I grew up wishing for a different skin colour. Angel, with her beauty and her kindness, is the one person who made me accept myself. I can never thank her enough.
This hurts to read. No one should be made to feel inferior yet so many are and so many people condone it. I glad for this OP, but this reminds me that there are probably others out there suffering in silence.
I so agree. Though the sentiment is beautiful in its thankfulness, why on earth would you want to alter yourself for some dimwits perceived acceptance/approbation? Simply not on.
For the longest time, in all of my fantasies, I imagined myself as a blonde-haired blue-eyed white woman. Not joking. It’s painful to remember actually because I was so unconscious about why this was even wrong. It’s not easy to shrug off the world and just be yourself when you grow up as a POC and every single media outlet is touting that WHITE IS BEAUTIFUL. For young girls of color especially. They face a double burden when it comes to self esteem and body image.
Confessions like this don’t need pity or sadness from white folks. They need to be heard and respected. And it should make you angry that ‘wishing for a different skin color’ is actually pretty damn prevalent in most POC communities.
It’s my mum telling me I shouldn’t go to the beach cos I’ll get all ‘burnt and ugly’
It’s my relatives describing a girl as ‘dark BUT pretty’
It’s watching my 13 year old cousin put on skin lightening cream
It’s being told by a white stylist my hair must be ‘tamed’ and that it’s a ‘mane’
It’s the constant pressure to straighten my hair because wavy curls ‘just don’t look nice’
I could go on and on and on.
Everyone who’s reblogging this confession, please don’t talk about how we should shrug the world off and ‘be ourselves’, especially if you’re white. Respect and understand how hard it is to make a confession like this. Respect that pain and respect the experience that led them to it.
^^^^ I absolutely agree. I’ve never imagined myself as a white female, and I’ll never be able to thank the role models in my life enough for that. However, just because I’ve never experienced what it’s like to not want to look like me, to not be proud of the skin I’m in, doesn’t mean someone else has NOT experienced it. I mean, come on, with all the people in this world and with Western ideals and marketing, of course it’s going to happen. It’s so important to be able to see beautiful and positive people that look like you being happy and successful. It can give you the strength to want happiness and success for yourself.
it’s not like white girls don’t have such issues. Per say, being fair skinned is not ‘trendy’, being tanned is…so you can see everywhere little girls who hide their complexion under tons and tons of darker foundation…the result is just not natural at all. I remember when back in middle school a friend of mine told me I needed to use a dark foundation because ‘I was too milky-pale’. o.O I’ve always been pretty happy with my complexion -except when I get sunburns- because it makes me stand out in the tanned crowd and because…it’s me, and I’m happy with it. I don’t even get my hair straightened -if not sometimes- because I’m proud of my curls and I like them.
Having issues about what you look like is something that doesn’t know race or skin colour…so it’s not just about girls of african ancestry who think that in order to be beautiful you need to be white…it’s also about white girls who think that in order to be beautiful they need to look tanned if they are pale, who need to straighten their curls if they are curly haired, who think that you need to be anorexic and tall to be beautiful…
These issues are universal…people should just need to learn self-confidence.
This is not about YOU. This discussion is not for YOU. YOU’RE WHITE. GET OUT.
‘People should just need to learn self-confidence’
Because it’s the WOC’s fault the system is fucked up right? Cuz they didn’t learn how to have self confidence and that’s all there is to it.
Never fucking mind how it’s disgustingly wrong in the first place that these ideas are perpetuated and so horrendously hammered into WOC’s minds to crippling degrees. Cuz ‘just deal with it!’ and belittle people’s genuine emotional discussions and life experiences where you have no place, cuz ‘white people have the same problems obviously and they absolutely must be shoved into the faces of these people of color having such a heartfelt discussion amongst themselves!!@!1 DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE WHITE PEOPLE!!1 IT’S NOT LIKE WE’RE NOT STICKING OUR NOSES IN EVERYTHING ALWAYS ANYWAY!1’
WHITE PRIVILEGE. Step the fuck out while you GOOGLE IT.
