By, Ascellia Arenas
My response to the Race Wars of Summer16
I’ve been having these courageous conversations about color, all of my life. Whether it was explaining how to pronounce my name or giving a history lesson about the “browning of America”, or the impact on colorism as a direct result of the triangular trade with respect to slavery. Color has ALWAYS been an issue. The need to clarify and justify one’s worth as it relates to the shade of one’s skin is sad but, so real.
The insults, “you think you white”: “you Cuban so you ain’t really black”: “you are dark skinned Latina, not really black”: “you speak Spanish like you learned it at school, so you aren’t really Latina”: all of these insults are born from negative feelings derived from color issues.
Stop lying when you say, ” I don’t see color,” or “he’s cool for, a white boy,” or “she’s pretty, for a black girl.” We see color, we have been programmed to have reaction responses to the tone and shades of our skin, to the texture of our hair. I’m a chameleon, there’s so many cultures and heritages flowing through me that I can fit in no matter where I go. That’s #flavor, I am mojo criollo and I like it.
It’s time to realize that by 2025 we will ALL have some shade of brown flowing through our bloodlines because nobody is “pure” anymore. David Banner, hip hop artist turned activist, explains to us that the pressure we are experiencing right now, as it relates to white supremacists is that THEY know change is eminent and they are deathly afraid of losing traction, or becoming obsolete. Self preservation is a natural instinct. White supremacists will do whatever it takes to remain at the top of the food chain. How do they accomplish that? They accomplish that by teaching us that there is something wrong with being dark…even worse than that is being BLACK 🌍
Watch this clip to learn more:
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