Dark skin is always in!

It is still amazing to me how a black person can write something about black people and have very little regard for black people. Mr. Brown (yes, that really is his last name) is unfortunately one of the clueless as proven by his post on Michelle Obama: "Michelle Obama's dark skin inspires women of color all of the world". (You can link to the article below) The best thing about his post is the title and then it goes down hill from there as it spirals into a convoluted mess of back-handed compliments, racial stereotyping and the author referring to the First Lady as a worthy possession. Yes, Mr. Brown has definitely taken us backwards a couple hundred years at least!

For many years main stream media has ignored dark skinned women as a symbol of beauty. (...) Her world wide appeal as a women of color who has brains and confidence is an inspiration not only to black women but Indian , Asian ,and Hispanic.

There have always been black women with brains and confidence in the world and the First Lady is one of many that make us all proud! I can agree with Mr. Brown on the fact that "mainstream society" has been missing out on the wonderful truth that black women are beautiful in all shades of brown!

Dark skin women are in because of Michelle Obama, it's more socially acceptable now for a white man to want to go out with a dark skinned sister and not be paranoid about other peoples perceptions of skin color.

WTH...Is Mr. Brown being a pimp for the white man or something for us "darkies"? Mr. Brown surely could not be implying that dark skin women have never been desired by the white man whether it was considered socially acceptable or not in our white supremacist society. I shouldn't have to point out well over 400 hundred years of history in these "United" States of America that would say otherwise. For the record, paranoia and and a sense of entitlement is the foundation of white supremacy in America and we don't need you helping it out!

In India were dark skin is still frowned upon many Indian women look at Michele Obama as a role model and inspire hope for dark skinned women in India who have historically been under represented in marriages to upwardly mobile men. People are actually starting to form images in their head of the ideal trophy wife and guess what? that image is not as fair skinned as she used to be since Michelle came along. I find myself day dreaming about meeting a tall ,strong,dark skinned women like Michelle Obama because she is the new sexy. She is fresh and something new that men want to possess out of curiosity and partly out of excitement in engaging in previously taboo social interaction.

I know...I know... now you further understand why I think his post is completely ridiculous and just a convoluted mess. This post has one stupid thought process after another. Trophy wife??? Since when is a beautiful, intelligent and accomplished woman considered a trophy. I have to say that Mr. Brown disappoints me because he should know better but nooooo... he proceeds to basically turn the First Lady into an exotic sexual plaything to be possessed by a man in the very next sentence! A BLACK man equating a BLACK woman with being exotic as if we are "other". Well, all I can say is that with black men like you having our back black women definitely don't need anymore enemies.

The only thing left for Michelle Obama to do is wear her hair natural ,braids,afro,or one of several other popular styles and she will have flipped all those old social phobias on their head.(...) Do dark skinned women feel they have to perm and process their hair to get it as straight as possible like white womens hair for fear of a nap becoming a painful reminder of their African roots? (...) Her oldest daughter Malia likes to wear her hair natural and she looks very cute with that style,not fake and processed like she does when she perms it , but the difference is Malia Obama is a few shades lighter then her mother and this maybe why she can pull off this style without threatening the status quo,am I making any sense?

Okay I can say this without feeling any since of guilt...Mr. Brown is an IDIOT. Not all black women have kinky hair AND not all white women have straight hair. Since when, in the 21st century, does only darker skin equate to having kinky hair. Black women are always being unnecessarily scrutinized for wearing a variety of hairstyles in American society more than any other race of woman in America. In today's world, hairstyles are an individual's choice that has more to do with personal preference and also hair being used as an accessory. Mr. Brown obviously doesn't realize that there are women of all races that choose to go from curly to straight and from straight to curly everyday! The natural state of "black hair" in today's world means many different things and it has nothing to do with the shade of skin.

In this alleged new era of racial enlightenment, how would we see Michelle if she switched to braids, twists, curls or dreads, if she looked more like the black person she is? We applaud the sparkling new role models in the White House. But do we expect the Obamas to define a new black mainstream or to hew to an idealized model created by a white mainstream that blacks internalized long ago?

Yet another unnecessary statement that assumes that a black woman wearing her hair straight is not being who she really is. When he sees a white woman walking around with tightly coiled hair I wonder if he feels she is not being white. Mr. Brown is asking an awful lot of a hairstyle when he thinks it can have anything to do racial enlightenment and defining a "new" black mainstream. It's just hair...whether it is straight or not!

Wooh... I could go on about Mr. Brown's misguided post on the First Lady but my fingers are tired. Read the rest of his post (here).