Light Skin Women Empowerment Research Paper

I partook in a conversation this morning with one of my favorite Facebook friends about the light skin vs. dark skin agenda. After slight back and forth about beauty and the struggle of dark skin women feeling beautiful in our society, my friend expressed to me how she witnessed light skin women attacking dark skin women on their looks. I proceeded to let her know as a light skin/bi-racial woman myself, I have never or would ever make such offensive comments about darker skinned women. We both agreed that this is one of the things that weaken the empowerment movement of “Black Girl Magic.” I’m well aware that at times the opinions of men seem to quickly take a toll on black women, especially when some of these negative statements are coming from our black men. However, many of them feel it’s okay to say because of the way black women have attacked each other. Granted I see so much unity amongst black women, but I also see us tearing each other down. We talk about each other’s hair, skin, sexual behaviors and parenting as if these things should not have an impact on our feelings. Men see us doing and saying these things and assume that it is fine for them to express the very same views.
Just yesterday on my favorite app, Twitter, a young lady tweeted out how Megan Good was a hoe that married a pastor and all it did was make her a married hoe.
I found this disturbing because as far as I know, she is not a hoe, however she is an attractive black woman and thus being disliked by some, she is called derogatory names. Keep in mind this same young lady listed Kim Kardashian as a “Style Icon,” the IRONY! One is being ripped for being an attractive married black woman and the other well, you know. These comments, tweets and statuses are all mechanisms that make outsiders sense that yes, they can speak on black women in a negative
context. The solution is so simple that it seems impossible. We need to unite. We need to tell each other we are beautiful. We need to express that our sexual decisions are our own and have no right to be judged or scrutinized. We have to voice to one another that we are great mothers, whether we are doing it alone or with a partner. We have to convey we are capable, we can achieve and we can change other’s outlook on us! It’s so important at this point that we show love to ourselves. Don’t depend on black men to give us our worth. Yes many treasure us, but there are some who rip us and we cannot let that destroy our self-made magic. The saying “Queens uplift Kings” is very true, but we need more “Queens uplifting Queens.” Stop fighting and belittling each other’s experience because at the end of the day we share in being African-American women. Same struggles and same ambitions to change the world.