As recent as the 1960′s, dark skin Jamaican women were not the faces you would normally see serving in the banks, at the airline counters, at the hotel counters or at any of the higher positions in larger companies. It was well accepted that the place for the darker skin Jamaican women was certainly not in the better or more prestigious jobs. This took a major toll on the self-esteem of Young black Jamaican women, who accepted the position of living as a second class citizen. Darker skin women during the 1960′s did not bother much with higher education for various reasons, such as affordability, self-worth, having babies, not enough schools for higher education and not much in the future regarding better jobs.

The early 1970′s saw a new beginning and a turn in the direction regarding skin colour. A young politician by the name of Micheal Manley (very light complexion man) became the Prime minister of Jamaica and spoke out strongly regarding prejudice against the darker skin Jamaicans. He constantly preached about equality among all skin colour. Mr. Manley himself fell in love with and married Beverley Manley, a dark skin Jamaican woman, who sported an afro. Micheal Manley was loved by Jamaicans and was able to get his message across to many. Self-esteem among darker Jamaicans on a whole was on a high. Slogans like-PROUD TO BE BLACK and BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL were extremely popular. Songs included words like EMANCIPATE YOURSELVES FROM MENTAL SLAVERY, NONE BUT OURSELVES CAN FREE OUR MINDS ( Bob Marley ) and YOUNG GIFTED AND BLACK (made popular by Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths were soaring on the charts in the 1970′s. Darker skin women were getting a boost of self-esteem. They were “proud to be black” and sported their neat afro, dressed confidently in their pedal pushers, mini skirts and hot pants. The faces that greeted customers at the service desks, banks and persons who represented companies as senior staff and managers were now including a number of Dark skin Jamaicans. As people became more aware of their self-worth, education became a priority.

SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE IN JAMAICA

You have to have one or all of the following to be socially accepted. Money, Education, Lighter complexion. Although Jamaica had never lost the whole stigma of the fair skin Jamaicans being the superior, the darker skin Jamaicans had become very aware that if they educate themselves, they could achieve greatness and become whatever they want to be. Black Jamaicans are now Bank Managers, Hotel Managers and owners, Doctors, Teachers, business owners and Might I say Prime minister!! Education has played quite an important roll in the lives of black Jamaicans who started achieving more, becoming bosses and professionals.

BLEACHING:

What could have brought on the recent craze for lighter skin among dark skin Jamaicans especially women!! This activity is identified mostly among the poorer class and the less educated. Could this be that the quest to be socially accepted has left them with no other choice? The poorer class obviously has no money, without money it is hard to get a higher education!! So the lighter skin might be the easiest of the three!! This certainly is no excuse for bleaching of the skin, as this is an extremely dangerous practice, which can negatively affect ones health.

HAVE BLACK MEN BETRAYED DARK SKIN WOMEN?

The darker skin women are losing the battle against the lighter skin women in the quest for love. Jamaican men seem to much favour the “brownings” (women with lighter complexion) and women of different race with lighter complexion. It is very obvious to see the pride and adoration in the faces of some black men when they walk down the street hand in hand with a light complexion woman!! One explanation given to me by a black man was “Black women do not groom themselves as well and things like going to the gym and spa are not very common among them”. A very famous DJ unleashed a monster among Jamaicans when he released the popular song-”mi love mi car mi love mi bike mi love mi money an ting, but most of all mi love mi browning “. That popular song (although very catchy and I must admit, I danced to the beat a few times) took us back several years, as many Jamaican men felt and still feel the need to follow suite.

A LOOK AHEAD

The future looks very promising for the Dark skin Jamaican women, who have gotten far ahead in life, becoming Lawyers, doctors, Bank managers, Hotel managers even Prime minister, achieving Bachelors, Masters and PhD degrees. The future looks very bright, however loyalty from Jamaican Black men would be good. Most Black women are confident enough not to be needy, but to move forward to where they are appreciated and needed.

by Ayvaunn Penn, Your Black World

“I can remember being in the bathtub asking my mom to put bleach in the water so that my skin would be lighter and so that I could escape the feelings I had about not being as beautiful, as acceptable, as lovable.” This is a portion of a testimony from one of the women featured in the soon-to-come documentary Dark Girls. It is the saddest thing to know that African Americans can be their own worst enemy. This documentary by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry allows the voice of the dark-skinned African-American woman to be heard.

In the mean time, what’s up black America? Why are we persecuting our own women for something they were born with? Whereas I am beyond happy that this documentary is coming out to raise awareness of the injustices dark-skinned black women suffer, I am also ashamed that this film even had to be created. Of all races in this nation, after all we have been through as a people, after celebrating the current progress we have made together, we should NEVER discriminate against each other because of skin color.  To the black folks discriminating against their own, you just remember that no matter how light you are in this white America, you will always be black.

Ayvaunn Penn is a spoken word artist and an award winning writer degreed in English and philosophy. For more of her witty-word works click here. To have your original poetry featured by Ms. Penn on Your Black Poets, email submissions to ayvaunnpennspokenword at gmail dot com.

Black women aren’t pretty! Well, maybe the light skinned ones are but MOST DEFINITELY NOT the dark skin ones! This isn’t a new topic. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard this from the mouths of men of all different races but it doesn’t just come from men it also comes from women, BLACK women as well. Big shock? Nope, we hate on ourselves the worst. Given the recent controversy surrounding the Psychology today article written by Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics asking “Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women? Why black women, but not black men ?”  I hope that the ‘shadeism‘ that exists within our own community is discussed and that we don’t just admonish Kanazawa but we admonish all those who attempt to degrade and denigrate black women especially our dark skinned black women.

Check out a post I wrote a few years back about this same issue when Iman, a sista, declared Michelle Obama to be ‘not a great beauty ‘.

And if you want some candid and beautiful shots of black women check my blog every Wedneday for my pick for the Wednesday Beauty of the week.