"It made me angry; it made me want to fight in my younger years. Having lighter skin wasn't a problem in my household, but it was when I went to school – which really confused me at first. For the first six years of school, I would go home traumatized. The harassment continued to my very last day of elementary school."
-- Rising pop superstar and Cover Girl spokeswoman Rihanna on her past discrimination. (In Style)
1. As a fellow West Indian, I think thats BS. If u listen to Rihanna's quote u would think she was the only lightskin in Barbados. Talk about she stood out. I am not saying she didn't get teased but so does light skin ppl. Bet let me tell u West Indians love the light Skin ppl, or ppl with NICE Complexions like they love to say or Brownings. So she needs to quit. In the West indies, there are light skin ppl in every little corner , every where. Those with blue eyes, green eyes and they are not mixed . Like wise u find dark skin ppl with green eyes , hazel and whateva colour eyes and they too aren't mixed. So Rihannas quote about her standing out and getting teased is misleading. And 1 more thing from my experience I haven't seen a light skin person get teased on the island. My grandmother is as light as Vanessa Williams, she has 9 kids. 5 are light as her , 4 are dark their dad, and the dark ones are called ugly. Even by my grandmother. Thats the reality of it. If u are light u are pretty. Sorry my post is long.
3. She may have been harassed in her particular school. Maybe the darker skinned kids assumed she had a superiority complex. This is part of the psychology as a result of living with racism. The oppressed may take on the values of their oppressors. Blame in all on slavery/colonialism Rhianna !!!
4. She is so right. I am light skin and have long hair. Dark skin kids especially females would want to fight me. After I kicked some butt it was a different story. The boys treated me nice. It was so clear that they the females were jealous. Especially when I was shy and didnt cause problems. Talk about playa hater. I learn that my own people were against me and now I dont give a damn. Rianna is pretty and sme people just cant handle that. Well to bad.
5. Wow! While I do not want to discredit Rihanna's plight because it's something that is real to a lot of our lighter skinned sistahs...I have to say WHY IN 2008 ARE WE STILL HAVING THIS CONVERSATION? We're all beautiful regardless of our complexions...besides y'all know ugly is ugly...I don't care what color you are!
6. You know it sad with Black people-we find so much stupid stuff to pick with each other on that frankly we have NO control over. We make fun of and traumatize each other early in life over the texture of our hair, straight, curly, nappy, coarse, fine, long, short, dreds, weave, permed, straighten. Eye color, and skin color. We all realize that here in the US, the Islands, and parts of South America were slavery was prevelant we have a lot of mixed genes and sometimes we don't know when the genes will show up. Then there are some of us that are straight up products of interracial parents. Have alot of light skinned kids together and they pick on the darker one. Bunch of dark skinned kids, pick on the light skinned one. We can't even talk proper English without someone coming out of a bag and picking on someone about it. I've wondered since I was little, what it really up with that. Do we hate ourselves?
9. As a light skin person of Carribean decent, I can tell you that her experience is hardly unique. In grade school, I was also contantly teasted for having "yellow or pissed colored" skin. As I got older, people contantly commented on my "good" completion and hair. They acted as though having light skin gave me special powers. Well folks heres the truth, being light skin does NOT make you prettier, smarter, wealthy or happy. It will also not make you any more "acceptable" to white society. Remeber a house slave is still just a slave.
10. I believe that you have some children that are just bullies and will find many things to tease you about. I'm a black female with a light complexion. I got teased a lot because I was skinny and looked quite nerdy back then! LOL....It was when I became an adult that some women with dark complexions sterotyped me as thinking I'm better than others. It wasn't that, I just was confident and carried myself well. No different than any other female who love to maintain herself. Grown and Sexy! I like nice clothes and nice hairstyles. It has nothing to do with race or whatever a person's complexion is. No one should be judged. Get to know a person before assumptions are made. This dates back to slavery when you had the slaves that worked in the so called master's house and other slaves that worked in the fields. The field workers had some type of resentment because of this. You had these plantation owners having these light skinned children with slaves and these were usually the ones working in the house. We are a beautiful race...we have so many shades of black and brown. So beautiful I can taste the dark chocolate...brown sugar...caramel and honey. Love yall!
11. I am Jamaican, born raised, and left at 11 for California. I know for a fact that Ms. r is telling the truth. I am a described as "Almond brown", dark brown with yellow unertones. My mom's side of the family has fairer complexions(and the superior attitude), but pronounced African nose features. Luckily fo rme, my dad's family has the darker brown, yet fine Ethiopan type features. Thinner lips fine noses and curly hair. My mom's mothe rhas told me that I "don't look like any of her other grand children." That was at 11. I never spoke to her again.
In Jamaica if you're darker than average you got teased. If you were lighter than average you got teased. Or called "chinna mon". realise that Ms. R is speaking from a 11 year old's perspective. It may not have been spiteful, but to a child it is not fun being called out, all the time!! We Caribbean women rock, mon!!
12. As a light skin person of Caribbean decent, I can tell you that her experience is hardly unique. In grade school, I was also constantly teased for having "yellow or pissed colored" skin. As I got older, people commented on my "good" completion and hair and wonderful it is to have light skin. They acted as though having light skin gave me special powers. Well folks, here’s the truth, being light skin does NOT make you prettier, smarter, wealthy or happy. It will also not make you any more "acceptable" to white society. Remember a house slave is still just a slave.
Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry: inappropriate or purely
promotional comments may be removed. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. To
create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can
put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or
<br> tags.
1. As a fellow West Indian, I think thats BS. If u listen to Rihanna's quote u would think she was the only lightskin in Barbados. Talk about she stood out. I am not saying she didn't get teased but so does light skin ppl. Bet let me tell u West Indians love the light Skin ppl, or ppl with NICE Complexions like they love to say or Brownings. So she needs to quit. In the West indies, there are light skin ppl in every little corner , every where. Those with blue eyes, green eyes and they are not mixed . Like wise u find dark skin ppl with green eyes , hazel and whateva colour eyes and they too aren't mixed. So Rihannas quote about her standing out and getting teased is misleading. And 1 more thing from my experience I haven't seen a light skin person get teased on the island. My grandmother is as light as Vanessa Williams, she has 9 kids. 5 are light as her , 4 are dark their dad, and the dark ones are called ugly. Even by my grandmother. Thats the reality of it. If u are light u are pretty. Sorry my post is long.
Choops at 12:02PM on Jul 18th 2008