You are pretty… for a dark skin girl
Lord knows how many times I have heard someone say that to me or to others. What is it up with that half ass compliment? Literally you just gave me a compliment and then took it back within 5 seconds. I cannot stand when someone says that. I’m pretty sure there is no harm when most people say, but when you really think about it, a lot of hurt comes from those few words.
To me, a dark skin girl, you are basically telling me that the average dark skin girl is not pretty enough for you or anyone in society. There has been a genuine hatred towards the dark skin community since the beginning of time. From the paper bag test to now, where dark skin girls are considered “Ugly and Monkeys” by some people, even those in the black community.
The way society treats dark skin girls is just as sad. The colorism that we face on a daily basis shows how little we have grown. The average light skin black girl is looked at as beautiful and is held to a higher standard than the average dark skin girl. Now don’t get me wrong, all black have to face a different type of discrimination than most other races in the world, but let’s be honest, the phrase “team light skin vs. team dark skin” is real.
It’s gotten to a point where there are little girls with beautiful chocolate skin believing that if they are not light enough, they are not pretty enough, and they will go out of their way to make sure their skin is a certain tone. From bleaching their skin to purchasing skin lightening creams or even surgeries to make themselves feel better about the skin they are in.
What’s crazier is that when you see a man embrace a dark skin woman now-a-days, it seems like most people are shocked. They hit you with the look of awe and headlines like (insert rapper here) uses dark skin women is music video” or “Dark skin is in” Uh what kind of bull is that? Dark skin is in? When was it out? You can’t possibly tell me that when a dark skin woman is looked at as the standard of beauty, it’s like no one has ever seen anything like this before, but then again, when is the last time you have seen anything like this before.
And then you have some people who tan to a point where they try to portray being dark skin. Sorry kid, no matter how hard to try to darken your skin to look like me, you never be me. That’s dead.
So the next time a person says “you are pretty… for a dark skin girl”, walk away. Sure they probably didn’t mean it in that way, but you can’t let someone put you in that category of beauty.