Pigment as Superiority Complex: How Dark Skin Has Been Used as A Trend by Those Who Identify as Light Skin.
#Blackmenarenotatrend
#Blackskinisnotatrend
Black skin is not a trend and yet what I am noticing is this inordinate fetishization of dark skin as a way of boosting the fledgling confidence of fairer skin individuals. It’s like this: lighter skinned individuals who struggle with self-esteem issues will intentionally align themselves with deeper shades of blackness as a way to not only offset suspicions/accusations of bias but also elevate the perception of their whiteness. Even when they are black and of lighter complexion, they will continue to try to find the white in them despite their genetic composition.
Sadly we live in an anti-black system that operates under the biased misconception that darker skin is less attractive, less appealing and by extension, less desirable. As a result of this erroneous belief, you have lighter skinned individuals seeking to align themselves with darker skinned people as a way to elevate their image. On one hand they suffer from an unconscious bias yet are able to mask this bias behind a contrived image of dark skin acceptance. It’s a clever way to conceal bias while at the same boosting ones own confidence.
It’s a well-known fact that whiteness has appropriated most things black as way to control and subordinate black people while at the same time flaunting what they believe to be their superiority in a dreadful act of delusional supremacy. They can’t own our black so they try to OWN our black. From our hair, to our bodies, white people have always tried to copy and colonize black swag. We see this all the time with the white adjacent Kardashians who love to appropriate black culture for their own advancement. The ironic thing is, every other culture can be black except black people! When black people are black they get pushback, unduly challenged or worse, silenced by way of incarceration and/or death. This has become normalized as the American tradition. And now we as black people have to contend with the colonization of our pigment? How long will we continue to be worn as a costume and used as tools to support the white ego?
Even among black people there exists this hierarchy of color, tone and shade. This has been defined as colorism. Colorism has affected the way we move and operate with one another. Historically, the closer one is to whiteness, the more accepted they are into mainstream culture. When you look at the recent whitewashing of Beyoncé and the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama, you realize the insidious ways blackness has been diluted to maintain the white gaze. Now however, darker shades of black are being used as shields to hide the bigotry when really, the call is coming from inside the house! It’s similar to being cast as that one black friend in various movies and television shows. Usually the one black friend is an accomplice, a side kick, the magical Negro used as midwife to light skinned grief. Sadly Black skin has become the prototype for grief. I mean don’t we as black people know how to suffer good? Every other race has taken a page right out of our pain playbook. In their eyes we are the uncredited authors of the black people’s guide to skin tone grief. They want us as seeing eye dogs to make themselves look less insecure, less needy, less weak.
I have seen white women intentionally use black men as ornaments, purses, protective devices, penises and props to feed their superiority complexes. There is a twofold benefit to doing this. On one hand they will tote black men around to hide their fragile image while on the other repudiate any claims of their bias, when black men are just one wrong step away from racial annihilation. White women know their power. Writer Charles Blow has aptly called biased white women “instruments of terror”. They know this racist society denounces the very existence of blackness and many seek to use this to their advantage by aligning themselves with blackness. It is the sick belief that by comparison, they are still better off than black men due solely to their whiteness.
Tragically, some black people subscribe to this way of thinking too. It is a form of Racial Stockholm Syndrome where after years of being indoctrinated and told that whiteness is superior, they come to believe it as well. Even if they don’t necessarily believe the color white is superior, the color of privilege seems to get them every time and whiteness is associated with privilege, access and status. With a focus on black men, the perception of darker skinned black men is still biased as dark skinned black men are perceived as dangerous, less intelligent, sexually insatiable and limited. It is 2024 and the Mandingo-Buck trope still exists except now instead of overtly discussed and hurled as insult, it is lodged in the consciousness of biased Americans and as of date we can’t litigate/regulate consciousness.
Such internalized bias has also led to both a sick competition and unfortunate division within the black community based on dark skin bias and light skin privilege. While dark skin black men are used as puppets for white women’s amusement, light skin black men in the black community are rejected and seen as feminine, entitled, promiscuous, too sensitive and not to be trusted. Such biases have supported the covert agenda of whiteness which is to divide and conquer, in this case by way of melanin percentage and skin politics.
Personally, it’s time to stop commodifying blackness. It’s time to stop using it as a subterfuge for bias. It’s time to embrace every shade of hue-man. It’s time to really accept and love on the kaleidoscope of humanity without all the strategy and bigotry. It’s only then will we realize the reality of what this country could be instead of continuing to perpetuate the shadow of our blood-laden past.
