Assuming that one is superior because of skin tone is ridiculous! Yet, so many of our people still walk this planet thinking privately many thoughts about one's supreme personality, upbringing, views, and more being beter than those who are the opposite or near opposite skin color. "Oh, she must think she is better, because she is lightskin...He thinks he is better than everyone else because white people know what he is! Why do all of them act like..." What's with the hidden conversation inside one's head of what you believe someone who looks different than you might be thinking?
From mama's propaganda (some of which derived from slave ancestry) on what it might mean to be light and right to daddy's experience of what "real blacks" have had to face, there is a child who becomes an adult with skin tone issues assuming the worst about his or her ethnicity. When the color issues get to be too much to try to solve, he or she says, "To hell with our people...I'm on to the white, yellow, red, or brown man/woman!"
These preconceived notions of what to expect when dealing with someone because "Someone told me about those people..." is debilitating thinking. It causes the mind to assume things that are unreal, exaggerate, lie, or cover up thoughts about people because of skin tone. A black person who thinks this way is no different than a racist white man or woman. No wonder some of our people just can't get along--they can't see past color, texture of hair, eye color, etc.!
You can educate yourself about black history as much as you want, but if you don't take the time to uproot the issue within you, how can you say to someone else, "Know thyself?" We all are guilty of justifying foolish thinking, like going back to slavery scenes to excuse supermacy thinking within our own families. The truth is no matter if a person is white, light skin, or dark skin, personal skin tone issues are problems void of solutions that don't help the collective!
A young girl swings her long, wavy hair around while ignoring those who are darker than her, because a relative told her that she is "pretty, better than those people." A brown, young man is told, "Stick to your own kind and don't be getting any girlfriend when you are older that is too light or too dark, because you want your children to look like you." How can one tell another human being who to love while thinking for one minute it won't backfire on him or her sooner or later? Don't wonder why the family is all mixed up?
Erase the mind for just a moment of what "they say" and begin to think about who you are, beyond what you look like. Did someone or something cause you to be "the problem" in other people's lives, rather than the solution? Are you helping prejudice non-blacks hate you by the things you say to them and others? Are you really about unity in the community or helping only those who look like your specific skin tone (lighter, darker)?
Nicholl McGuire
From mama's propaganda (some of which derived from slave ancestry) on what it might mean to be light and right to daddy's experience of what "real blacks" have had to face, there is a child who becomes an adult with skin tone issues assuming the worst about his or her ethnicity. When the color issues get to be too much to try to solve, he or she says, "To hell with our people...I'm on to the white, yellow, red, or brown man/woman!"
These preconceived notions of what to expect when dealing with someone because "Someone told me about those people..." is debilitating thinking. It causes the mind to assume things that are unreal, exaggerate, lie, or cover up thoughts about people because of skin tone. A black person who thinks this way is no different than a racist white man or woman. No wonder some of our people just can't get along--they can't see past color, texture of hair, eye color, etc.!
You can educate yourself about black history as much as you want, but if you don't take the time to uproot the issue within you, how can you say to someone else, "Know thyself?" We all are guilty of justifying foolish thinking, like going back to slavery scenes to excuse supermacy thinking within our own families. The truth is no matter if a person is white, light skin, or dark skin, personal skin tone issues are problems void of solutions that don't help the collective!
A young girl swings her long, wavy hair around while ignoring those who are darker than her, because a relative told her that she is "pretty, better than those people." A brown, young man is told, "Stick to your own kind and don't be getting any girlfriend when you are older that is too light or too dark, because you want your children to look like you." How can one tell another human being who to love while thinking for one minute it won't backfire on him or her sooner or later? Don't wonder why the family is all mixed up?
Erase the mind for just a moment of what "they say" and begin to think about who you are, beyond what you look like. Did someone or something cause you to be "the problem" in other people's lives, rather than the solution? Are you helping prejudice non-blacks hate you by the things you say to them and others? Are you really about unity in the community or helping only those who look like your specific skin tone (lighter, darker)?
Nicholl McGuire
No comments:
Post a Comment