Healthy Roots - Yelitsa Jean-Charles
As a young girl, do you remember playing with a doll that did not look like you? Do you remember combing her long blonde hair and dressing her plastic nude skin with endless Velcro outfits?
You cherished her as if she were your friend. But when the time finally came she could not explain to you why you were disliked based on your dark skin, why the White boy in class said you were ugly and the Black boy agreed, or why you burned yourself with the hot comb because your hair didn’t mold to White authority.
She was silent during those times of confusion— when you began to hate yourself because it seemed like others shared the same sentiment. You hadn’t yet formed a defense mechanism that produced self-love, hadn’t yet found your sistahs who could empathize with you, hadn’t yet learned that you can be both Black and beautiful.
You cherished her as if she were your friend. But when the time finally came she could not explain to you why you were disliked based on your dark skin, why the White boy in class said you were ugly and the Black boy agreed, or why you burned yourself with the hot comb because your hair didn’t mold to White authority.
She was silent during those times of confusion— when you began to hate yourself because it seemed like others shared the same sentiment. You hadn’t yet formed a defense mechanism that produced self-love, hadn’t yet found your sistahs who could empathize with you, hadn’t yet learned that you can be both Black and beautiful.
RSS Feed