Lately, I have noticed something disturbing about our generation. Unlike in times past, one barely see pure dark skinned people, especially ladies, anymore.
Almost all the ladies are now fair coloured. It's not like I have any issue with fair-coloured skin ladies or anything of the sort. I am only worried about the fact that, even our then darkest skin ladies are strangely turning fair. The rate at which this is happening is alarming.
I really do cheer for all the ladies who take bold decisions to keep their natural African hair. I take hat off for them any day. I mean, I cannot begin to imagine me keeping my natural untouched hair.
But then, what is the essence of being natural when one decides to do away with the ultimate proof of being a naturalist? Our women are shredding every fiber of their skin that makes them black Africans. I have never understood why anybody would do that. Not with all the harm that these bleaching creams does to the skin.
And to think our ladies have migrated from applying mere bleaching creams to the skin to actually taking in some heinous substances, all in the name of changing their tone of their skin.
Is it really worth that much to be a fair skinned lady at all costs? What happens when you achieve so much with a self-acquired light skin and get one form of cancer or the other in the end? Whatever happened to the 'black is beautiful' slogan?
However, one cannot blame these ladies entirely without blaming the society in which we find ourselves today. Not with all the attention given to the light skinned ladies now. It almost look like all the advertisements on our screens lately forces them to opt for such skin type.
How many ads do you see with dark skinned ladies, if any at all? Almost all promote and entice innocent and unsuspecting young ladies to 'tone' their skin, like they put it these days. And those ladies that you expect to know better are actually worsening the issue now. I know it is not their jobs to decide for anyone on what to do or not to with their lives but there are other responsibilities that are imposed on one just by being where one is. Just as there are privileges inherent in such positions, there are also inherent responsibilities as well. No one will spell such responsibilities on a paper for you.
So many of our celebrities have taken up other projects and I must commend them for that, but nothing is being said about this particular issue. We are either not aware of the fact that bleaching is on the increase or we are pretentiously not giving it any attention. I dread the possibility that someday soon, we might not have our natural skins to boast of anymore.
I really do hope and wish that all of us will take a critical look at this serious issue and give it the attention that it needs so that, we can all help save our future generation.
