LIVING AS A LIGHT SKINNED WOMAN IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
Living as a light skinned black woman in the black community in Canada…..this is my story——-it may not be yours but this is my truth.
As a woman of colour I have been discriminated against by my own. I’m not here to provide you with the gory details, but the high level thoughts that have risen from it.
We are living in a time such as no other. Hard truths have to be acknowledged.
We are looking to execute change in this world. In order to do so, must band together, like many if not all of the other races.
I don’t know where the division began nor does it matter at this point. But what does matter is that we are all together as a community. The divisiveness that we have experienced between us is not going to work as we move forward. So how do we execute change? I would suggest you look at yourself and ask “Am I part of the problem or am I part of the solution?” Because this is that moment in our lifetime where we need to figure out how we can be a part of the solution and band together to move this needle way forward, it is mandatory!!
My story is very simple in 1996 I moved back to my Island that I love dearly, I opened its’ first nail salon and it was a resounding success. I enjoyed 2 years of “island bliss” while enjoying mixing amongst everyone. As time moved on, it became abundantly clear that I was being loathed. Loathed by people who I considered “my community” and loathed by people who were white.
One of the most interesting “aha moments” revolved around times I would be engaged in casual conversation and attempting to describe someone, my statement would be something to the effect of “you know so and so, short hair, about 5’6 always wearing red, and when asked the person’s colour I would say “oh she was black”. When the back and forth finally ended and my counterpart, realizing who the individual was, would correct me saying “oh no they’re not black” and then they would name off a different hues such as high yellow or red or light skinned or brown skinned…etc. To me, that speaks volumes. What that says is that we are not one—- we are all different.
So here’s my challenge to you —the reader.
How do we come together as one, unite and create change? How do we resolve that whether we are light skin, dark skin or somewhere in between, we are all in this together? How do we unite our community and set this aside? How do we mend this divide?