When I started writing this blog four years ago, my first post was about a short story in the New Yorker by Toni Morrison called "Sweetness," which was actually the first chapter of a since-published novel called "God Help the Child." Over the years, it has become one of my most-read posts and you can find it here.
In a nutshell, the story was about a light-skinned African-American woman who experiences a profound sense of prejudice against her much darker infant daughter.
I mention this because there was a report the other day that the African nation of Rwanda is moving to ban sin-bleaching agents, such as mercury, deemed to be harmful. Skin-bleaching is a billion dollar industry in predominantly black countries, the article noted.
Why is that?
"In Rwanda and other countries, people use cosmetics to bleach their skin
because they feel that lighter skin is the ideal or indicates higher
social status. Dark-skinned people do not necessarily see people like
them in billboards, movies and advertisements, and dark-skinned
celebrities sometimes grow more popular after bleaching their skin. This
all makes it easier to believe that darker skin is of lesser value or
is not considered as beautiful," the article said.
Those interested can read the New York Times story from which that quote is taken or watch a video on the topic that appeared in the Washington Post.
No comments:
Post a Comment