more on the story of the dark girl and the sunscreen...
i figured i'd post again rather than respond to comments...
in response to people's comments, i thank you all for saying that i'm fine the way i am! i really like who i am and, in general, i also like how i look, aside from the usual flaws that everyone finds in themselves. and generally i don't give a shit what other people think of how i look because like ian said, anyone who's worthwhile doesn't care about garbage like skin colour, hair, whatever and it's better to stay away from them.
and it's not that i'm overly concerned with my skin colour, i honestly don't think about it all that often...really only when people point it out to me. i think it's just that for a very long time i've been hurt by ignorant things that people have said to me and this is my strange way of trying to prevent it from happening again. in my head i know it will happen again because the world is never going to be rid of fucking racists, at least not until no one is 'pure anything' anymore, and i have my doubts about that. but i tell myself, maybe if i do this, if i pile on the super-powered sunscreen, that at least it will be less likely to happen. i still remember being 13 or 14 riding my bike in the summer and having some little kid point at me and say, "look at the nigger". fuck, i hate even writing that word. but people need to know that shit like that causes damage that takes a long time to undo, even if it's said by a complete stranger.
posted by ago-go @ 7:06 p.m.
10 Comments:
that's nice that your nieces and nephew aren't concerned with skin colour...it's refreshing.
i remember a friend of the family was pregnant and her son, who was 5 at the time asked, "when the baby comes will he be black or white like us?". i thought that was so cute, as though he could have had an asian, black, or white sibling because what skin colour you are is just luck of the draw.
and i am making the cd...i made one version and i think it needs some revisions so i'll check out your song.
In one of my education classes, we were shown a film about how teachers deal with skin color issues. Students were given tempura paints with wonderful tasty names like cinnamon, olive, and cocoa, and they were told to mix the paints together to come up with the combination that matched their skin. They then painted portraits of themselves, and presented them to the class, telling the students what colors they were. It was so incredible seeing the students proudly exclaim, "I'm cinnamon toast!" or "I'm cocoa cream!" The teacher asked what the world would be like if everyone was the same color and flavor, and the kids all booed and said that would be horrible.
When a new student came to class, they asked him what color he was, and he said "I'm white." Another child turned and said "Nobody's WHITE!!!" Poor kid. They then had him test out the colors, and he ran around the room showing everyone excitedly, "I'm peach!! I'm peach!!!"
I'll never forget that, and I plan on doing this in my own classroom. So remember - nobody is white, nobody is black. We are all wonderful tasty different flavors.
go-go: im really glad you posted about this. excellent prespective. it is always such a shock to hear comments like that these days- fucking idiots.
brooke - that sounds like a really cool exercise.
Take two.. tried to post earlier, but some racist asshole came to the door and I had to beat the shit out of him for you Ago. (completely untrue by the way)
Yes, thanks for the clarification about the SPF. I didn't think this stuff would really get to you, but I thought I would ask.
The N word debate is an interesting one. You could dedicate an entire blog to this subject. Right after reading your post yesterday my Chinese friend called me and said "what's up nigga?" and I didn't bat an eye. I blame that darn hip hop music*. It's making kids violent just like those video games do. (*using sarcasm again so don't be hating me)
brooke, in the paint game i think i'd be 'iced latte' in the winter and 'golden sunset' in the summer...although i'd need the paint to really figure it out!
steph, it's just stuff that keeps coming up and the blog seems a good place to talk about it since most people in the real world have no idea how i deal with these kind of things.
egan, oh, the fucking n word. i think in the beginning when early rap music was trying to make a stamement about social injustice and racism they used it appropriately to try and reclaim a word that had opressed people. now i think it's out of control and just bullshit slang that people think is cool. to me "my nigga" will never mean "my friend" but in your case, you could never really be a "nigger" because you're white so it doesn't have that history of being a horrible degrading insult to you. i think it's different if you ever been called it 'for real'. that's just my take on it.
Ago, yep... you are right. I will never truly understand the negative connotation of that word as you correctly point out.
Well, I think I will start off by saying: I am really fucking white. Like a sheet really, and sometimes when I stand against a wall all you see is hair and eyeballs (that sounds kinda gross when I type it out like that- haha). And by the way - I am really tanned in the pics on my blog...seriously!
Anyways...my reason for posting was to say that i had similar yet completely opposite experiences. When I was young I went to a school where I was the only white girl, and now that I am older I am amused at the funny names that the girls called me, but still not so much at having the shit beaten out of me...
I love dark skin - I try to tan in the summer to get darker (obviously 'cause I was teased for having really white skin). Damn skin cancer though...I am scared I will get it but it doesnt balance well with my complex. Anyways - just wanted to share with you. I ran across your blog....somehow....
hey emma, welcome! the more i talk to people, the more i realize that everyone gets treated like shit because of their appearance for one reason or another. sometimes the teasing/ass whoopings just last longer...
come back and visit again sometime!
In all my years, the one thing I've learned is that I am still amazed by the stupidity of people. Its funny that in this day and age, we still have those who will judge people by our first impression (skin tone).
Now Brooke has me wondering what tasty color I would be ...
ago-go - your skin sounds much tastier than mine. I'm thinking in the summer I would be *boiled lobster* and in the winter I'd be *hardboiled egg white*
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