Why has skin color become so important, and why do we let it determine whether we like someone?
Blacks are quick to call an individual of another race (especially whites) racist if they are offended, but blacks can also have those same racist tendencies.
A light-skinned individual with curly hair and light colored eyes does not represent the image of blackness that many of us have.
This person’s parents could be dark skinned with kinky hair, but because the child is of a lighter complexion, he is not considered “truly” black.
I feel like blacks can be so blind and ignorant about their own race and that is sad.
Every day I am faced with this problem, and I am forced to defend my ethnicity. When I am introduced to a person, usually the second or third question I am asked is what is my ethnicity.
When I give my response, (I’m black, of course) the person tells me that I cannot be “all” black. Then I have to explain that my mother and father are both light-skinned, but that never seems to be enough. I also explain that my grandmother is Creole and Panamanian, and my grandfather is black.
Creoles are generally known as a people of mixed French, African, Spanish and Native American decent, most of who reside in or have family ties to the state of Louisiana.
Panamanians are of mixed decent, tracing their genealogies back to inter-marriage between the indigenous peoples of the region and the Spanish who conquered it.
Once I have given my family’s entire background, which really is not necessary, an individual can understand how I am black. It makes me furious when I have to explain to another black person exactly what makes me black.
Black people come in all colors, not just dark-skinned or brown-skinned, but light-skinned also. That is what makes the black race so diverse.
Think about it.
If you do not like yourself, then no one else will like you.
Therefore, if a black person cannot accept another black person, then why would someone else from another ethnicity want to accept them?
Brittney Terrell is a freshman broadcast journalism from Atlanta. She can be reached at brittneyterrell@bellsouth.net