UPDATE: 1/10/07 -- YouTube Links that were on this story are now missing. I have deleted the references to this site.
Clutch Magazine's Sylvia Arthur writes a moving account in Dying to be White about skin bleaching in Ghana. These African women are exchanging their black-wonderful tones for lighter skin shades through dangerous treatments. Arthur writes:
"The reason for this potentially life-endangering practice is purely vanity. Women who bleach do so because they believe that men prefer their lighter-skinned counterparts. Also, in some African societies light-skinned people are perceived to be more intelligent than those with a darker hue."
The color sickness that still haunts some of us African-Americans -- she's light-skinned with good hair, she's dark-skinned with nappy hair -- manifests in Africa with the fixation on skin bleaching. It's disheartening. How must the Father of Heaven ache to watch His children wallow in self-hate: blacks who want to alter their blackness, whites who want to bronze themselves to the point of harmful illness, Asians who bleach their skin white.
And how grieved He must be that Western culture attributes glory to white images of beauty alone. The fashion industry primarily focuses on the white aesthetic, although people of color are scattered throughout the glossy magazines, celebrity images and runway shows. Arthur writes in her piece:
"The consensus is that the only way to counter the disturbing trend is to wage a multi-agency campaign warning people of the dangers of bleaching. But as long as images of Western beauty continue to flood African markets and berate the natural black aesthetic, the problem will persist and claim even more lives than ever before."
The thoughtful church of Jesus Christ has a role to play in correcting this economy of self-hatred. It must reinforce the Christians' duty to honor people as God-made individuals. Unfortunately, Christianity often was used by the twisted as the club to bury the aspirations and healthy self-image of people of color.
A richer theology detangles race and faith and informs us on how to interact with each other. We should discourage the use of these products and hold accountable those who use color as a measure of character or employment-worthiness. Perhaps well-meaning, but unnecessary sentences such as I don't see color; I treat everyone the same, should be replaced by reality-based language.
We actually do see the God-hues of a person and that's OK. How someone appears need not determine how that person is treated. So, instead of the platitude, why not simply say: I respect all people and celebrate their uniqueness?
God made each generation and placed them among the regions He designated. Consider Acts 17: 24-28, when Paul was in Athens. This passage is from the New American Standard version, courtesy of StudyLight.org:
"The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as Rthough He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, `For we also are His children.' "
And because He made the world and all things in it, He created skin colors and declared them very good.
