Why Removing Skin Bleaching Products Won’t Erase The Stain of White Supremacy

The national uprising in response to the horrific slaying of George Floyd by a rogue cop, who callously suffocated the life of an unarmed Black man while his two colleagues observed with callous nonchalance has incited a global reckoning on a scale that has never been seen before.

Suddenly, the secret is out!

White supremacy is the disease that has violently devoured Black cultures and implemented the legacy of hate, that has plagued the psyche of victimized natives, who were raised to believe that dark skin is vile enough to warrant habitual skin bleaching.

Growing up in Nigeria, it was abundantly clear that skin tones were a big deal and being light-skinned was and is the preferred mandate, even when the drastic lengths to achieve that palette reveals gross scarring.

As dark-skinned girl, navigating those environments, I was thankfully spared the terrific blows to my self-esteem. My mother, who is a lot brighter than my medium dark complexion, went out of her way to compliment my best attributes throughout my childhood.

However, my testament doesn’t translate for every dark-skinned girl who had to accommodate a climate that was overtly hostile to the very thing that defines our viability…