This video breaks my heart for personal reasons. I can remember clearly when my own precious child told me she wanted to be white because she didnt like her curly brown hair. It was at that point I realised that my little girl had been subtly poisoned by influences that constantly reinforce the idea that black humans are inferior to their white counterparts and I had played my part too by not being aware of this silent attack. My daughter is mixed race, her racial identity is complex and unique and I had not taken full acknowledgment of this, why should I? To me shes just my daughter. My family and I when faced with the challenge of my child wanting to be white were faced with the task of affirming the value of her black heritage as the foundation of her identity. We were then challenged to validate and celebrate her as a mixed race child. It was a lot of work and incredibly tough to find media images aimed at little girls that did not promote the dominance of the blonde haired, blue eyed angel as its ideal typography. I hadnt realised that with the exception of Dora the Explorer there were no non white role models for black and ethnic children to identify with. There were no cartoons or dolls that had a black mum and a white dad that represented our household. I banned fashion, beauty and celebrity magazines from my house. We stopped watching soap operas as they did absolutely nothing to portray black people in a positive light and became very conscientious about what programmes we did watch including the NEWS. It took time and the support of our entire family (black and white) to neutralise the harm that had been perpetrated against my daughter and I do believe it is a subtle attack designed to nurture ignornance and to maintain a status quo that works for those enforce it. We all had to raise our own awareness. This wasnt an out and out attack of racism towards my child, it was a virus that had been planted in the awareness of my daughter and reinforced by the world around her. Imagine what would happen if all races were given the same level of prestige when it comes to beauty? An all races Abercrombie and Fitch advert!!! The colour of our skin would not be the automatic determinant of whether or not we believe we are inferior to our peers. Pre schoolers would not grow up with a belief that they are inherently bad or better based on their skin colour. We cant control everything that our children are exposed to, however, we can take more responsibility for neurtalising its harmful effect. It can be done and I have the 15 year old mixed race child who is happy to tell you she LOVES the skin she lives in to prove it.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 12:18:08 +0000
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