{"id":410,"date":"2015-05-03T20:53:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T03:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/blog\/?p=410"},"modified":"2016-05-17T18:29:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T01:29:30","slug":"not-ashamed-pale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/not-ashamed-pale\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Ashamed: Pale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already, please read the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/na\/na-intro.php\">introduction post<\/a>. That will give you context for this page.<\/p>\n<hr width=\"50%\" \/>\n<p>I want to handle this carefully, because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking about skin colour. The importance we humans place on skin colour isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t particular to just one country, nor is it particular to so-called white people (where did we come up with these inaccurate colour names?). For something that does not impact our capabilities or capacities, we put a lot of stock in it. An inordinate amount. For something that people can make very few choices about, something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coded into their DNA, we sure treat people poorly, as if punishing them for those choices they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make. So, as I am about to talk about my skin colour, I want to make something clear: racism is not acceptable. It is rubbish. And, to the extent I can manage to be mindful of and shake off my societal programming, I endeavour not to be racist and not to add to the problems of those whose skin colour gets them way, way more trouble than mine has gotten me. (This is not a post to call for pity or to suggest that my experience is anywhere near the worst. Not at all.)<\/p>\n<p>When I say good things about the colour of my skin, I am absolutely <em>not<\/em> saying negative things (or even implying negative things) about your skin colour. Your skin colour does not and should not influence my opinion of you (though I reserve the right to be shocked if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poorly-done-self-tan orange and you are trying to pass it off as real tan). And so, whilst I am not here to talk about racism today, I want to pause to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153yay for whatever colour your skin is!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and to make it very, very clear that my love of my skin doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even in the slightest imply that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better than yours or that you should want your skin to be the colour of mine or that <em>any<\/em> skin colour <em>should<\/em> gain anyone privileges. Okay?<\/p>\n<p>Honestly, as an apparently-white girl who has surely benefitted from white privilege, I am beyond-hesitant to talk about racism other than to say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong and bad and all the stuff I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already said. When it comes to racism, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d much rather read the many things written by people who haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had white privilege. I want black voices and brown voices and red voices and yellow voices and any other colour voices to be heard and to be supported. Even writing this up has me feeling very concerned that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to say something stupid. If I do, please forgive me. And, if you have the patience, I promise I try to be educated and to see truths and will continue that self-education as I am pointed at relevant essays and books and such.<\/p>\n<p>Going to take a deep breath now and talk about <em>my<\/em> skin, hoping I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve clearly communicated my intent and my stand point on inequalities based on, among other things, skin colour.<\/p>\n<p>So, my skin. I am pale. Really pale. Pale enough that even lightest makeup colours in almost every line I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve tried have been darker than my actual skin colour. Pale enough that I once had a teacher call me out for breaking dress code based on the white tights I wore every day. (I was not wearing white tights.) I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m one of those who, with little exaggeration, calls herself translucent.<\/p>\n<p>And this skin burns easily. Wow. Really easily. The one time, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a long story but has nothing to do with not liking my skin colour, I tried to carefully give myself little bits of sunlight in successively longer intervals&#8230;it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work. I went from pale to burnt and back to pale. Yeah, pale and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to change.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, skin this pale shows every little red spot or blush or eyebrow in need of tweezing. Not to mention that you can see where the hair will be growing in within minutes of shaving (because, yes, naturally dark hair).<\/p>\n<p>Which is to say that, this skin of mine comes with some issues. Plus, other humans of assorted other colours of skin like to share their negative opinions about my skin colour. More than one (many, many more than one) have had plenty to say to make sure that I know that my pale skin is deserving of insults, that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unattractive, that I should feel bad about having it. I had one employer who told me that I had to wear blush because I was too pale and it bothered customers. And that was probably the nicest thing detractors have said.<\/p>\n<p>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m supposed to strive for a healthy glow (aka not pale, preferably lightly tanned and with a blush on my cheeks). If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m lucky, for a night out, I might be able to get away with <em>absolutely flawless<\/em> porcelain skin (with blush). But even that shade is usually based on the lightest in current makeup ranges and a little darker than I am naturally.<\/p>\n<p>Again, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying the rubbish I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve dealt with is anything near what people on the receiving end of racism have dealt with. Nope. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve definitely had it made clear by a goodly number of non-alternative people that my skin was something to be ashamed of. And media has taught me that, even if I love this skin, I need to be self-deprecating and at least express some shame in the form of apologies for blinding you if you catch a glimpse of my leg or apologies for being difficult if I prefer to stick to the shade and spare myself the chance of a burn. My skin is a maintenance issue and a joke and, oh my, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so sorry. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sorry.)<\/p>\n<p>And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not ashamed. Expecting <em>anyone<\/em> to be ashamed of skin colour is absolutely, entirely wrong. <em>Wrong<\/em>. And so I hope that you are not ashamed, no matter your skin colour. And if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re one of those haters, even if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re sure you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re entirely not racist but you just think my pale skin is unattractive, keep your opinions to yourself. I am not ashamed of my pale skin. Any shame I might have related to my skin colour would have to do with being ashamed of actions I or anyone arguably of my skin colour (aka white people) have taken that were racist. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only room I have for skin colour-related shame.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/na\/na-pale.php\">Cross-posted<\/a> to the Not Ashamed section of my site (so that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all tidy).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already, please read the introduction post. That will give you context for this page. I want to handle this carefully, because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking about skin colour. The importance we humans place on skin colour isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t particular to just one country, nor is it particular to so-called white people (where did we come up with these inaccurate colour names?). For something that does not impact our capabilities or capacities, we put a lot of stock in it. An inordinate amount. For something that people can make very few choices about, something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coded into their DNA, we sure treat people poorly, as if punishing them for those choices they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make. So, as I am about to talk about my skin colour, I want to make something clear: racism is not acceptable. It is rubbish. And, to the extent I can manage to be mindful of and shake off my societal programming, I endeavour not to be racist and not to add to the problems of those whose skin colour gets them way, way more trouble than mine has gotten me. (This is not a post to call for pity or to suggest that my experience is anywhere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-not-ashamed"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Not Ashamed: Pale - Amber Bird | Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amberbird.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/not-ashamed-pale\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not Ashamed: Pale - Amber Bird | Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t already, please read the introduction post. That will give you context for this page. I want to handle this carefully, because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m talking about skin colour. The importance we humans place on skin colour isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t particular to just one country, nor is it particular to so-called white people (where did we come up with these inaccurate colour names?). For something that does not impact our capabilities or capacities, we put a lot of stock in it. An inordinate amount. For something that people can make very few choices about, something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coded into their DNA, we sure treat people poorly, as if punishing them for those choices they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make. So, as I am about to talk about my skin colour, I want to make something clear: racism is not acceptable. It is rubbish. 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