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Black Collegian News & Views Why
Was Skin Whitener in the Campus Bookstore?
By Janera Fedrick and Kai Christopher
Black College Wire
Editor's note: The product in question was removed after these
opinions were published.
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| Janera Fedrick |
Janera Fedrick: As African American women, we are
often told to be more white. We are told to straighten our hair and hide
our true identities under cosmetics.
Now at North Carolina Central University, historically black, I feel
that I am being encouraged to lighten MY skin.
When I walked into the bookstore and saw skin whitener in the same
section as relaxers, I was appalled. I couldn't believe that OUR
university would sell this product.
When we use skin whitener, we ruin our own unique shade. The active
ingredient in skin whitener, hydroquinone, can cause permanent
disfigurement to our faces and bodies.
According to "The Emerging Skin Whitening Industry," a 2005
article by Anima Mire of the University of Toronto, toxic
skin-whitening residue can accumulate inside the skin when using these
products.
Because of this, skin whitener has been banned in many African
countries. It should also be banned from our university.
What kind of message does this send? Our hair is nappy and we need to
be brighter?
It's hard enough for us to be comfortable in our own "naptural"
beauty without the constant reminder that being white is the norm.
It's sad that we, as black women, are finding newer ways to strip
ourselves of our Africanness. Instead of preserving our heritage, we are
destroying it.
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| Kai Christopher |
Kai Christopher: The media, older generations and my
own peers remind me daily that who I am is unacceptable in today's
society.
When I, a proud black man, walk into the bookstore of a black
university and find skin whitening cream, not only does my blood boil,
it makes me want to put on as much red, black and green as possible and
blast Curtis Mayfield until my speakers blow.
What we have here is not simply the subliminal message that I still
do not have the complexion for the connection, but that the insecurity
of being black in a white world and the feeling of inferiority is still
relevant even here, at a historically black university.
What we have is a lack of understanding and acceptance.
How surprised should we be that products that support Willie Lynch's
theory that blacks should be stripped of their self-respect would
eventually reach our school, our place of higher learning?
It is quite the double standard to become outraged that skin
whitening cream has been placed for sale in the bookstore, but agree
that if I am ever to be somebody in corporate America, I should cut my
locks and invest hastily in Eurocentric menswear.
I have watched so many people defend stereotyping and prejudice with
such Eurocentric attitudes that I would think whitening cream would be
right up their alley.
Therefore, my question is not, "how do we get this out of the
bookstore?" but, "do we have enough cream for all the "uppity Negroes"
who will run to the bookstore when this information gets out?"
Janera Fedrick and Kai Christopher, students at
North Carolina Central University, write for the Campus Echo.
Posted Oct. 10, 2006 |
