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oh, please. I am white and I know I have not had your experiences in being black but, totally believe we are moving past this kind of thing and we will, if people will let go of the old prejudices, black and white.
When African, Asian, and Latina woman no longer feel the need to mutilate themselves through skin bleaching, then things will have changed. Skin bleaching is big business, and racism keeps it going. As long as women feel as though pale skin with lead to a better life, then skin bleaching will remain profitable. That is the system that is in place.
This current day obsession with lightness is more than likely the results of white domination of the world since the colonial period.
Maybe he/she has "good" friends of other ethnicities. Look at India, Japan, Thailand, etc. etc. They all value light skin before TV and even thousand years ago before they ever seen a "white" person.
It isn't funny or confusing. Most people around the world agree that the most attractive skin tone is light brown. People whose skin is naturally white or dark brown are both striving for the same goal.
If you mean light brown as a light skinned black or an Indian or a darker toned Mexican, the answer is NO. The most desired skin tone is a slightly tanned European (white) or very light tone like an East Asian.
It seems to be that the blame for this self esteem issue is always placed on colonialism. The truth is that most cultures of the world have valued lighter features for all recorded time. I have light brown/dark blonde hair and I even highlight it to make it look lighter (It looks very good btw. lol). Colonialism had no bearing on my mind, nor do I have any jealousy towards people who have lighter hair than I. I just want to make myself look good.
I don't think there is anything wrong about wanting to change someone's appearance. The concern I would have in this situation is that these chemicals that bleach skin are very dangerous. One of my Dominican friends has an aunt that is blind due to overuse of skin bleaching agents.
'Light is in' is probably here to stay, as it has always been. Perhaps rather than try in vain to change people's attitudes towards this we should try to make attaining lighter features a safer process.
Highlights are one thing. Bleaching your skin is deliberately trying to look like you're of a different race. That was a product of colonialism. Africans were not trying to lighten their skin until colonialism came. It is a product of it. Black was not seen as "bad" until colonialism came.
The more people keep going on about the racism of the past the more it keeps it going. The Asians saw the white skin as pure, the dark skin as the poor workers outside under the hot sun all day. It had more to do with class than anything else. The people that still see the white man as only the evil one haven't moved on from the past at all.
Neuling, thats one of the sickest stories ever. Seems the only way to end that practice is to pay the same amount to all.
I read a National Geographic magazine from the 1970s. One article was about South Africa. It was obviously during the apartheid regime. There was a picture of a large billboard sign with an advertisement for AMBI skin lightening cream.
The more people keep going on about the racism of the past the more it keeps it going. The Asians saw the white skin as pure, the dark skin as the poor workers outside under the hot sun all day. It had more to do with class than anything else. The people that still see the white man as only the evil one haven't moved on from the past at all.
I never said anything about seeing the White man as only evil. I was talking specifically about Africa's situation. Asia had a different situation. In Sub-Saharan Africa, dark skin was not seen as a bad thing. For Asia, lighter skin being preferred was in the culture beforehand. For Africa, it came after colonialism arrived.
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Neuling, thats one of the sickest stories ever. Seems the only way to end that practice is to pay the same amount to all
That isn't all. There are some people(not the majority though) who believe that "having sex with a virgin" or "taking a shower" would cure AIDS.
The more people keep going on about the racism of the past the more it keeps it going. The Asians saw the white skin as pure, the dark skin as the poor workers outside under the hot sun all day. It had more to do with class than anything else. The people that still see the white man as only the evil one haven't moved on from the past at all.
Neuling, thats one of the sickest stories ever. Seems the only way to end that practice is to pay the same amount to all.
British colonialism had a huge impact on the way dark-skinned Asians were and are viewed and treated. Indians have taken skin bleaching to out of this world levels.
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