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Category: Lifestyle/People
Published: Saturday, 20 April 2013 16:17

The social significance of differences in skin color has varied across cultures and over time, as demonstrated, with regard to social status and discrimination.

Many cultures have historically favored lighter skin for women. Before the Industrial Revolution in Europe, pale skin was a sign of high social status. The upper class stayed indoors, while the poorer classes worked outdoors making their skin darker due to sun exposure.  

Light skin became associated with wealth and high position.  Women would put lead based cosmetics on their skin to artificially whiten their skin, causing lead poisoning, not to mention using arsenic and other dangerous powders resulting in death.

 

In Latin America, where whites are a minority, lighter skin is a preference. In Mexico, light skin is associated with power and attractiveness. The dark skinned natives are discriminated against in Brazil.  

In India, pale skin is an obsession, reflected in their beauty products, advertisements, cinema and entertainment. In South and East Asian countries, light skin has traditionally been prevalent and considered a preference as well.

In ancient China and Japan, pale skin can be traced back to ancient drawings depicting women and goddesses with fair skin tones.

According to a report published by the World Health Organization, 77% of women in Nigeria use skin lightening products, the world’s highest percentage. Dark versus light skin has been at the forefront for Blacks, not only in the African American culture but around the world.

Who doesn’t remember the movie, School Dayz?

The following is the William Lynch letter, said to have been published in 1712 and delivered by Willie Lynch on the bank of the James River in the colony of Virginia in 1712.  Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies. He was invited to the colony of Virginia to teach his methods to slave owners there:

Greetings gentlemen. I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank you, the gentlemen of the Colony of Virginia, for bringing me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with slaves. Your invitation reached me on my modest plantation in the West Indies, where I have experimented with some of the newest, and still the oldest, methods for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on the James River, named for our illustrious King, whose version of the Bible we cherish, I saw enough to know that your problem is not unique. While Rome used cords of wood as crosses for standing human bodies along its highways in great numbers, you are here using the tree and the rope on occasions. I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree, a couple miles back. You are not only losing valuable stock by hangings, you are having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer occasional fires, your animals are killed. Gentlemen, you know what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here to enumerate your problems, I am here to introduce you to a method of solving them. In my bag here, I HAVE A FULL PROOF METHOD FOR CONTROLLING YOUR BLACK SLAVES. I guarantee every one of you that, if installed correctly, IT WILL CONTROL THE SLAVES FOR AT LEAST 300 HUNDREDS YEARS. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. I HAVE OUTLINED A NUMBER OF DIFFERENCES AMONG THE SLAVES; AND I TAKE THESE DIFFERENCES AND MAKE THEM BIGGER. I USE FEAR, DISTRUST AND ENVY FOR CONTROL PURPOSES. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On top of my list is “AGE,” but it’s there only because it starts with an “a.” The second is “COLOR” or shade. There is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZES OF PLANTATIONS, STATUS on plantations, ATTITUDE of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action, but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST AND ENVY STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for HUNDREDS of years, maybe THOUSANDS. Don’t forget, you must pitch the OLD black male vs. the YOUNG black male, and the YOUNG black male against the OLD black male. You must use the DARK skin slaves vs. the LIGHT skin slaves, and the LIGHT skin slaves vs. the DARK skin slaves. You must use the FEMALE vs. the MALE, and the MALE vs. the FEMALE. You must also have white servants and overseers [who] distrust all Blacks. But it is NECESSARY THAT YOUR SLAVES TRUST AND DEPEND ON US. THEY MUST LOVE, RESPECT AND TRUST ONLY US. Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control. Use them. Have your wives and children use them, never miss an opportunity. IF USED INTENSELY FOR ONE YEAR, THE SLAVES THEMSELVES WILL REMAIN PERPETUALLY DISTRUSTFUL. Thank you gentlemen.”

However and whenever we lost our way, it is this way of thought and social stigma that has convinced us, the majority, that we are not beautiful and made in God’s image. They have promoted and persuaded nations of people to hate their brothers and sisters, but it is us who carries on the behavior. Despising our own skin and heritage, we have become envious and brainwashed.

It is time to reach out and reverse our mindset and in turn we will rekindle brotherhood, respect and pride of our people and future.