Light Skinned - Dark Skinned

What's up red bone- there she goes with her high-yellow self - who she think she is... she must think she's cute cuz she's light skinned. She mess with me, I'll cut her face and  her hair - Put a paper-bag to her face to see how dark she is - if she's darker than that bag than she's a red-bone and we don't like red-bones

I watched the episode on OWN "Light Skinned - Dark Skinned" and it brought back many memories for me. If you haven't seen it, you must.

The words from our very own people that have plagued us for years. Yes, it's obvious I'm light skinned or red boned as my brothers would say. Racism in our own house. Words that separated us from the others. My mom's light skinned and my dad is dark skinned. My 2 older  sisters are darker skinned and the other 3 are light skinned. But what we all have in common is we're family. Family but yet separated because of the color of our skin. I can remember as a child we would ask kids in school who were light skinned and we met for the first time- who was the light skinned one in their family, their mom or dad. we didn't know any better. It was learned behavior. Kids only do what they see adults do or say.

I remember the days of walking down the hallway of Butler High School in Hartsville SC - faced with fear from those who bullied me because of the color of my skin. They threaten to cut my face, cut my hair, slap me until I was blue in the face, and punch me in the eyes all because I was light skinned. They would wait for me at the Security Apartments as I walked home from school to push me down or call me names. I wore dresses all the time, so I really couldn't fight them because I would skin up my light skinned legs.

I had nothing to do with the color of my skin but yet I was being bullied because of it. Things were bad for you back then if you were light skinned. Most of my friends were light skinned now that I look back at it. With the exception of a few. We all had something in common..... most dark skinned girls hated us all because of the color of our skin. It got so bad that I asked my parents if I could transfer to the white school so I wouldn't be bullied anymore for being a light skinned black girl. It was almost like being almost white was better than being  almost black. Sad to say but true. Even though in the white world we were still black, but in the black world we were half/white. I transferred from the black school to the white school in the 9th grade.

As I got older and began to experience life, I noticed that most light skinned girls were dating dark skinned guys. I guess it was just what we did because of the way were were brought up. We would hear people say, if she's light and he's dark they'll make beautiful babies. And if she was dark and he was light, they would make dark babies. I remember when my a new born was brought home, the first thing the older people would do was look at the top of the babies ear. They said the color of the top of the ear would determine the skin tone of the baby. I know we all have done it... and sure enough if the baby had dark ears the baby was dark skinned and if the baby had light ears the baby was light skinned.

Be it as it may, we all have skin to live in whether dark or light, black or white, brown or yellow. We all have skin. The most important thing we must be is COMFORTABLE IN OUR OWN SKIN. There is no color that's more beautiful than the other. If there is only one beautiful color, why is there more than one color in the rainbow, why is there more than one color in the coloring box, why does orange and yellow make brown, black and white makes gray? Because every color is important and it takes every color to make up this wonderful melting point we call EARTH.

So, don't get caught up in who's light and who's dark, as long as you are comfortable in your own skin and can find makeup to match your complexion :). LOL-  It takes two colors for me (dark and light)... lol. WHY because I have Caramel Complexion. Yelp I said it... I'm a light skinned caramel girl.

Remember God made you and everything He made is good.

Be blessed,
Ms. Lisa D.
Find Peace Within