By Jeremiah M.
Since I started going to public school, almost every day I hear some comment toward dark skins and light skins as two different type of people. The tension between light and dark skinned people has been going on for a long time. It originated in slavery when the master would purposely put the two against one another. The origins of this also traces back to Willie Lynch. Willie Lynch was a slave master that owned well over 300 slaves. ______ This is a quote from the letter he wrote to slave masters on how to control their slaves. Another quote from the same letter says “if used intensely for one year the slaves will remain perpetually distrustful” and from what I can see, he succeeded in his goal. My whole life as an African American male, I have had this prejudice not knowing where it was from, or how it started. Now at 16, I’m finally understanding my own thoughts. So I’m getting dressed in the locker room and behind me all I hear is “team light skin” and receive a hard slap to the back of my neck. The only thing I dislike more than people being ignorant towards a race is a race being ignorant towards each other. Sometimes I can’t help but laugh, I regularly hear the comment “selfies like a light skin”. “Light skins think they perfect.” “Makes sense, you are a dark skin.” These are the things I hear on a daily basis. The verbal argument continues on throughout the whole day. Does the diffrence of skin color really matter that much and how does this affect us as people?.
1.So first of all have you yourself experienced this light skin dark skin argument? And if so in what way?
2. What are some example of things you hear on the daily around this topic? And how do you feel about this?
3. Why do you think people still continue with this hype?
4. Do you see this happening in other cultures, if so how?
5. What are ways that you think we could stop this from continuing?