Living in my skin

Caramel, Chocolate cream, Fudge and Brown sugar, some of the phrases used to describe my skin tone. Jokes aside, the blending of these descriptions fail to capture the reality of everyday life in my skin. The irritation when an individual thinks it acceptable to portray my skin tone as an artful accessory to the face, foundation comes in all different colours and therefore there is no need to wear a colour that oversteps the boundary between light and dark, black and white. You may think that i am being extreme but everyday I am forced to witness black colour and black identity shifting.

Point 1 Just because one wears the shade of a woman of colour does not mean that the colour enables them to portray let alone comprehend the livelihood and experiences that come with a person born of that colour. In short colour and and identity come hand in hand and it is not something that can ever and should ever be displaced. I feel that it is society’s fault for commodifying colour, making it something that can be bought when in fact one does not have a choice when they’re born. The same goes for delusional women such as white glamour model Martina Big who recently spent an estimated £50,000 on surgery to ‘become’ black and learn about black experience. Don’t get me started on the even more despicable Rachel Dolezal who changed her countenance completely in order to and I quote ‘adapt’ also to the racial experience. Dolezal crossed the line even further by adopting a West African name ‘Nkechi Amare Diallo.’ Throughout history people of colour have had to live with the repercussions of their skin tone, in a society that marks a hierarchical norm which stressed that white is right. History however, when told truthfully from a factual basis that is not rooted in just Black people being slaves and Civil rights, can actually display Black colour as a substance for success. We’re taught about Shakespearean plays such as The Tempest for a backdrop in discussing racial identity and hierarchy within a post colonial framework. Despite this we are not taught about how during Elizabeth I’s reign Black people stepped out of the stereotypical narrative of the slave in reality, as they even became more successful than the English merchants and were forced to flee England. This is evidenced by the fact that Elizabeth made an arrangement for a merchant named Casper van Senden, to deport Black people from England in 1596. Othello another racially significant Shakespearean play depicts the tumultuous relationship between a white woman and a Moor, one in which the violent stereotypical animalistic characteristics of the black individual would have been accepted and understood by all persons of social standing within the Elizabethan period. It is not stressed however that ‘Moor’ or people of black descent had direct links to the English throne long before Elizabeth I reigned. The Iberian Moor named Catalina de Cardones arrived in England in 1501 and served as lady of the bedchamber to Catherine of Aragon, later Henry VIII’s wife and queen.

Point 2 It is clear that to some extent history as we know it, isn’t reliable for explaining the past for black people, particularly when society deemed ‘those’ fit to have their say in the historical framework were part of the machinations of the racial divide.

Consciously living in this day and age we are constantly taught the lie that we don’t see colour, which stems right from nursery where our first interactions take place. Point 3 We must stop lying to ourselves and get over the stigma of not being able to talk about colour, when we are constantly surrounded by it and society psychologically projects this as part of our identity. We see this through constant documents asking us to establish our cultural identity, for which a person of African/Caribbean descent is inevitably subjected to the racial scrutiny and discrimination that is inherent within both the University selection system as well as the everyday workforce environment. I am not afraid to say that as one of the few students of African/Caribbean descent on my course I am anxious about the way in which people seek to define colour, particularly within the literary sphere. This contention was first brought up in first year with the study of Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, a text in which discourse surrounding the Black countenance was inherently racist. Oroonoko is described as a ‘royal slave’ a slave who is put on a hierarchical pedestal amongst the other Africans because of his ‘Roman nose’, a predominantly white feature which was deemed beautiful, but it was never enough to overlook the fact that his colour still remained black.

Recently I have discovered that in tracing my family tree I have links to the author Rydar Haggard who’s most famous work included the novel King Solomon’s Mines’. I am eager to explore more of his novels within the historical contextual framework of early 20th Century British Literature; albeit I am almost certain that underlying racist themes will be prevalent. However how can one be surprised when literature has always been taught and written within a racist lens; failing to encapsulate truth from constant lies. One thing i can say for certain is that i am PROUD to be a woman of colour and i embrace all the historical and physical beauty as well as the richness in culture that comes with this.