To Be Dark and Enraged (A Rant)

"You're pretty for a dark skinned girl."

It was the third time he said something like that during the conversation and curse words were forming at my lips.

"You're too dark to have Indian blood."

When she said it I was tempted to pull out a book on genetics and smack her in the face with it and also to correct her on the usage of the word Indian. So obsolete and incorrect.

"That can't possibly be my grandchild; she's too dark."

That time I wasn't involved but I couldn't help but stare at this woman in disbelief. She was black and the child was black.  Hue had nothing to do with paternity.

At least this is what I think that most black people and white people should know by now.

As a brown skinned girl, I am on the darker side of the spectrum of African American skin tones. Unfortunately, I was always conscious of it growing up in a family where my maternal side displayed hues more consistent with Africa and my paternal side displaying both hues and features characteristic of European ancestry. While I have always accepted my skin color and was proud, I can't always say that I felt the most confident when people called attention to it.
I never did completely understand it. I mean hello, as people of African descent, didn't we all come from someone darker skinned at some point in our story? It cracks me up that the same people who identify as African-American or "Black" are also the same one's to denounce one of their brethren as too black, too dark, or unattractive due to darker hues and the fear that maybe, just maybe, the ancestor's may be resurrected in the skin color of their child.

On the reverse side, I am often accused of exclusively dating light skinned men because I want my children to be lighter.  That accusation is not even close to right. I cannot help it if my darker skinned brothers do not think I'm worth it because my skin isn't fair, my hair isn't long and straight, and that I do not look ethnically ambiguous.

We can call it self hatred, we can call it Euro-centrism, we can call it the effects of coming from a broken people. However, no matter what we call it, colorism is just plain WRONG.  Never mind the fact that you are disrespecting your own people, you are disrespecting and spitting upon the legacies of those who suffered and died for us to be here.

Judging someone based on the color of their skin, is not just disrespectful...it's just plain idiotic.