Nadia,

Thank you so much for sharing this and for your transparency on the matter. You had your own ‘Maureen Peal’ experience and I’m sure this must have been a hard pill to swallow.

It took me a while to recognize my privilege as someone who is on the lighter side; something I didn’t notice too much as a child but became way more apparent as I got older and started learning more about these things. I would recall occasions where people (close friends, mind you) would single out a dark-skinned friend over what they were wearing: “You know you can’t wear bright colors like that!” Even though that friend laughed, she later told me how much those types of comments followed her all her life. And I remember talking to a college friend about having children. She, a dark-skinned woman, made it a point to date men lighter than her or of a different race because she didn’t want to have a dark-skinned child that she believed would experience the same pain and mockery she did.

The fact that this type of narrative is being presented both inside and outside of the Black community is atrocious. Even though we’re just now starting to see more brown/dark-skinned women being put in the front in the media, it’s only a very small start to the change we need.

Great read!