So We've Established Your Skin tone....

I'm writing this post after watching an old channel 4 documentary called Bleach, Nip, Tuck: The White Beauty Myth. The show followed three black and Asian people in their quest to look more Westernised. There was a black glamour model waiting for a nose job to get rid of her "typically black" nose, and Asian woman obsessed with skin bleaching creams, and an Asian male model who had surgery to give him a more mainstream (AKA white) face.
Maybe its because I'm black myself that the glamour model, Jett's story stuck with me the most. She was living in a gated, predominantly white community in Essex, her pinnacle of beauty was Barbie, and she associated her broad nose with her blackness, as if getting rid of her nose would rid her of her blackness.
I watched this documentary, and my blood was warming up. You know when you can't sit still because the irritation is building up? I could not understand for the life of me how anyone could hate the colour of their skin so much. The individual is partly to blame, but the West is guilty of perpetuating this White Beauty Myth. The media bombards us with white faces, and tells us 'This is what beauty is'.
Within the black community, I feel that a lot of people almost subscribe to this warped hierarchy too. The amount of times I've logged onto twitter and seen the phrase "piff lightie"... its not even funny anymore. As if, the lighter your skin tone, the more beautiful you are. This is such a colonial way of thinking about skin tone - the whiter you are, the more attractive you are.
I guess the point I'm really trying to make is: Do you think anyone cares how dark or light you are? You're still BLACK!

So you wanna call yourself a lightie? Or a brownin? Or are you blick? Ok, so we've established your skin tone..... now what? And who the fuck really cares?