Dark Girls

I will never forget that day. 3rd grade in the lunch room there was a girl named Monique. Light skin, green eyes, brown hair, tall and slim. All the boys liked her. It was her first day here at Brooklyn New York P.S 194 elementary school, and they just could not get enough of her. Oh wait, but then there was me. The dark skin, short girl with "High-Water" jeans on. My Godmother always called this thing on my head "Nappy" so eventually I did too. Just last week, my pony-tail extension fell out right before the fire drill, and boy was I the laughing stock of the class.

My brother once told me "It was a sin to be dark skin, and I had to be punished for all of my future wrong doings early in life." Coming from the only light skin sibling out of seven kids I actually believed that. When Monique walked into class, his words began to play back in my head.

Many years later I had to asked myself, "What was the root of my self-hatred?" Did I created this feeling?" I am sure the women of the documentary "Dark Girls" once asked themselves this same question. I remember when I felt ugly and ashamed, literally three-fifths of a person. No one man should have all that power to make another person feel less than, that is not their place. Not understanding the beauty and promise behind my tone, made me seek ways to eliminate my existence.

"Dark Girls" is a universial situation whether people notice it or not. Having a fair-skinned aunt who once told me " She prayed that my cousins would come out dark" made me realize this. People will always have something to say about you, which is a distraction on what is really true. To see the tears in the lady eyes on Dark Girl made me think of my Aunt. Something is really a powerful thing if it could harbor hatre within one's self. It is amazing how media helps to shed light on everyday situations.