You know, it behooves me to witness the fact that Intraracial discrimination/racism still occurs within our society today. I am appalled at the level of ignorance that flows freely within the black community. One thing that I really do not understand is - Why are we even focusing on the color of our skin? Why does the pigmentation of our skin even matter at this point, after advancing so far from the bondage of slavery?
A couple of key points were brought up in this video, and I do want to touch briefly upon them.
1) Intraracial racism during slavery-
What slave owners used to do was insinuate negative thoughts within the minds of each slave as a means of control. If they could simply turn each group against the other, they could control each group to see the other as the enemy and keep them in a "check"- of sorts. The discrepancy between the two shades of color actually had deeper significance. We all know that the slaves with lighter skin complexions were actually offsprings of white slave owners who would have sexual relations with the slaves. This would impose a preference of sorts amongst the "light skinned" community, though they were not readily accepted and acknowledged as kin. This mentality was so far engrained into the minds of the slaves, and by default, were passed down to successive generations. Talk about generational curses.
2) Preference? Or product of the rewiring of the subconscious?
I've witnessed countless claims of preference for either skin complexion. But one reoccurring claim that I see all over social networks is this hashtag "Team Dark Skin" or "Team Light Skin" business. This just goes to show how profound of an impact the efforts to rewire the minds of the black community were, and these claims simply serve the purpose of resurfacing what was already ingrained in the mind. When will we ever steer away from this despicable path of unconscious domination that we've worked so hard to fight against for the past how many years now? I think this is probably the primary reason why the concept of "unity" is so difficult to grasp in our black community.
I do also understand the claim of "preference". Or maybe I don't. I find that I like what I like, and the substance of attraction thereof lies not in the complexion of a man, but in the substance of his spiritual connectedness with Yahweh, and of course, mental and physical stability. Along with a variety of other things, of course. I say this to say, that we should not limit ourselves to a specific ethnicity, or confine ourselves within a miniscule box of color preference, but we should tread upon the road to romance with an expanded mind. Why? Because the man/woman that may be perfect for you may be passed over, and your chance of happiness could be greatly reduced simply because you put on the spectacle of color filtration. And we wonder why so many people are out here "thirsting" on these streets. Could potentially be because they are sprinting in the direction of exactly what is not for them.
Think of it this way. At the beginning of the night, no one wants to go to a buffet that only has one option.
-Alda
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