Color Struck

I'm going to recommend Shani's post on skin-lightening ads again. Some of that stuff is amazing. That said, this is an interesting ad of recent vintage for a skin lightening product outside America. If we have any readers who can translate, I'd appreciate it. The sense that lighter is better is not a particularly American invention.

There's a part in my book where I talk about how my Mom (light-skin herself) almost decapitated me for saying I liked light-skin girls. I was 13, and I will always remember that. I was mad at her at first. But I thought about, and after thinking on what she said, I was really ashamed. So much so that I think it actually afflicted me with a life-long bias toward darker-skinned women.

I don't think that's anything to brag about. New York, and maturity, have humbled me, and revealed the stupidity of my myopia. But when I see something like this, I still shudder. It's like I never wanted anyone to accuse me of subscribing to those values again. It's clearly why I didn't date interracially. I just didn't want my mother thinking that I didn't believe she was beautiful.

As I've said before, that's not particularly helpful when your trying to do something as essential and mundane as hold together a relationship. Again, it comes down to leaving your pants on the floor. Still, the the old religion holds on to you. It's part of you. For all your cosmopolitanism, you can't ever really escape.