There is no shame in being Black

Black is beautiful!

This is a powerful message to embrace the colour of your skin, the colour that you have been blessed with – white or black, light or dark. This seems a very obvious statement, but the seriousness of this issue, was made clear to me when I recently came across a news item on Channel 4 News.

In the programme, Cameroonian pop star, Dencia, was defending an innocuous seeming skin product. The product she was selling was promoted as a 7 days black spot removal cream, however its slogan reads “Say goodbye to pigmentation and spots forever” and judging by the very light colour of her skin, several shades lighter than in the past, the cream has the effect of skin bleaching.

The product called ‘Whitenicious’, by its very name eludes to the virtuousness of being white. The singer, confirms this, by stating that "white is pure", which immediately raises the question - is black not? What is wrong with being black?

Phinna Ikeji, founder of Black Role Models UK, expressed how dangerous the practice of skin bleaching is, not only for the skin, but especially for those young black and Asian women, who may be enamoured by the beautiful images of some celebrities and decide to emulate them.

She said:

For young girls… they see you, they love your music, they love you as a person. They’ve seen that you were darker before and now you are much lighter. What’s the message going to be to them? “

This belief was echoed by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o at the Essence Magazine’s Black Women in Hollywood night. The 12 Years a Slave actress delivered a heartfelt speech in which she shared her feelings about the difficult period of adolescence where she was anything but happy about her "dark as night" skin colour. Her mother would tell her that she was beautiful, but that wouldn't move her heart.

She said:

I tried to negotiate with God: I told him I would stop stealing sugar cubes at night if he gave me what I wanted; I would listen to my mother's every word and never lose my school sweater again if he just made me a little lighter. But I guess God was unimpressed with my bargaining chips because He never listened. “

Thankfully, the idea of using a bleaching cream did not pass through her mind for a second. However, Nyong'o reflected on some advice she gave to a young girl who wrote her a letter on how she was about to use a bleaching cream before she had seen positive role models like Nyong'o on the screen. Nyong'o said:

I hope that my presence on your screens and in the magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty, but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty.”

We should learn from Nyong'o story and embrace ourselves; black in its different shades is beautiful.

Cinzia C Ezeanyim