Team Lightskinned vs. Team Darkskinned

(Recycled from my Tumblr)

I don’t even know where to start with this one. The black community has been so brainwashed by the media and society in general, it’s sad. 

Those who believe that light-skinned people are more beautiful than, or better than dark-skinned people, are ignorant, lost, and simply pathetic. Do you not understand that by claiming “Team Light-skinned” or “Team Dark-skinned,” you are, in a way, pitting yourself against the other “team?” Let’s stop and think about it. We need to be creating unity, not competition. What blacks fail to realize is that, while we are a freed people, we are still prisoner to the misconceptions that whites tried to instill in us so long ago: that the lighter the skin, the better the person. Since when does less melanin determine the worth of an individual? While we’re out here going back and forth at each other over skin color, the people who once suppressed us are now laughing at us, because now, we’re doing their job for them. We are no longer getting held back; instead, we are now holding ourselves back.

I’m, to no extent, saying that white people are still racist or anything. I’m just saying, if you open your eyes and look at it that way, maybe you’ll understand how foolish we look. How, in a way, we’re doing to ourselves what we fought so hard to break free from.

We are all beautiful. No matter how light or how dark, each and every black individual has something to bring to the table. I just think we need to embrace and love ourselves and one another, rather than claim the mentality that one is better than the other. Blacks are already plagued by negative stereotypes and lingering misperceptions…we don’t need to hold ourselves back, too. Black is beautiful…and don’t you ever forget it.