Choose a Side: The Ever-Present Battle of Light skins vs. Dark skins

Thanksgiving break for many is a time a joy and happiness. For some of us it is a time to reconnect with family and friends that we haven’t seen all year. Going back to Atlanta for Thanksgiving brought back a lot of emotions and memories.  Visiting my old high school with my friends brought back a lot of memories and social lessons that dominated my school’s atmosphere. One of the main social lesson that I gained from school was the effect of skin tone. For me, high school served as a daily reminder of the effects that colorism has on the black community. Not a day went by where it wasn’t “light skin this” and “dark skin that” and the ever-present debate, both verbal and non-verbal, of whether it was better to be light skin or dark skin. Saying things like “stop acting like such a light skin” or “stop acting so dark skin” filled the halls and side conversations of students. Being constantly reminded of your social position of being either light, dark, or in the middle. This debate occurred daily, and some memories serve me where this debate was physically facilitated by teachers inside the classrooms on several occasions. This battle of light skin vs. dark skin was so rooted in every aspect of my high school’s life, much like it is in many black communities, that you could always since the divide. Whether it was something such as during a class competition the teacher would ask “How do you guys want to be split up”. Instead of saying the usual “boys vs. girls” or “left side vs. right side” the most common response would be “light skin vs. dark skin”. Even though a lot of people were friends with a lot of people from different skin tones their still existed this underlining aggression and colorism.  This type of environment fostered many problems that many in the black community encounter daily. To be light skin is to not be black enough and to be dark skin is to be too black. This tension stems from generation and generations of white society’s perception of beauty. To be black is to be not beautiful and the closer to white that you were, the more beautiful you were. This dynamic had caused continuous resentment in the black community between Black people and lighter skin and darker skin. The lighter skin that you had the more accepting you would be into white society, so much that many could pass as white in order to escape the realities of living as a Black person in America. While one side viewed this as a kind of social advantage, while the other side viewed is a social disadvantage. This constant misunderstanding of views increases this type of tension because no one wants to talk about it. This a battle that many people refuse to acknowledge and talk about in a constructive way. Colorism in the black community is a real issue and wants people to realize that, we can start having these conversations.

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