Black Butterfly

Today, like most days is quiet interesting. In order for me to escape the mundane of it all I figure that today is just a small lesson getting me closer to the blessing.
Last night, I found my self disheveled, quite distressed, after a conversation I had with my boyfriend. It seems to be an up hill battle I am noticing as it relates to black beauty. Back drop: My mother and father have been separated ever since I can remember and he has been in a relationship with his current wife since I was about five or six. She is a Puerto Rican woman, very pretty with long black hair and fair skin. This to me is what black men deem as beautiful; my father at least deems this as beautiful. My mother, beautiful brown skin woman, brilliant, witty, funny, a little crazy at times, but this I believe developed over time but for the most part truly a beautiful woman. However, the first man I would ever come to know believes or has a preference for women who look “ less African”.

Nonetheless this never affected as a young child. I unlike most dark skin women, loved being dark. I mean my best friend was light skin and I always thought I was the lucky one. We would lay out in the park under the sun, her to get a tan, me to let the sun kiss my skin because I swore it loved me better.
I saw dark women and thought they were so exotic, it was something about them that I absolutely loved, yet the older I got the more I began to realize that everyone did not hold the same sentiment. I grew up in my own world, I made my own rules and never had I felt the lesser of the two skin tone until I met my ex-boyfriend. Do you know this fool reminded me regularly how he always dated light skin girls, how his mother would always joke about how he loved...you guessed it Puerto Rican girls. Me, I was the exception, may be it was my white girl voice, or non aggressive personality that allowed me to slip in, whatever the case I was his token. This fool honestly thought he was light skin; This is not so by any rate. Yet he made me feel lesser of the two. Stupid

Any way in an attempt, again, to go against the grain I went natural and if there is one thing a dark skin girl is vowed to never do is go natural. What ever, I did it anyway and I loved it, I loved me. I still do. I am not a conformist, never have been, never will be. But, that was before boys, that were before relationships, that was before hormones, and before I was exposed to the media. Before, I was spoon fed what beauty was, before the beyonces, before the chritinna milians, before the mya's, before school days. About that... would you believe the first time I saw that movie I laughed because I had no idea what they were talking about. My freshman year in college I saw this movie and honestly wondered if this was real "did light skin girls really think they were the prize, were dark skin girls really that insecure about their skin color...are they serious?

I digress. Like I said that was before the boys. This is where the feminist comes out because I honestly believe that if black women weren't so hung up on black men...as black men are not so hung up on us, then we will save ourselves a lot of headache. There is obviously a deeper "self hatred" that occurs in black men and their diligence to not want to date women that look, in most cases, like their mothers, who are dark skin women. Understand, that it is not that I believe if a black man dates a light skin woman he is suffering from self hatred it is however those that swear that the lightness of ones skin makes them a better choice which to me is psychotic. For example, I may have a preference for successful men, but that is not to say I only date succesful men beacause they are better. I will not prevent my self the opportunity of missing out on a great love just beacause the package is different. Having preferences is innate in us, this is the obvious. What is not healthy however is saying that a light skin woman or other nationalities are better mates because they look less African, nothing having to do with who they are as people execpt that they look less African.

Maybe that leaves me out of the race; I say what ever to that because I want to look as African as possible really. I refuse to allow black men and the media to distort my idea of beauty and pull me into their psychotic rationale. At the same token, I recognize that not all black women feel as I do, and that some really suffer from this internally, forcing them to make bad relationship decisions, have low self esteem, and the most damaging, a feeling of no self worth. Like in some way because they are mores "African" looking they are some how cursed to have no one find them beautiful. This is simply not the truth, what I think the best advice is to give these women is recognize they were made in the image of God and that is beautiful, your self worth and self esteem, love of ones skin completion should not come from a man *literally but God. If black women can get pass that they will notice that simply changing the scenery will provide them with the love and support they deserve
-MeMe