So, I'm watching "The Last Dragon" last night (if you've never seen it, you should be exiled from civilization), and I'm like, damn,
Vanity was (is) fine as hell. The other night I watched "Coming To America", and the love interest in that,
Shari Headley, is fine as hell, as well. I watched "A Piece of the Action" (with Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier) a couple nights ago, and the main actress in that film,
Denise Nicholas, was bad as hell too. Then I noticed a connection between all these women, they were all light-skinned. It goes back to slave times, the lighter a woman, the better she was, and that image stuck with Black America well into now (at least, it stuck with me). Be it Salt from Salt-N-Pepa or Sheila E. back in the eighties or Alicia Keys and Beyonce right now, it has always been a light-skinned girl infatuation. Like back in High School, the hottest girl in my school had to be this one light-skinned girl. Or when I was down in Georgia, everybody was looking for that infamous Georgia red-bone. Or trying to hook-up with Dominicans and Puerto Ricans because they were lighter than most Black girls (not me, I hooked up with them for the Arroz con Pollo). Dudes would stand on the corner watching females pass, looking for that light, bright & right (L.B.R.'s, that's copy written), that red-bone, that high-yellow girl, that transparent girl, that almost white girl, any female lighter than the palms of their hands. And even though I would consider myself one of those dudes, I've never really dated a light-skinned girl (gave the bidnezz, not dated). Maybe, it's true what they say about men wanting to be with a woman like their mother, cause my mother is a light shade of mellow-yellow. And it's hilarious to me that the shade of brothers goes in and out of style as well. Men will say things like, "light-skinned brothers aren't in style, anymore", "Morris Chestnut is bringing dark-skinned brothers back", or whatever pigment bias lines brothers got. Me, I've never felt like I was light-skinned or dark-skinned (word to them mid-way, caramel brothers), so I never knew if my skin tone was in or out. I just find it kind of sad that beauty is graded with paint samples and brown bags. Some say "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice" (from experience, not always true), some think that the closer to white, the better looking a person is. I'm just maturing and starting to figure out that we're all people, no matter the amount of Melanin in our skin. I don't care where your skin tone falls on the color wheel, if you're cool, then we're cool (and shawty, I'd most likely give you the bidnezz). A mate is defined as a counterpart, so don't pass up that person because of their skin tone, he or she might be your "true definition" (like how I brought the title into play, impeccable wordsmith that I am). Anyway, to the entire light-skinned, caramel, dark-skinned, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc, women that read this, I love all of you.
Happy Valentines Day!!!!!!!!
Peace, I mean WAR!
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