daughter

Eight years ago, I was told I had giv­en birth to a dark-skinned girl. 

I did not know which was more of a con­cern, that I had giv­en birth to a girl or that she was dark-skinned. Might have been both. 

I was asked to smear her face with yo­gurt to make her fair, rub flour on her skin to make it less hairy and draw her eye­brows with a spe­cif­ic fruit so that she grows up to have pret­ty ones. 

So last night, when this school pho­to came in the mail, it took my breath away. 

She was beau­ti­ful in her skin and that smile. I was proud of my­self to have been able to put a stop to what was re­al­ly ugly in this whole picture.

Us­ing words such as in­tol­er­ance and racism on so­cial me­dia alone or at week­end par­ties won’t solve any­thing. Acts like these start at home in dif­fer­ent forms and dos­es. Be aware. Be the change.
 
 

—mala paul

Flom­mist Mala Paul is a pro­tégé of the god­dess of ten hands. Form to form­less all in a day’s job. A moth­er, de­sign­er, dancer, food­ie, fash­ion­ista, blog­ger, who is al­ways ready to be the change. Copy­right © 2015 Mala Paul.

MOR D’ARTÍCULOS  MOR FLOMM !

READ SOME  RELATED  DER TUNG  POSTS  :

peo­ple suck em­brac­ing and cap­i­tal­iz­ing are two dif­fer­ent things sur­vival killing al­ter­na­tive learn­ing this week me at sephora rest­less voice haunt­ed by shadows