Biri!

It is sad to say but this demeaning practice seems to have gained a firm foothold within within our very psyches.

I have always maintained that it takes a bleached mind to bleach one's skin. Just imagine the level of self-hatred that drives one to such a degrading practice; and it does not help when 'brothers' don't take a clear stand on the issue. Some even help in rubbing the poison on their partners!

Regards,

Kabir.


alaji ndure <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Kabir, thanks for this thought-provoking forward. I hope after reading it,
it will sink into us that it is not always true what others mean about you
but what you make of your self.

Biri.




>From: Amadu Kabir Njie
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Fwd: [Network Africa Sweden] Skin Bleaching
>Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 14:16:17 +0100
>
>Love the skin you’re in? Is it possible to be black and beautiful in
>today’s society?
>
>
>
>In this feature Black Britain continues the debate on skin bleaching within
>our communities looking in greater depth at the historical, cultural,
>social and psychological reasons why some people are just not happy with
>the skin they’re in.
>
>
>
>Where does the desire to be white stem from?
>
>
>
> Supermodel Alek Wek's dark skin and striking physical features are seen
>as assets that have contributed to the success her of career, proving that
>black can be regarded as beautiful in today's society.
>
> From a young age we are taught to worship all things white and beautiful,
>so therefore anything black isn’t beautiful or desirable
>
>
>
>Dr Lez Henry, sociologist
>
>
>
>The Health Hazards of Skin Bleaching
>
>Historical Legacies based on religion
>
>
>
>According to sociologist Dr Lez Henry, who appeared in Dami Akinnusi’s
>documentary: Bleach My Skin White, part of the desire to have a whiter skin
>stems from a desire to be nearer to God. He told Black Britain:
>
>
>
>“From a young age we are taught to worship all things white and beautiful,
>so therefore anything black isn’t beautiful or desirable.
>
>
>
>We are also taught that anyone in a position of real power is white, God is
>white, and Jesus is white.”
>
>
>
>He describes such ideologies as Eurocentric and ethnocentric, because it
>puts Caucasians, as an ethnic group at the centre of everything.
>
>
>
>“European standards and norms are the yardstick to measure everything, both
>good and bad.”
>
>
>
>Dr Henry referred to Hinduism, the religion based on a caste system whereby
>the darker your skin is the more cursed you are. He said:
>
>
>
>“According to the religion, you are not just cursed and damned in this
>life; you are cursed and damned for all eternity, for being black.”
>
>
>
>However, this belief system was given to Hinduism by the Aryans who were a
>tribe who moved into the Indus valley in India some time between 1750 to
>1200 BCE from areas surrounding Russia and the Baltic.
>
>
>
>They introduced the varna system which is believed to be how Hinduism came
>to be based on the caste system.
>
>
>
>The name Aryan means noble and therefore when the Aryans came to India they
>established a class structure whereby they placed themselves at the top of
>it and others below them.
>
>
>
>Therefore the belief among Asians that it is more desirable to be a lighter
>complexion is based on the belief that this conveys a superior status in
>society.
>
>
>
>“So this has a historical legacy [for Asian people] but for us [black
>people] it is slightly different”, said Dr Henry.
>
>
>
>“During slavery, as Africans we were socialised into accepting that
>everything white was virtuous, true, honest, master and mistress.”
>
>
>
>The images of Africans as negative were communicated to slaves through the
>Bible, using certain scriptures to tell them that they were savages.
>
>
>
>Dr Henry told Black Britain: “It wasn’t by chance that all of a sudden
>Europeans were telling us that Africans are savages.”
>
>
>
>This was written into European books and written into European
>vocabularies:
>
>
>
>“They designed that to place us on the bottom rung of the ladder and
>themselves on top.”
>
>
>
>The reason why these ideologies continue to pervade society is because
>“nothing has been put in place for white people do deal with their own
>racism and that system of white supremacy”, Dr Henry said.
>
>
>
>Dr Henry refers to these ideologies as “systems of power” which exist
>“without black people realising that they are being socialised and educated
>away from themselves.
>
>
>
>This is about socialising people to believe that they are inferior. Our
>society teaches you to hate and not to trust anything that looks like you
>if you are not white.”
>
>
>
>Social and psychological factors
>
>
>
> If you are someone with low self esteem who has experienced adversity in
>your life then you are more likely to look at external factors to explain
>your problems, such as the shade of your skin.
>
>
>
>
>
>Dr Dele Olajide is a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and
>Maudsley NHS Trust who also appeared in Bleach My Skin White.
>
>
>
>He told Black Britain that the majority of people who bleach their skin are
>women. However, it is not just black women from the UK but from south-east
>Asia, Japan, the Middle East, the African continent, the Caribbean, south
>and North America.
>
>
>
>In other words, what we have is a world wide phenomenon of people who are
>not happy with the skin they are in. Dr Olajide told Black Britain:
>
>
>
>“The people who bleach are people of colour who do so because the role
>model projected, the ideal women who are projected onto our TV screens are
>light-skinned women.”
>
>
>
>Among the Indian population, women say that they lighten their skin because
>if they are dark it doesn’t make them feel sexually attractive, it doesn’t
>increase their dowry and they are mistaken as being lower class.
>
>
>
>Women are kept at home when they are young to keep them from too much
>exposure to the sun so they don’t get too dark.
>
>
>
>This is well known among Asians although it is not openly discussed. Among
>Arab women plastic surgery is common as Middle-eastern women are
>restructuring their noses to look more European. Dr Olajide told Black
>Britain:
>
>
>
>“When you look at how we, as black people have been colonized and enslaved,
>over the years the value of the subjugated is to aspire towards the master
>group.”
>
>
>
>Therefore people of African descent are more likely to feel that white
>culture is superior to everything black, because that is what has been
>pumped into them since very early on in childhood.
>
>
>
>A major disadvantage to black culture has been the lack of written African
>history, according to Dr Olajide.
>
>
>
>Most African history is mainly oral and therefore most of the stories known
>about African history are recent and based on the media and what white
>people have written about black culture:
>
>
>
>“So basically history tells us that Africans are primitive and white people
>are civilized.”
>
>
>
>Dr Olajide told Black Britain that in his opinion as a psychiatrist, the
>people most likely to bleach are the more vulnerable members of our
>communities:
>
>
>
>“The more fragile your ego is, the more likely you are to have low
>self-esteem and the more likely you are to aspire to the attributes of the
>superior race.
>
>
>
>Those of us who are not strong emotionally tend to believe that. This is
>conditioned from a very early age.”
>
>
>
>In America an experiment was carried out whereby black children were asked
>to choose between pink toys and black toys at the age of five and 70 per
>cent of the children picked pink toys.
>
>
>
>Dr Olajide said: “Black children picked pink toys because that is what they
>believed is a better colour to be, not black.”
>
>
>
>He said unless a child has a strong family to nurture them and give them
>confidence in themselves as a black person, there is a risk of falling
>victim to external mediums that portray black people in a negative light.
>
>
>
>Commenting on the portrayal of black women in music videos Dr Olajide
>claims that darker skinned women are given the type of roles that flaunt
>their sexuality, perpetuating the stereotype that darker skinned women are
>sexual beasts. He asserts that the lighter skinned women are given more
>graceful roles.
>
>
>
>Dr Olajide stated that as people tend not to watch television programmes
>critically and analytically they fail to notice that generally the media
>tends to perpetuate the same stereotypes over the years:
>
>
>
>“Black men are aggressive, virile and always ready and they are only
>objects of desire because they are studs. They are not intelligent.”
>
>
>
>White men are portrayed as cerebral and intellectual but black men can be
>as wild as possible.
>
>
>
>With black women, the darker they are the more they are seen as wild. There
>is no question of dignity. We have bought into this even as black people
>ourselves.”
>
>
>
>
>---------------------------------
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