Again...the topic is perspective, but this time it's in relationship to skin color. My entire life I've fought against being really white. When I was younger (and I still fight the urge as an adult) I used to purposefully try to be out in the sun without sunscreen. Now this did and still does mean trying to evade my mother and her endless warnings about the perils of skin cancer, which I'm fully aware of and find myself preaching to others. My motivation was of course to become tan, or have darker skin. While everyone was tanning prior to prom, I was being told there is no way I would ever be allowed to do that. (I'm now extremely thankful for that and regularly teach my students about the dangers of tanning beds.) The point of all this is, white Americans have a strong desire to be tan, or darker than they are naturally made to be.
I don't know why I never realized the obsession that black Africans have with being lighter. They do everything to stay out of the sun and avoid anything that might cause them to be darker. They also buy creams and lotions to bleach their skin in order to make it lighter. It cracked me up! My Nigerian friends were aghast that people in the US try to be darker! :)
I think we need to all simply embrace the color that God has made us instead of trying to modify His creation! :)
3 comments:
Very true! V.good entry!
WOW, that's so strange, I mean, I guess it makes sense, but that's really interesting....
Amen, Sister! I noted that in Mexico, too, the kids all tried to stay covered if in the sun, or not be in the sun. The darker you are in Mexico, the more native you are, and the lighter you are, the more European you are, so of course they want to be lighter. No matter how tan I got while there, though, I was still "the white girl", and that was OK!
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