I have had a few people sincerely ask me, “why do you feature pictures of dark skin women on your Facebook page?” “Do you hate or are you jealous of light skin women?” “Why are you trying to divide us?,” when I questioned the white washing of our sheros. What? It is startling to me that those questions were even asked. First of all, I post pictures of women of every hue.  Secondly, I am not falling for the guilt trips or the gas lighting because I have nerve to see the beauty of ALL my sisters and my mothers. People are acting like this is wrong. Insane. No, you acknowledging just light skin beauty is wrong.

Not to be mean or anything but it seems as if some refuse to acknowledge or are just blind to the fact that light skin images are the primary images celebrated in Black media. So I say, why the heck not! Bullstuffing Entertainment Television, the Black and main stream media won’t do it. They ignore dark skin beauty because in their minds dark skin is not marketable. That is such a bunch of bull. How can anyone ignore the stunning Viola Davis, the fierce Fantasia, the super model queen Naomi Campbell, the intelligent, graceful and beautiful First Lady Michelle Obama and many others? Like other groups, we buy products and support people we relate to. As a result, companies are leaving billions of Black dollars on the table because of their own confirmation bias. So I believe it is up to people like us to control and make positive Black images which is the norm, the norm and marketable.

Quite honestly, it is our fault. We buy the garbage knowing that the messages promote a eurocentric image of Blackness. We know how this conditioning psychologically damages the perception we have about each other and ourselves. We know it even leads to a stereotype self-fulfilling prophecy. (We become what we think others, society, the media, etc. percives us to be.) To change that, it is time that Black people celebrate all Black beauty and not a eurocentric colonalized version of Blackness. We need to be real. We know why other groups do it. It reinforces their standards of beauty but for us to do it is stupid. It places us at a clear disadvantage by reinforcing the myth of Black inferiority. It makes us stay in “our place”, afraid to rock the boat and shackles us to centuries old false perceptions.

I have a much more selfish reason for doing this. I post these images for our dark skin sons and especially our dark skin daughters. I do it for the Black women who have given us all life. Images are powerful and shape perception so I want everyone, especially our daughters who rarely get the chance to lift the veil of white supremacy that permeates in the Black community to see and celebrate the beauty I see.

Folks, my posts are not about light skin hate. That thought has never crossed my mind. I love folks of every hue but for me it’s about promoting real true Black love. Not the relationship kind of love between human beings. True Black love is loving yourself, your skin, the shape your nose, your hair, our history, our ancestors, our daughters, our sons, our sisters, our brothers and loving everything about ourselves. So why do I post images of dark skin beauty? Because I have to.