Forced me to see broader humanity.
Douglas Moore,
Sharon, VT.
Raised white, male, Midwestern and Republican the movement broke open so many of the absolutes in my life.
The Civil Rights Movement is Different
Tiana Icesis Bryant
New York City, NY
Brooklyn
My six words are like the Civil Rights Movement is different from any other subject, more independent, it’s a Lone Ranger. All the other things people say that’s important are not really because they are backed up with some things. People back everything up that’s important to them, but this to them is way different because it’s over. It really does not matter what people think, some things are more important to them, like family. People kill people and they don’t realize that they just took someone’s life from another family. FAMILY IS IMPORTANT TO EVERYBODY, unless they had a bad childhood and they think it’s okay.
Dear Grandma, Brown is Beautiful too.
Aliza Hirani
Ann Arbor, MI
My grandparents often travel from Pakistan to come visit my family once or twice a year. Growing up, my grandma would bring me tubes of “Fair & Lovely” lotion. It is a lotion that apparently bleaches your skin to make it “whiter”. It felt like brown beauty wasn’t good enough. It sent a message that said that beauty is something you achieve instead of something you already have. It was a message that said the standard I had to strive for was that of a White woman. There is this colonial mentality surrounding beauty that sends women the message that white beauty is the only real beauty. American media perpetuates this by under-representing women of color. When women of color are finally represented, they are the supportive side friend, the hired help, or the exotic/troublemaking woman. We need another cultural movement like the 1960s “Black is Beautiful” movement. Maybe, “Color is Cute”…okay so the slogan could use some work. But, I choose to reject the cycle of socialization that tells us that people of color’s natural features and skin color is inferior or less attractive than those of Whites. My grandmother still visits and brings tubes of Fair&Lovely in hopes that my younger cousins will start using it. I just grab the bottles from their hands and shake my head letting them know they don’t need to be white to be lovely.
