Light Skin vs. Dark Skin

divadarlin,
I believe we are on the same page. I also agree with your last statement regarding the outcome of the judges were black. Unfortunately, the evidence is everywhere. I currently live in Chicago, Illinois, USA - and have also lived in all time zones of the US, spent years living in Canada as well as sometime in the West Indies. I have always loved the look, taste and feel of dark skinned black men near me. Dark skin has always signified warmth to me. But it seems the sentiment is not often reciprocated.
When I visited a few countries in the UK a couple of years ago I traveled with a friend who is strikingly beautiful. She is South Indian and Black. She received so much attention in many of the places we went ,  until Amsterdam. When we got there, it was like she was invisible and people would constantly compliment me. Both Black and white men.
Of the many things I found fascinating, was how blacks (namely women) were received and perceived in these places.

I know that with my own person experience, I have had more non-black men approach me showing interest than black men. I am dark skinned, with dreads and keep my self presentable and in good shape.  I am very social and am ready to talk to anyone and everyone. Yet, I have been told more than once that women who wear natural hair, or can leave the house without make up are 'too home-grown'. Yeah, unimpressive - especially from the mouth of black men.

In my travels, I have noticed that many of the white men in North American who date black women, seem to be paired with darker ones. Even Robert DeNiro was quoted stating how he loves black women and his past love interests have been dark-skinned (according to photos). During the college years, between my friends and I, I was always the one would attract white men. Not by my preference, it just seemed to happen that way.

I often wonder, even if black women develop enough consciousness to see through the BS and recognize their individual and natural beauty - would it end up being defeated by black mens preferences for the 'not-to-dark', 'not-to-home-grown looking', Europeanized black women they see on BET or other media sources?

I would like to add my two cents. To truly understand the Black race with have to go back to the time before the world was even created, but I will not say much I just wish to summarize what I know and be able to get any type of feed back. First in this day and time we can no longer look at the color of the person skin to truly identify them as being black we must look at their soul and spirit to determine that. Since the black D.N.A  has mixed so much with other nations a piece of our soul and our spirit has been imbued with in them. We have to understand that we was the chosen people of the Almighty GOD.

And at the time we dominated and rule the entire earth. By the Almighty's will, he gave us dominion over everything of this earth. As we were in the Garden of Eden there were other nations on this physical earth. And once we sinned then we were banished to dwell with mankind on this physical earth. So we have to realize throughout history everytime we disobeyed our LORD CREATOR, that we were put into the hands of whom we trusted. Everytime we did things of the left side (which I will only name one ) namely have sexually intercourse with that, that was not of our kind then we fell into darkness.  And by falling into that darkness we loose everything that belongs to us.

There is so much more to explain, but I just want to put a little bit out there. So everytime we lost a war, everytime we were put into slavery was not because we were weak it was because we did not have the protection of our Creator because we sinned against him and wanted to do things our way. And that is was we are governed by other nations. We lost our spiritual and fundamental education thats why they have all the technology because we gave it up. But if we can unite again and learn our true history and serve our Creator then we can finally go back home.

So this light and dark skinned thing should be put to rest between those who have a problem with it because it is a matter of preference. Because what matters the most is the soul of that person.

Thank you for reading

Hi Dakmanzero - sorry for the delay in response.  I've just gone back to school (Bachelor's: Graphic Design), after a 23-year hiatus!  So I've been unusually busy.  I guess I think your explanation is a bit too simplistic - it reminds me of the child's game "Battleship".  I got guns, you die,   I think the conquering of African nations and thus their adopting European values rests on a much subtler level.  I liken slavery to cancer - cancer invades COMPROMISED CELLS, not necessarily healthy ones.  Thus the cancer of slavery, and subsequently the adoption of European values,  was facilitated by an already weakened system rooted in African tribal systems, which was not on a par with the industrial revolution.  Your answer alluded to violence being the catalyst for change, but I think it relates more to progress=money=power,   and desire,

lm

Linda, no worries. I half suspected that that was what you meant, but I wasn't sure.

Dakman!!!!   GROAN,  Africa and guns existed LONG before the subjugation of Africans!  So the possibility, or more so, the CONDITIONS for invasion existed EONS before it actually happened.  Force of arms probably had less to do with Africa's demise than its internal and self-supported breakdown. As for Japan - its physical makeup made colonization an absolute impossibility.  80% of this island nation consists of rugged, uninhabitable mountains.  It wasn't through an act of will that they were not colonized, but rather by the physical and emotional limitations of men who attempted to colonize them. (path of least resistance),

keep writing - I love what you have to say and this discourse is challenging.  Take care,
lm

true, guns existed before the scramble.

but remember, the scramble was a scramble.

kind of like what happens when a bunch of chickens are loitering around a source of free food, assuming it is limitless, then suddenly going crazy and grabbing what they can when they realise it will soon finish (scrambling)

they could have dealt with  us loooooooong ago, but industrialisation and the wars it precipitated cause them to suddenly wake up and go,  HEY! if THEY get more of AFrica than us, they will be more powerful!

they were actually competing with each other, ot us, when scrambling for africa. We were just minor annoyances, hardly considered human.

It all came down to who could kick the most ASS

I AM NOT VERY DARK BUT I LOVE DARK SKIN.
I don't EVEN KNOW WHY SOME PEOPLE BLEACH
BLACK IS REALLY BEAUTIFUL N I THINK U SHOULD ALL LOVE IT.

Y'all africans are crazy,  damn crazy

yeah,is that some kind of insult or wot?

And Maazi what are you exactly? Please tell me promptly so I can insult your ancestors.

http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=4915.msg536080#msg536080
http://www.nairaland.com/nigeria?topic=19373.msg535918#msg535918

German is it?

dark skin of course

both buh my papi is light skinned


roflmao

So if your dark skinned why don't you apply with a white employer, if most of the black employers are self hating?
a lot of whites don't really care if your darker skinned or lighter skinned black/white.
it's us blacks that have the problem.I don't know why some of us hate our race so much.

i never knew this was actually happening. good to read everyone's opinion.

By Charisse Jones
Glamour Magazine October, 1995 p. 127

I'll never forget the day I was supposed to meet him. We had only spoken on the phone. But we got along so well, we couldn't wait to meet face-to-face. I took the bus from my high school to his for our blind date. While I nervously waited for him outside the school, one of his buddies came along, looked me over and remarked that I was going to he a problem, because his friend didn't like dating anybody darker than himself.

When my mystery man--who was not especially good-looking-- finally saw me, he took one look, uttered a hurried hello, then disappeared with his smirking friends. I had apparently been pronounced ugly on arrival and dismissed.

That happened nearly 15 years ago. I'm 30 now, and the hurt and humiliation have long since faded. But the memory still lingers, reinforced in later years by other situations in which my skin color was judged by other African Americans--for example, at a cocktail party or a nightclub where light-skinned black women got all the attention.

A racist encounter hurts badly. But it does not equal the pain of "colorism" -- being rejected by your own people because your skin is colored cocoa and not cream, ebony and not olive. On our scale of beauty, it is often the high yellows--in the lexicon of black America; those with light skin whose looks reap the most attention. Traditionally, if someone was described that way, there was no need to say that person was good-looking. It was a given that light was lovely. It was those of us with plain brown eyes and darker skin hues who had to prove ourselves.

I was 12, and in my first year of junior high school in San Francisco, when I discovered dark brown was not supposed to be beautiful. At that age, boys suddenly became important, and so did your looks. But by that time--the late 1970s--black kids no longer believed in that sixties mantra, "Black is beautiful." Light skin, green eyes and long, wavy hair were once again synonymous with beauty.

Colorism--and its subtext of self hatred--began during slavery on plantations where white masters often favored the lighter-skinned blacks, many of whom were their own children. But though it began with whites, black people have kept colorism alive. In the past, many black sororities, fraternities and other social organizations have been notorious for accepting only light-skinned members. Yes, some blacks have criticized their lighter-skinned peers. But most often in our history, a light complexion has been a passport to special treatment by both whites and blacks.

The use of bleaching creams to lighten complexions seems to have reached epidemic proportions in Mali, despite widespread education campaigns.

Women who refuse to bleach often find themselves regarded as second class citizens.

A woman who did not bleach her skin said she is often not offered a chair at baptisms, and is asked to make herself scarce when group photographs are taken at marriages.

A quick survey shows there are more than 100 bleaching products available on the market in the capital, Bamako.

Sold under brand names such as Marie-Claire or Diana, the products come from Morocco, Nigeria, the United States or Saudi Arabia.

Pain

Dermatologists estimate that more than half the women in Mali are now using these creams to lighten their skin. These products are costly and often cause pain and blemishes.

So why are so many women in Mali using them? The answer is simple, according to one Malian woman singer: The creams make her white, and impart a certain charm.

But Malian physician Dr Ali Gindo finds bleached skin anything but charming.

"They are just burning themselves," he says. "It's painful and it's awful."

Dr Gindo says bleaching can cause skin cancer and the poorest people are the most at risk, because the cheaper the product, the more dangerous it is.

But he says it is not just poor women are bleaching their skin.

Role models

"We have also people who are well educated like lawyers, writers or professors, or people on the TV - and this is a real problem because if people who are leaders of opinion bleach themselves, you can imagine how deep the problem is."

Many of the women who use these products told me they do so because Malian men prefer women with bleached skin.

But male musician Al Hassan Soumali disagrees.

"I don't think Malian men like bleached women," he says. "It's better for Malian women to change their minds."

I am of average skin complection, but I have to say that dark skin is beautiful. I was at this grocery store, and I was getting my groceries checked out by this one woman with dark skin, and she was gorgeous. Like I'm serious, supermodel gorgeous, and I love her skin color. I wish maybe I had such lovely skin, but I mean, I have what I have. And the fact that I am not light-skinned, hasn't stopped me from being approached by several guys, especially within in the last couple months. But I think any skin color is gorgeous, my sister is light-skinned, and there were times that I wished that maybe I was lighter. I know when we went to Nigeria, one of my cousins would always make it a point at how light my sister was and how that made he beautiful, and that if you were to just look at her feet, people would think she was a white person (or onyibo?). And that did hurt to hear that she was "prettier" than me because of her skin tone, but I can tell you that I got more male attention than her. But to be quite frank, it isn't one's skin color that makes on beautiful, it's a lot more than that. And people need to understand that.

Wow!! for U Very first post, i would Say that was loadz!! PHeW!