I’ve never had a color complex, so it’s somewhat hard for me to understand how some women feel when they say they feel ugly because they are a dark girl or that they bleached their skin in an effort to become a few shades lighter.
Yes, I have made the occasional comment or two about staying out of the sun for fear that my skin would grow darker; but not because I despised the darkness but rather because I love the skin I’m in- and one shade of anything lighter or darker, would be beyond my current perception of myself.
When I really think about it, if I was a shade darker or lighter, it wouldn’t change the core of who I am. I would still love myself and embrace the skin I’m in all the more.
Growing up in my family, I saw all shades of blackness. From light and fair to dark and mahogany. Perhaps, it’s this environment that shaped my views that we are all beautiful, regardless of our complexion. My father is as dark as midnight, and so is one of my sisters. She’s not beautiful “for a dark girl”, she’s beautiful because she is.
I understand that we live in a society that often classifies beauty by what we look like on the outside, that the fairer one is, the more attractive they are, and the darker someone is, the more unattractive. But I am under the belief, that yes, our beauty counts, and we all have some feature that makes us strikingly beautiful, but beyond that, what makes us most beautiful is our intelligence, our quiet confidence, and the lovely demeanor we carry with us as we float through life.
So whether you’re an ebony queen with hair as natural as the sun’s ray or a latte shade of greatness with carefully coifed locks, embrace you, OWN you, there is only one you. Be the best, you are the best, and not because of the shade of your skin, but simply because you are…
