Bigoted Notions
'Dream-makers have always projected idealised and unattainable images of women - to create insecurities and stimulate desires. That's what they do. And, sadly, countless non-white women can't resist their pernicious influence. They believe that skin colour can make or break you. And that can even include what shade of brown or black your skin is.
Surveys in the U.S. have long shown that all things being equal, lighter-skinned black people get more job and life chances than do those with darker skins...
...now we have a world where American morality and media impose their standardised Western notions on every corner of the globe. And a surge in 'ethnic' self-loathing and self-mutilation has emerged in its wake. What is different now is the absence of any political or social fightback against this. The message seems to be that race is dispensable, can be wiped out if you can pay for the privilege. Then what?
Do Jet and Umi and all those other young women think they will be good enough to please the bigots of the BNP?
When, oh when, will we stop being our own worst enemies?'
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, 'Why are so many black and Asian women desperate to be white?'
Surveys in the U.S. have long shown that all things being equal, lighter-skinned black people get more job and life chances than do those with darker skins...
...now we have a world where American morality and media impose their standardised Western notions on every corner of the globe. And a surge in 'ethnic' self-loathing and self-mutilation has emerged in its wake. What is different now is the absence of any political or social fightback against this. The message seems to be that race is dispensable, can be wiped out if you can pay for the privilege. Then what?
Do Jet and Umi and all those other young women think they will be good enough to please the bigots of the BNP?
When, oh when, will we stop being our own worst enemies?'
- Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, 'Why are so many black and Asian women desperate to be white?'
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