Still sun-kissed

I am often teased for the color of my skin; I'm brown and not white. My grandmother, who became addicted to skin whitening products, never failed to prod me to take whatever she thought was effective to shed off my brown color. I'd just take the product out of respect and toss it into the trash because I never wanted to become white. She'd tell me I'd look prettier in a different shade or maybe even get a better job like being a flight stewardess or something. I didn't care, that wasn't my dream anyway.

Fast forward to today and I still get the same insults. It is worse for my colleagues who are a shade darker than me. They find the smallest quarrels at the most indecent remarks which I find totally out of place. Recently, a whitening soap brand pulled the trigger at every morena, tagging the color as being a disability. They underlined the fact at how unfair it is to be brown. Excuse me, I never felt like it was unfair.

In fact, I feel like it is a God-given blessing to me because brown skin is rare and rather the epitome of beauty for some. Note how most of the winners of Miss Universe are leaning to be brown-skinned. What is wrong with skin color anyway? It doesn't make you less of a person for being brown or black. It doesn't say anything about you or what you do. That's why I love to be sun-kissed all my life. I love how the sun accentuates my brown tones which could never be found in any fair-skinned individual. It looks beautiful how contour seems natural and light bounces off the colors of my face.

The logic is simple. Why can't we love ourselves? The sick society that has taught us that white is more powerful has once again taken its toll. When will we ever realize the essence of equality? We are all human beings to start with. It is pointless to judge an individual based on how he or she looks. The time of the apartheid is long gone. We live in a time where we have supposedly come to an understanding that we are one and the same regardless of color, race, and religion.

It's sad that we keep on putting ourselves down, pretending to be someone we aren’t. We think it is better to look like the whites even if we are too far from how they look. Being brown doesn't diminish one's value in the society and the home. I have to admit using sunscreen but that's not to make me white, it's to protect my skin from further damage.

Speaking of damage, the company has done a big amount of damage not just to the morena girls but to the rest of women as well. I don't know how they can redeem themselves. Here's a better suggestion, why don't we just leave our comments regarding our skin at home. It doesn't belong elsewhere. It's more insulting than I could ever describe. Like all negatives things, it has to stop.