Brown Skin

Back in the day, I used to be crazy about light-skinned women!
In fact, there was a time when the only type of woman I would date were light-skinned women.
Like so many guys, I used to think that light-skinned women were prettier than "those little dark-skinned girls".
I'm still not sure why I used to think that.
Maybe it was because whenever I turned on the televsion, all the prominent roles featuring black women were played by light-skinned women.
Or when I watched music videos, all of the beautiful models were light-skinned.
I'm not sure!

But as I got older, I began to realize that a woman's skin complexion didn't make her beautiful-her personality is what made her beautiful.
Once I realized that, I began to gain a greater appreciation for dark-skinned women.
Not only only did I gain a greater appreciation for them, but I developed a full-fledged love affair with them.
So much so, that lately, I've only dated dark-skinned women.


One of the things that I find so attractive about dark-skinned women is the fact that after hearing crazy things like;
"You sure are pretty, to be a dark-skinned girl", some of them are still confident and secure enough to believe that they're the most beautiful woman walking the face of the earth.
Nobody personalified that type of attitude more than India Arie.
In a society that promotes white women as the standard of beauty, and in a community and industry that promotes light-skinned, black women as their counterpart-India has always fought the establishment by releasing songs like;
"I Am Not My Hair" and "Video".
She's never been ashamed of her beautiful dark-skin "Brown Skin".

That's why last week when I saw photos of her upcoming CD cover, I had to do a double-take and ask myself;
"Who is this light-skinned chick?"
"Who is this chick with the tight dress on?"
Surely this is not India Arie!
Surely she's not conforming to the system.
Surely she hasn't fallen victim to the same establishment she fought so hard against.
I haven't read the follow-up to this story, but I'm hoping it's all a big misunderstanding!
I'm hoping that she won't do like so many others before her, and abandon her beautiful "Brown Skin".