something about light-skinned privilege
the summer is coming up and i am soooo excited to be able to get out in the sun. i’m a summer baby, born in june and i love the sun and the beach and just… life feels better in the summer. but i was thinking about how much i can’t wait to get wayyyy darker. i love to go out in the sun and get darker because personally, i think i look my best when i am as brown as i can get. with that being said, i’ve been thinking more about colorism this year. and some of the clips from the movie dark girls and many of the dark-skinned women confessionals involve dark-skinned people saying they sometimes hate the summer because it means they will get darker. and being darker when already dark probably means getting treated worse. and me being light-skinned and not having that experience makes me completely oblivious to that worry. and when i am aware of it, i still don’t have to deal with the emotional fear/worry/anxiety that might come with that acknowledgment. it’s utterly fucked up that dark-skinned people, women especially, have been made to feel they cannot enjoy one of natures most lovely resources, sun, because people treat dark-skinned people so poorly. deem it ugly, bad, scary, wrong. i’ve always loved darker skin, felt more comfortable around darker skin and feel more beautiful when i am darker skinned. but i have not dealt with years of people degrading me for being “too dark”. for being black, yes. but not for my shade of black. so with the summer coming, i’ve been thinking about this.
