The Plastics

My roommate and I were looking at some pictures online of celebrities when we happened to stumble upon some before and after pictures. These before and after pictures were the most terrifying pictures I had ever seen. I truly do not understand why women (and some men now) feel the need to go under the knife so that they can make themselves fit what society wants them to be. No one is perfect so why chase after something that does not exist? Some of the celebrities that were listed were some of the most beautiful people before they decided they were flawed. I think there's a lesson to be learned from all of this. I mean, when you really think about it, surgery can't really fix anything. It won't make you any prettier because as soon as you get some implants or straighten your nose, or get your face lifted you will still feel insecure on the inside. I know it sounds really cheesy but that's the truth. One thing a lot of people don't realize is that the surgery is all for nothing because we all get old and gravity takes over no matter what.

Chubby Chasers

Now-a-days, everyone is worried about the way they look. Unfortunately, many Americans suffer from obesity and as a result of that, their children are becoming obese too. This topic came up when I was reading the October 16-18, 2009 issue of USA TODAY on page 10A. The article was called, "To Stop Childhood Obesity, Look to Parents" by Mike Bartholomew, a pediatrician from Bismark, North Dakota. He was voicing his opinion on how parents should stop blaming the manufacturers for making fatty foods and start taking up some of the responsibility for their overweight children. I thought this article was interesting because it is so true. If you look at it, food is a choice. (Specifically what we choose to eat) What the parent eats, the child eats too and we already know about the greasy oversized portions that we Americans enjoy. It's to be expected that the number of overweight children is on the rise. This takes me back to the days before the Maury Show was nothing but pregnancy tests and who is the father of my baby. Back when Maury cared about the people who came on his show...but anyway, that's another story. He had a few babies on his show. The reason they were on there was because these babies were extremely overweight. I'm talking 90 lb year old babies who could barely walk. Now, in my opinion all the blame goes to the parents for making those toddlers that huge. I mean, they're too young to drive up to the McDonald's or to drive to the grocery store to pick up family sized chips, Halloween candy, and Oatmeal Cream Pies.

How Dark is Your Skin?

Racism within the Black Community, many people of other ethnic backgrounds are unaware of this epidemic. This unknown or rarely talked about epidemic is based on biases and differences in the "darkness" of one's complection. I personally think that we as African-Americans (Black Americans, what have you) have enough to worry about on a daily basis without worrying about that. I personally experience this kind of ignorance on a daily basis. I am a light-skinned African-American female who has a lot of caucasian friends who also plays the viola in the symphony orchestra; now because of that a lot of darker skinned females don't want to have anything to do with me because they think I'm a sell out. One of my ex-friends had told me that when she first met me, she automatically didn't like me because of my complection. A light skinned girl is thought of as stuck up, "bougie", or "too good". Dark skinned girls are thought of as ghetto, mean, and aggressive.

I suppose all of this comes as the after affects of slavery. For all of those who are unaware, the lighter skinned Africans were kept in the house to take care of the househould chores and the children and the darker skinned Africans were kept out in the field doing all of the hard, back-breaking work in the fields. The slave owner would often favor the lighter slaves over the darker ones simply because there was a possibility that they could have "white blood" in them. Over the years, it has been thought that lighter skinned girls are more wanted and that they are prettier and that darker skinned girls are the undesireable ones. The same goes for males. Darker males are seen more as the trouble maker. Which is totally wrong. Each person has their own identity and it's not fair for others to judge you on how dark or light your skin is, even within their own race.