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.