And the self-loathing continues.
It continues in the lyrics of rappers like Lil’ Wayne, who in one of his songs rhymes “beautiful black woman, I bet that b*tch look better red.”
Worse, a dark-skinned fan claimed on Bossip that when she asked him about using that lyric when his daughter is brown-skinned, he said that his daughter was a dark-skinned millionaire, and that made all the difference.
So what Lil’ Wayne is saying is that being rich will enable his daughter to survive the defect of being dark.
What a horrible lesson to teach a child.
You also have magazines that can’t manage to feature Beyonce, or Rihanna, or Halle Berry on the cover without making them look several shades lighter.
And you see it in the black youths and children who are exposed more to rappers and celebrity culture than they are to black history.
I’ve encountered black children calling each other black as an insult – something that should have stopped ages ago – which means between the insults, the magazine covers and the Lil’ Waynes – a lot of dark-skinned children may grow up hating themselves.
So maybe a good part of black history ought to deal with black pride. Maybe we should revive that James Brown song so that skin bleaching doesn’t pick up speed as a trend, and that dark-skinned black people don’t lose sight of the fact that their color is something to be celebrated, not shunned.
It’s sad that the bleaching celebrities probably won’t learn from this as well – especially since they have the power to use their fame and money to revel in their blackness instead of trying to escape it.
And wind up encouraging other black people to do the same.
Tonyaa Weathersbee is an award-winning columnist based in Jacksonville, Fla. Follow her @tonyaajw. Or like her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tonyaajweathersbee.
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It is sad when people like Lil Wayne who has so much influence on our young black children uses it to lead them to destruction. Not only him but any rap artist who spew the kind of lyrics of hatred, killing, glorifying thug life and the disrespect of black women is such a disgrace. It took Jay-Z to have a baby girl to stop using the word bitch but he had a mother and a wife before her. It was okay to call them one? The Willie Lynch letter how to make a slave for life is so true of us as a people and we continue to be slaves. Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups don’t have to worry about us. We are too busy killing each other.
Austin. if you, thought Rose`s report is great… I just got a top of the range BMW M3 when I got my cheque for $8541 this-past/5 weeks and a little over $10 thousand last-month. without a doubt it is the most-rewarding I have ever done. I started this four months/ago and right away began to bring in over $73, per/hr. , — Buzz80.ℂOℳ
Here is my problem with this type of topic. There are many ways to have “self hating” in being black. We get so upet with people like Lil KIm who are accused of bleaching and trying to be white when we have blacks KILLING blacks by the minute more than any other racial group over stupid things. We have blacks who do NOT want to marry blacks even though they are not changing their skin tone but those blacks do not want to marry blacks. We have blacks who do not want to do business with blacks because they believe blacks do not do a good job; on other hand, we have blacks who are great in business YET some blacks want to come in those black businesses and get a hand out YET they will go to white business and pay the same price with no questions ask. We weave our hair with NON BLACK hair and wear their hair STRAIGHT and get our nails done by NON blacks. We, as a black race as a whole, look down on AFRICA and what AFRICANS look like and call “tight curl hair “nappy”-which slave masters named it “nappy”. So, if blacks want to be taken serious about “self hate” , blacks need to have self pride in EVERYTHING and NOT just cherry pick what determines who suffers from self hate base on skin tone. Otherwise, many blacks sound like hypocrites. Do not hate on someone who lighten thier skin yet be ok with wearing straight hair which is NOT a black feature either (I do not care if one thing is permanent or not. blacks are still doing something that is viewed as NON BLACK). I bet you Latoya Jackson have more self pride for being black than Wesley Snipes.
When they get money, they get stupid! These are the people, our very own race, I wouldn’t dare spend a dime on these fools music or performance!
I love being black!!! Light skin black that is….I don’t get it with us…From Michael Jackson to today, I don’t get the bleaching my skin thing…I don’t want to look like the people who don’t like me but want my color, hair, lips, and men…..Won’t even pay me a decent salary….
Leave MJ name out of this. MJ was PROVEN to have a skin disorder. SOme blacks need to get an education and learn things before they speak.
MJ – Yeah right – i read much about his so call skin condition – PLEASE – just like he claim that his kids – were of his creation.. – YEAH RIGHT!!
Okay, we get that Michael had a skin disorder. I have seen vitiligo many times, but that’s no excuse for hacking up his face until he was no longer recognizable.
Tonya, while we’re reviving songs such as James Brown’s “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”, I would also recommend “Black Pearl” by Sonny Charles & the Checkmates LTD, “Garvey” by Jamaican artist Mutabaruka and Blackenized by Hank Ballard especially with lyrics like “so called brothers tellin’ lies, you colored people are just signifying………you don’t have to be like an Oreo cookie brother, black on the outside and white on the inside.” Although given their looks Nick Minaj and Lil’ Kim are opting for that other cookie. No, not Fig Newtons, Bart Simpson’s ” nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfingers.”
I’m so disgusted with African Americans who believe that it is beneficial to have light skin. I’m convinced that Lil Wayne is just hopelessly ignorant. It’s unfortunate that we, as black people, can’t shake this slave mentality and appreciate the hues of own natural skin. Whether we are light or dark, we need to learn to love ourselves and respect one another beyond the tones of our skin.
It’s shameful that our brothers and sisters are disfiguring themselves. It’s the lack of self love and they believe that money will make them more tolerable. Education is power and after the sacrifices made for us, we are now becoming a race of Dumb and Dumber all over the planet. Travelling to Senegal I was shocked and saddened that the whitening trend is taking hold in the motherland. Try watching a Nollywood(Nigerian) movie! The only lasting lesson that we have learned from slavery and racism is self hatred. It is worse than the AIDS epidemic. As for parents, take your parental role seriously and do not allow these celebrities become the primary role models in your children lives. Education is Power. Take the kids to the libraries, museums and expose them to the positive black trailblazers and venues that showcase us as productive and concerned members of this planet. Yes we really have to have this dialog again. It is truly lost in translation.
Lil-kim looks terrible she use to be so cute, and I loved the way she rapped, but now she looks like a lion. Micheal Jackson, self hating. soon I hope jennifer hudson don’t start doing that. she looks to thin
look at Latoya jackson. Tamar Braxton, is blonde and looks like a white woman, I didn’t even know who she was. its really sad how we have got caught up in this culture. and it looks terrible to our Black children they hate there noses, there full lips. but why? james brown made us so proud when he sung that song, I’m black and I’m proud. that was KEY right there, he was trying to tell us to Not be ashamed of our full lips and our large noses. and our hair and the color of our skin. I loved that song it made me proud and happy to know that we where special. and everybody wanted to be like us because we are the baddest Race on this Earth. We just Don’t know it yet.
Again, leave MJ out of this. The man had a skin disorder.
No one does a better job of hating us then we do ourselves. It’s sad when you hear young children making a diffrence in other children because of the color of their skin. Some black people are so messed up in the head about color and having black features. The self hatred will continue because they pass the same self hatred on to their children. It’s really sad. I agee with you on Lil Kim. She was attractive but now she looks more like Joan Rivers or the Cat Lady in New York. Lil Kim is not going to age well at all because of all the surgery.
good subject to talk about we need someone to start the conversation,, why do celebs, wanna be white, and then white’s wanna act black and talk black and cannot stand to live or stand next to us,
what is happening in our country, we have never wanted to be white before. light skinned is not good enough anymore I mean we really need to get this conversation going, or is it a self-hate thing going on again. WOW how we have changed.
there is a document that best describes what we are now seeing, it has been there under the surface creating turmoil internally within us and our communities. ” the willy lynch letters” are real and state if the procedures in the document are done correctly the effect will last 300 hundred years and if done to perfection will last indefinitly because we will carry it as our way of being. for those who have not read it is is crucial to understand the idea behind it. to cause conflict between us by whatever physical means (the format behind the document is the protacol used to train horses) divide by shade of color, texture of hair, tall against short and u know this one house slave vs field negro.to this day the ideolgy is alive and well (it seems we carried it with us) the idea that we as a people can assimulate a broken and flawed culture and ignore our own is the issue i see, and where we need to begin the conversation. i am not speaking seperation ( this country is as much a part of our history as our land of origin) however we must understand the conditioning that we now perpetuate upon ourselves causes internal issues spritual and inturn physical ( hi blood pressure due to stress leads to other life threating ailments) our children follow there real teachers the tv shows that show women of color distorted , the strength that it takes to manage raising a child of color and surviving for a black women is now exploited and viewed as black women are just angry for no apperent reason.i remember when it was said that black men carried the anger. no surprise that our women our viewed as such due to the fact that even more so now han ever they have the same worldly issue as there male counterparts. we now pursue money as if it is the answer , forgetting our ancestors were spritual and that is where our strengh lies. i am a man of god not reigion , and the difference is life changing. in every one of us is gods voice the more we rely a culture that has set into play efforts to destroy us the futher we get away from what is needed to reach our children. ( u don”t ask the person who knocked u down for a hand up!!!) we mst reach out to our children they have been labeled as drug dealers , crack heads, drunks and pimps. the lables change our perception. they are OUR CHILDREN , OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS.the ares we live in (i am in chicago) are prime property and are being gentrified and we are priced out and under seige by the same police officers that allowed and were implicated in the drug culture that exsists.there has been no thought to the inner city for development since “white flight” and now there is this attention to the land and no regard for the people that live there. the changes do not include the current residents. in america acension is the only way to gather wealth and pass it to future generations to build on and create a legacy. others have done it with lies and inbreeding we were denied for the color of our skin. how did we forget?
well written and well said. thanks for that knowledge. have a blessed day!
Being “black” is not a skin color. Folks have mental issues which manifest is varying ways. To single this particular ill as being anti-black is ridiculous. Is living in a generational cycle of poverty anti-black? Why not? Would anorexia be anti-black? Why not? Is being an alcoholic anti-black? Is a lack of a savings account or 401K anti-black? Why not? What ever your ill… is it anti-black? Why not? What IS anti-black… is determining that your ill is somehow a more acceptably “black”, than another’s ill. Now, this is what white folks have historically done…. winked at their own ills, while at the same time condemning ours.