Yesterday, Same Family, Different Colors author, Lori L. Tharps appeared on the second hour of Radio Times to discuss colorism, family life and skin color politics around the world. If you missed it, you can still download the one-hour episode from the WHYY site. Enjoy!
This past Sunday, The New York Times ran a huge story about skin bleaching in Ghana. In fact, it was the cover story in the Sunday Styles section of the paper. The story explored the prevalence of skin bleaching, the government’s wise decision to ban certain skin bleaching products, and the almost impossible task of enforcing such a ban. What’s more, the story illuminated the great hypocrisy in a country that bans skin bleaching products, yet flaunts examples of light skin beauties on billboards, on TV, in magazines and many other public places and spaces. Sadly, the story doesn’t offer any solutions to such a massive problem, but it is heartening to see the problem addressed in a mainstream publication based in the United States. In a lot of ways, this is progress. Not enough, but a start.
“Is that your baby?” “Are you the nanny?” “Where did you adopt your child from?”
All of these are familiar yet painful questions asked when one is part of a family of many colors. Somehow a variation in skin tone amongst the members of a nuclear family is enough to make strangers very confused. Popular opinion seems to suggest that if folks don’t match, they can’t be a family. Sad but true. And event though people have been building families in a myriad ways since the founding of this nation, it still seems to shock people that a dark-skinned woman might give birth to a light-skinned child.
Over on the lovely website, Raising Mothers, writer Auguste Budhram penned an essay expressing her frustration over this constant questioning of the relationship between herself, a Canadian by way of Trinidad, and her light-skinned daughter. Budhram writes, ” Here’s what’s wrong: In the 21st century, as the global population continues to blend, complete strangers are comfortable asking me about my relationship to my child.” Read the complete essay on Raising Mother.com.
Is there ever going to be a time when families don’t have to match?
Skin bleaching, skin lightening, skin whitening – a few names that more-or-less refer to the same practice. These names have different connotations (Many companies market skin-brightening products but would stray from using the term “bleaching.”), but essentially they all involve using chemicals to reduce the amount of melanin in the skin, leaving a lighter complexion.
According to VMV Hypoallergenics newsletter:
“Lightening is a process that returns your skin to its original, lighter pre-sun-and-light-exposed shade — which, because it is the shade of your skin before harmful exposure, is arguably also a healthier state…Because skin “whitening” treatments sometimes aim for a drastic change in skin tone, they can involve harsh bleaches that try to strip the skin of its pigment…When treatments aim to brighten skin, the objective is usually to impart a vibrant, natural radiance to skin that can be lost as older, dead skin cells adhere to the surface of the skin.”
Skin lightening/bleaching/whitening is extremely popular in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. In these countries, products use dangerous, sometimes-cancerous ingredients that are banned elsewhere, such as hydroquinone. However, the practice exists all over the world, including in the US – it is just a bit more discreet. We have all seen products at the drug store that advertise younger, cleaner, brighter skin. Has that last word ever made you look twice?
It seems that mass media has been focusing on skin bleaching more lately than in the past. Celebrities who are open about their decision to use these products receive mostly negative attention. Some recent examples include Lil Kim, Azealia Banks, and even Sammy Sosa. Azealia Banks took to Facebook to defend the practice, saying it’s just the same as getting a nose job or another type of plastic surgery. Is it, though? Or is skin bleaching a hazardous result of the way society treats skin color?
—written by Taylor Scott Spicer