Mshoza: The dark side of being light

Let me jump on the Mshoza bandwagon here for a minute. For those of you who don’t know her (that would be many of you here), Mshoza had a massive hit song many years ago. It was a Kwaito song. It had to do with her liking a guy wearing a hat.

Now she’s famous again. But this time for bleaching her skin. In her case it has nothing to do with the disease that Michael Jackson had which literally turned him white –, a condition that causes depigmentation of sections of skin. It happens when melanin, which is responsible for skin pigmentation, die. The patches become bigger as one gets older on some people.

Mshoza does not have this condition. It is a choice that she made. She just wanted to be light-skinned.

A lot of people have issues with their appearance. Some don’t like their noses, lips, jaws or any other parts of their bodies for that matter. So they will go for plastic surgery and other body altering treatments and no one has a problem. I suppose this is the question Mshoza is asking: If people can have boob jobs, ass jobs, or any other jobs, what’s wrong with changing the complexion of her skin? What’s wrong with changing from a Kelly Roland to a yellow bone?

For those of you who might not know, the term yellow bone was popularised by the cartoon series, Boondocks, and has come to mean light-skinned black person.

Since the arrival of Europeans, there has been a long held belief that if you’re a light-skinned black person you are automatically beautiful. Just as it has been thought that blonds have more fun.

I suppose it is a fair question Mshoza is asking. Why allow other forms of body alteration but have a huge uproar when she alters her skin colour? No one says anything when some white folk darken their skins. Do we have issues as black people?

The fundamental difference between having a boob job and changing the colour of your skin really goes to core of what black people have been fighting for. That being black is equal to any other race; that there is nothing inferior about being black. When a black person changes the colour of their skin to make it lighter, it seems to be a rejection of one’s blackness.

But how can one be rejecting their blackness when they will remain black despite being light-skinned? One may erase their black on the outside, but the black inside that wants umqusho can’t be erased.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to look good. There is everything wrong with thinking that you will be a better person because you look better. There is no plastic surgery for insecurity.

It is good to look good. It is even better to be a good person. Having said that, we must not confuse wanting to look good with feelings of insecurity. Those two can be separate. One can simply want to look good because they want to, another may want to look good because of they want to be seen. To quote myself in my column, Better to ugly or beautiful?: “One thing that can be said about beauty is that it doesn’t last, ugly on the other hand does. Beauty is the sprinter, ugly is the marathon.”

Mshoza is being vilified for doing what some people are probably too afraid to do. Why do I say this? The long held belief that light-skinned people are better looking still prevails and hasn’t gone away. One sees it on the social networks and can hear it in hip-hop.  Men are probably largely responsible for this. Therefore women want to be light-skinned because they know that they increase their chances of being hit on. So men cannot sit on their high horses and say women want to be light-skinned.

Perhaps we should blame ourselves as men for this.

If we build our women, we build the nation. Our women are beautiful in their shades. No shade is better or more beautiful than another.

We must teach little black girls that they’re beautiful so that they don’t think they need to look like someone else to be liked. In fact we should teach this to all little girls. They have to grow up knowing that if people like them simply because of what they look like and nothing more, then those people are not worthy of their affections nor attention.

I do not condone skin bleaching. We live in a free country though. My personal view is that bleaching one’s skin is a form of self-oppression. And there is no greater oppression than self-oppression.

If you think that being lighter means you are more attractive, it’s time you fixed your thinking. Being attractive makes you attractive, not the colour of your skin.

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chakka A.K.A Dennis, stop walk and thief go get a life. All you do is go round and and a follow dancehall inna dress maker clothes. Chakka pointed mouth shoes stop wear, stop try run down hype. your a broke ass that live with your sister and 2 kids in Brooklyn, you cant even help her pay her bills. the people. My advise to you is to go and get your dirty life together. Please remember pointed mouth shoes stop wear, and man noh wear dressmaker suit.

Shebada
THIS PLAYS ON THE IGNORANCE OF JCAN PEOPLE. I SHOULD CAST MY VOTE FOR YOUR PARTY BASED ON YOUR HOMOPHOBIC BELIEFS. A GOVERNMENT IS SUPPOSE TO REPRESENT ALL MEMBER OF ITS SOCIETY REGARDLESS OF AGE, GENDER, COLOR AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION. JLP, I FIND THIS AD TO BE OF UTMOST TACKINESS AND ITS SAD TO SEE OUR COUNTRY ARE PLAGUED WITH INTELLIGENT FOOLS THAT CONTINUE TO MANIFEST AND BREED IGNORANCE OF BIAS IN DISCRIMINATION AMONGST J’CAN CITIZENS.

Funeral services for Kemesha Matthews who was murdered on December 1,2011 by Nesseine Mardner were held yesterday, December 18,2011 at Immanuel House of Prayer, interment was at Meadow Rest. Kemesha leaves behind her daughter Saj, mother and other family members.

COMENT:god works in misterious ways, nasseime arklight mardner merdered my sister in cold blood while she was sleeping and is now on bail, what is this. i know a man got hold for 50 dollars worth of weed and got remanded in custody and a murderer set free after less that 2 weeks of killing kemesha matthews.what kind of voodoo are they working

SMADDY LEF DIS COMMENT: If mi nuh talk a woulda dumb…. no man all when kemesha dead the girlz them still a fight over her, weh the pussyclat dem gal yah nuh stop send mi fren request a ask mi if kim did mention then name to mi? lol.. say then nuh want go a the funeral and feel fool cause her other woman dem deh deh…. #deading…. mi want yall fi leave mi alone, mi nuh know nun a yo… mi never hear your name nor your name a call, only ******* woooiii. R.I.P Kemesha Matthews aka Lava K mi nice nice sister, i will always love you and keep your dreams alive, nuh worry mi sister Saj will be well taken care of…….. if a dont talk a woulda dumb…..
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Well well..di legendary cockey strikes di legendary Lava to rhatid wine a chow out and bare tings…Killa whey yuh seh it wert a second time? Dreams neva enough? Den Lava nuh whey else neva deh fi yuh celebrate yuh birthday dan Jamaica , dekilely a gwaan like yuh an Killa nuh ina tings…Wi noze it long time!..btw him carry yuh roun suh yet? Mi waa know if Killa nuh tired a ooman, what a man fi feature ooman hee man..When a nuh roun suh a watch di naked girl dem a dance..yuh is from frock tail to frock tail ….yuh nuh feel seh yuh fi married now and wheel out di stale canerow dem?***HI LAVA…LOOKING NICE AS UJAL****