Preface: I honestly was a bit hesitant on posting this because I don’t ever want to offend anyone and if I have offended anyone by any matter in this post then I am truly sorry.

In North America, a certain shade of darkness is considered beautiful – the “Kim Kardashian” type tan. & Let’s be real, many many people try to achieve this skin color whether it be through tanning or bleaching.

The darker you get from there, the less beautiful people seem to believe you are. I believe that many people think that lighter skinned = more beautiful, especially in Guyanese culture. So many people there bleach there skin to be lighter colored. I have had people say to me “oh if only you were a shade or two lighter.” And I’m not even the darkest there is out there (granted I’m not light skinned either).

It’s so ingrained in Guyanese people’s minds that lighter = beautiful; darker = ugly that they don’t even realize that they make that assimilation sometimes. I don’t believe that people always mean to insult when they say these things. They just don’t realize that they even make that assimilation.

Everyone in the world goes through their own struggle.

I do feel however, that darker skin is not recognized enough for being beautiful – especially not in my culture and in the North American beauty industry.

BUT WHY?

Why is fair skin regarded as more beautiful? Not to say that one color is more beautiful than the next, but there are so many beautiful tan, brown and black girls. What is wrong with color?

In American culture we can see this by just looking at TV shows and magazine covers. Most of the women I see featured or landing leading roles are fairer skinned women.

Only recently have we seen black women and Latina women getting more recognition for beauty and for their acting skill. However, majority of what we see is still mostly white. Even though there is now a trend to recognize black beauty, what about brown beauty? What happened to that?

Why is it that we see the opposite of the extremes: white or black. Why is it rare to see the shades in between? I would like to see more people of my skin color getting more magazine features and leading roles in television and movies. #brownisbeautiful too.

To make matters worse, few foundation brands are only NOW catering to all skin tones. Shopping for makeup used to be so hard because the shade was either too light or too orange. It’s as if golden brown didn’t exist.

Take Dior for example – a major company. They have a whole range of shades that cater to lighter skinned women, but their foundation range for brown/black skinned women is minimal. Why? More than 1 shade of brown exists and it’s a shame that such a huge and well – known brand does not cater to us.

I wish that not only my culture, but also America would stop having this attitude that fairer skinned meant more beautiful. Darker skin is beautiful too.

What are your thoughts on this subject? I would love to have a healthy discussion. Nothing mean/offensive in the comments section please.

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