Who taught you to hate your skin?
We all may have heard that "Black is beautiful" or " The blacker the berry the sweeter the juice"...black is indeed beautiful, but why do some South Africans bleach their skin? In the past our community respected women with true sense of humor, women who were adored with outward and inner beauty irrespective of their skin.
I just wonder why do people have to bleach, why do we have to hate the skin color that our God has given us? Why do people strive to be the opposite of their natural complexion? It is likely that one in three women in South Africa bleaches her skin. We have heard of the names like "yellowbones", "white perfect" and "white and lovely", I think it is because of these words why dark skinned women and mean bleach their skin just to fit in.
Skin lighteners may be used by different people for different reasons. At least no one is in danger with fake weaves and fake accents, there is no skin rashes, discoloration and scarring. Some black women bleach their skin to the point where their skin begins to peel off with black spots developed on their cheeks and hands.
People think that lighter is better lighter is better, so do we really have to promote self-hate? I know that 'self-hate' sound too strong to use, but don't we value lighter skin over dark skin? I sometimes wonder that what factors motivate black people to bleach. Many of our South African men are likely to pick a light skinned girl compared to a dark skinned one. One may argue that white people get the better things in life, they have advantages...but the question is if you bleach your skin, does it make you a white person?
At least we still have role models for black beauty; people like Kenyan Lupita Nyong'o and Alek Wek.
South African Kwaito star, Mshoza started undergoing skin-lightning because she was "tired of being ugly". It is funny how we still have people who associate light skin with positive, happiness and success while black is associated with negative, crime and lazy. Our magazines, adverts and TV films give us the idea that the light skin is beautiful. Just recently media personality, Khanyi Mbau caused a twitter uproar with her "pink" skin complexion, this left many people with mixed feelings, with others saying she is becoming too transparent and that her hands are still black.
Black will become beautiful when we accept to be black and change our mindset
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