Self hatred in a can/tube. An inferiority complex of complexion on a global scale has created a black market (ironic, huh?) for hazardous skin bleaching creams that it's delusional devotees (READ: victims) consider just good ole "fashion". This shit is wack, right? Of course. However, as troubling as this dramatic video is, it only highlights a small portion of the greater societal problems facing Black and Brown people as a whole with regard to our collective self image. This is the chemically altered pale face of internalized racism my friends. Don't look away.
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Cycling Trivialities
13 years ago
5 comments:
Fi look like a brownin'!
Yeah, this is a pretty fucked up look at the extent to which people will go to look like something other than who they truly are.
Issues with chronic skin bleaching do extend beyond the Black community. Bleaching creams are a major industry in Asia.
India, China, and especially Japan are huge markets for all things whitening. But these are all more examples of non-white people believing that it is worth damaging thier skin and thier health to look white.
Of course we know that White people tan until thier skin looks like Louis leather, use beauty products and surgery to plump their lips, and get implants in BOTH sets of cheeks, all to get facial and body structure more similar to that of an African. Doing these things are probably as damaging to your health as using skin bleach, maybe more.
So is the reason we treat Black and Brown people with such disgust for this practice because they're foolish enough to be honest about their desire to be White?
Ask a White person who tans daily and fills their lips with collagen if their goal is to look Black, and the answer would undoubtedly be "No." Sometimes I wonder why White people aren't shunned for their "beauty" practices? Where is the documentary on them?
While your side of this argument does make some valid points, it is worth noting that EVERY act which you have mentioned that is practiced by many White people have, over the years, developed common medical procedural and pharmaceutical counterparts that assist in the safer alteration of one's appearance.
For instance, White mothers are not picking up breast implants for their daughters @ a local flea market and then performing the actual augmentation @ home sans ANY medical supervision. If shorty wants implants, her mother will take her to Doctor 90210 ... lol.
Are any non-reconstructive surgeries - be the subject Black or White or whatever - potentially signs of a larger emotional or psychological problem? Yes, but that's another conversation altogether.
The troubling aspect here is that Black people, along with other races , sadly, are often all too willing to take matters into their own untrained hands in an effort to physically become something that they are not.
Now, admittedly, as a Black and Puerto Rican man, I do find such practices especially fucked up because these are my people. It's just another example of what we have to contend with as a race.
Maybe a professional medical doctor needs to develop and offer a safer option for those interested in obtaining such complexions. I would certainly still disagree with the reasoning, but I would not begrudge people their right to do their thing responsibly. Until then though, race has NO bearing on whether or not illegal steroid cream meant to treat other ailments should be used by anybody to lighten their skin until the point that they can no longer function in the sun. These people are "foolish" because of their actions, not because of their race or their honesty - to confuse the 2 is wrong @ best and intellectually dishonest @ worst.
Sure, White people regularly tan until they look like George Hamilton and it is well known that improper tanning can be incredibly dangerous. So, what's the difference? The difference is that there are safeguards (ie: tanning creams) in place to minimize the damage that people can inflict on themselves ... such products are readily available @ any drug store thereby placing the burden squarely on the user. Now, if the people don't use them because they want to achieve a more intense tan, then, that's on them. To quote William Curtis:
"Our greatest power is the power of choice; our greatest freedom lies in the exercise of our power of choice".
It is what it is.
I haven't confused anything. Maybe I was unclear in my use of the word "honesty", I meant their unabashed admission of the "whitening" they were doing. Tanning is not called darkening or blackening, maybe if the words were more innocuous people would find them less offensive. Maybe the bluntness of "bleaching" is a bit too real.
While I acknowledge that tanning and surgical procedures may SEEM to be safer and better regulated, you must acknowledge that much of that is only what "Big Business" says to lull the masses into comfort and consumption. ("Buy Jergens lotion or the sun will kill you!")
If I am to believe what doctors say, excessive tanning can lead to skin cancer and possibly death. It is well known that any surgery, especially under anesthesia always carries dangerous, and possibly fatal risks.
Bleaching your skin is unfortunate and can lead to disfigurement, but from what I know death is highly unlikely.
So which one is the danger?
You are also aware that many "beautifying" procedures, especially the injectables that plump up lips and asses, are in fact quite often done in someones home or hotel room, by people less than qualified. In my opinion, not a far cry from that local flea market you mentioned.
The burden is on the user in ALL of these instances. The burden is on us for using cell phones and microwaves, we will all go to destruction in our own way. But the dangers of using available products was not the point of my original comment, nor was whether skin lightening vs. darkening was more dangerous. And I certainly was not suggesting safer bleaching alternatives should be created.
The point of my comment was that since neither practice is "safe" as far as we know, why is excessive skin bleaching so much more frowned upon than excessive tanning?
You know better than most my disdain for Black people who are always ready to distance themselves from their race. Whether they are the ones who bleach their skin, or those who are quick to tell you their great great great whoever was 1/4 Cherokee (I got Injun in my family.) as if being Black is somehow not enough, or not OK.
I just don't believe that the "foolish actions" of some members of my race, are any more foolish than the similar actions of another race.
My original comment has no definitive answer or solution. I was merely sharing my curiosity as to why Black people (myself included) feel so strongly that skin bleaching is wrong, and a sign of self hatred, yet no one seems to see white people darkening their skin or plumping their lips as a sign of them hating themselves or trying to disassociate themselves from their race.
LOL. Call it what you want and ascribe any conspiritorial corporate diabolical racial viewpoint to the problem that you wish ... semantics aside, this is unhealthy for everybody involved.
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