NATE'S KNOWLEDGE

Coming from the perspective of a dark skin African American, I can recall growing up being teased and made fun of because of my complexion. I used to want to be light or fair skinned. I still get teased about having full lips (that i now hear are so sexy but used to be soup coolers). It was not until I matured that I felt comfortable enough with myself to say it does not matter. I am who I am and I am made in Gods image, and this is the way I am meant to be. We are all different. But to unpack this even more, every bad guy is always black. Everything about the word black has a negative connotation. Black has been taught throughout history to be feared, mysterious, or not as good as white. And I am just talking about the color, not actual people. If you really look at what black means to our vocabulary, how can you expect our children not to have complexes? They choose white because its pure, its heavenly, its love. I remeber reading this old Websters dictionary one day. the copyright was from the 1960's, and i looked up the word black one day and i had a Mississippi burning experience (that moment when you go "yes they deserve to die, and i hope he burn in hell!!!" then hope a white person don't look at you wrong that day, not because you racist, just because you upset about history and don't know how to channel that energy at that moment). The definition was "dark, void of light, evil, not white any person from the Negro race." Then i was inclined to look up nigger. And there it was... and to paraphrase it said a group of people who are black, Negroes, etc. I was like huh? this is in Websters? They printed millions of copies of this and had them in libraries and classrooms across the country. I was like twenty at the time and I had stole THAT dictionary from school. to sum it all up. You gotta teach your kids about who they are. You cant let your child grow up with these complexes that black is ugly and evil. Be conscious of what they watch and listen to because they are sponges soaking all things of media and life in. They are creating ideas and forming thoughts about everything the see and hear. Make sure you mold all that into healthy images of success, life and love. And as Mos Def said, "umi shine your light on the world, shine your light for the world to see.... I want black people to be free, to be free, to be free All my people to be free, to be free, to be free..."

PS

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