when, where and how. Get it together bitches!
See yall next month.
