I hated my dark skin.
I hated the way it became charcoal in the summertime, grimy with sweat from running around outside with my little brother. I hated the way it looked when I took a bath because I could never scrub the dirt off. But I loved my first grade best friend’s white skin. I loved its porcelain appeal, the way it looked so fresh and clean.
It did not matter that my parents immersed me in a church focused on Black liberation theology. It did not matter that the church was named after the Black Madonna, an ebony maternal figure of the highest power. I was ugly. She was pretty.
As defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
WHITE: A. Free from spot or blemish B. Not intended to cause harm
BLACK: A. Dirty, Soiled B. Thoroughly sinister or evil
We wonder why little Black girls grow up into broken Black women. We wonder why someone would go through the pain of chemical burns, blistered skin, rashes and the risk of diseases like cancer to assimilate into the dominant culture.
This is why America.
It is because we support brands like TINGE, a proprietary treatment that cosmetically evens and brightens skin in a matter of minutes. Otherwise known as a "safe alternative" to skin bleaching.
According to Tulsa World, Kourtney Brooks- a white woman is the creator of the brand whose pitch in November 2018 won the Tulsa StartUp Series $15,000 grand prize. Tulsa World also reported in March 2018, she earned "$2,500 to test or advance her product/idea, a three-month membership to 36 Degrees North (a co-working space) and a mentor with weekly availability for at least three months."
The Tulsa StartUp Series and 36 Degrees North are initiatives of the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation (LTFF), which curates targeted programs to act as Tulsa's leading convener for entrepreneurs and small businesses.
After receiving public backlash, the Tulsa Startup Series issued this statement on their Facebook page:
It's become clear to us that TINGE winning Demo Day has caused a divide, and caused a significant amount of hurt to people of color in our community. We wish TINGE the best in incorporating the constructive feedback that they received this week from those meetings, and we do believe TINGE will actively use this feedback to evolve the business. However, as an organization, we have to remain vigilant about eliminating anything that could cause a divide in our community. LTFF will be rescinding TINGE's first place prize for Demo Day along with the $15,000 prize money.
Tulsa, Oklahoma recently made national headlines for its newest program, Tulsa Remote, which will pay remote workers $10,000 to move to Tulsa for a twelve month period. This relocation assistance program is provided by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which supports early childhood education initiatives.
How can a city that is approaching the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre recruit, attract and retain diverse and inclusive professionals when foundations do not think about the message of bigotry, colorism, and whitewashing they are sending when they award seed money? It is progress to pull funding for a brand that will cause detrimental harm to marginalized populations, but there is still one big issue; it should have never happened in the first place. When people become comfortable with the idea of suppressing diverse voices and rewarding uniformity to a patriarchal white standard, that is where conflict arises.
We do not need more startups profiting off of insecurities, fear, and hatred of being Black or of color. We need acceptance in our own skin and promotion of diverse narratives. There are organizations like Dream Tulsa, another initiative of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, that is recruiting Black entrepreneurs around the nation to rebuild Black Wall Street. Let's focus on entrepreneurship that revitalizes Black communities, not erases them.
Kourtney Brooks isn’t the only player in the game. Blac Chyna also made national headlines with the promotion of her $250 skin-lightening cream “X Blac Chyna Diamond Illuminating and Lightening Cream” in partnership with Nigerian brand Whitenicious, created by Cameroonian and Nigerian singer, Dencia. What is even sadder about this narrative is that two Black women are peddling self-hatred to other Black women in the form of a Swarovski encrusted jar.
As an adult, I no longer struggle with hatred of my dark skin, but now prize it. Still, there are millions of little girls, around the world, that only see ugly in the mirror.
Are we going to continue to push harsh narratives or rewrite the script?
Oftentimes we shy from expressing our opinions due to fear of stigma and fear of persecution, but skin-lightening isn’t dead. Nor is colorism. Let’s continue this conversation.
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