Through the video above you can see how self hatred is very evident within the Black community (as well as in other communities like the Latino community). There are many possible reasons for this to occur.

There’s Disney*, there’s the media that glamorizes certain celebrities over others, there’s society’s imposed self hatred. There are so many ways to get exposed to the disease called self hatred.

Some of the most common signs is the lightening of the hair and eyes. A couple of days ago while sitting in an UN conference room,  a friend noted to me that almost 99% of the people in that room had dark hair. It’s interesting to see that blond hair and light eyes (and goes without saying lighter skin) is a virtue yet most of the world does not possess those traits. I guess this shows how northern European traits used imperialism and exposure to infect most of the world with the idea that they aren’t attractive. Thinking about it now, it might be because it’s ‘exotic’.

A woman in the video gives testimony of going through a surgery to lighten her eyes. The fact that there’s even an available surgery for that shows the racism that this country has. You very rarely hear, “I hate my eyes, they are too light, I wish they were darker”. Very, VERY interesting that the procedure was done in Panama, which as far as I know has a majority Black/ancestral Black/darker skin/etc population.

Straight hair, that seems more related to Afro-self hatred. A good portion of the world’s population (geographically) have straight/wavy hair. The media also glamorizes the hair that you can ‘hair flip’.The clerk in the video mentioned that straight hair “looks more natural”. I’m just wondering what does that even mean? and Who defined natural?

The bleaching is another serious topic. Bleaching is very prominent within the Black community and the Indian community. In some societies like in India, lighter skin means higher position in society.I know that in Dominican Republic this is still a fact. When I watch television, I count how many of the reporters are light skinned and dark skinned, who is doing what. Most of the presenters or public figures are white. It’s unfortunately no surprise. Although most of the women do not have blond hair, they most definitely do have straight hair. It’s very difficult to tell someone they’ve been lied to their whole life about how they aren’t beautiful when a person has fully internalized it and believed it.

There must be a strong force somewhere it to make people to bleach their skin in lieu of the fact that they may get all sorts of horrible skin diseases.