Living in a world where white supremacy has been historically intertwined into our culture, it’s important to love yourself and support those around you. For many, this has been a difficult task due to the beauty standards that society has decided upon — standards that have heavily favored light-skinned people. When I was 12 years old, my mother moved away with her new husband and half-siblings, leaving me and my brother behind. In other settings, we found ourselves at a disadvantage due to the features that had marked us as outsiders — light-skinned complexion, and long hair. However, these features eventually became our strongest social currency. This experience made it clear how white supremacy works by dividing people into hierarchies of beauty based on physical appearance.
In order to not let toxic beauty standards define us or weaken our self-esteem, it’s essential to combat this issue by contouring one’s attitude towards self-worth. Whether you’re dark-skinned or light-skinned, there are ways to uplift yourself and those around you. Rather than being an “entourage” for light-skinned friends, work instead to be their “highlighter”; do whatever feels best for you when it comes to makeup — whether that means wearing it or not; take time out of your day to listen and learn from experiences of those with less privilege than yourself; and lastly allow dark-skinned women the space they need without exclusion from other women who may not look like them.
It takes courage for people of all races to stand up against white supremacy but we can also work on loving ourselves unconditionally by embracing our differences rather than conforming to societal expectations. From my own experience growing up with both dark and light-skinned family members, I know how much strength there is in diversity and acceptance of oneself regardless of what the media labels as “beautiful” or “not beautiful”. As such, it’s important for us all — regardless of race — to dismantle oppressive systems while building up each other’s self-confidence through positive words rather than negative ones based on colorism within our own communities. Remembering that no matter what society tells us about beauty standards we will always remain beautiful just as we are!
