May Round-Up 2020

Another month that has come and gone so quickly. It's so crazy that we are now heading to the middle of the year. Definitely didn't expect to be in a pandemic 6 months into the year. Life really is unpredictable. Anyway, I thought I would share what went down in May. Let's get straight into it.

Dear Black Community.

I wouldn't usually post so randomly like this, but I really feel that what I'm about to say, needs to be heard. I usually plan my posts and schedule them, but I'm writing this with no plan and I hope it reaches the right people. 

I have been sick to my stomach at the pain that our community is suffering. It has become physically draining to have to stand up for our community, just to have freedom. It hurts so much to still have to tweet #blacklivesmatter in 2020. I'm tired. We're all tired. But why is it that my frustration is viewed as less than others just because I'm lightskin? I saw a Tik Tok of a beautiful dark skin girl showing her beautiful features. I LOVE seeing black women embrace their beauty and I thought everyone else would too but some of the comments were appalling. "You're not dark skin", "You're not even dark" etc etc. Why does it matter? Why do we place each other on a scale? She is a BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMAN. One comment in particular that really hurt to read was when a lighter skin girl commented that she has also had to deal with not loving her black features and so many black women attacked her for that. One even said that "dark skins have to deal with it more" or something along those lines. Just because someone has a broken arm, doesn't mean someone else's burn doesn't hurt. It may be a different type of pain but it is pain nonetheless. 

As a lightskin black woman I completely see and understand that I have a certain privilege that many in our community do not, and it's not fair. I wish that was not the case, I really do, however, just as you did not CHOOSE to be dark skin, we did not CHOOSE to be light skin. Why should we be seen as though we're not as much of a member of this community because we don't have as much melanin?  Why should we not feel just as tired as everyone else in the community? Perhaps my insecurities and problems have not been a result of my skin tone, but I've had to deal with insecurities that many black women do. 

I have 4C hair. I grew up hating it. I felt abnormal with it. I went to a predominantly white primary school and although the children never said a bad word about it, I felt like an outcast. Every other girl could sit on the carpet and just listen to the story but I was always the girl who had their hair touched. Everyone with natural hair knows that feeling. I was a part of a dance group and whenever we had to put our hair in a high ponytail or half up, half down style for shows, I felt like an outcast because I couldn't have my natural hair in order to do that. My options were extensions and braids. Even then, I stood out because it would never look like theirs. 

I have a "black nose". Yes there are people with bigger and wider noses than mine but my nose is not eurocentric. Again, I grew up hating it. I was determined to get a nose job when I got older because I hated having a wide nose. It was the first thing I would notice on myself and I hated it. When I first got into makeup I tried contouring it and when it didn't work I was frustrated. 

My point of sharing all of that is not for pity or sympathy, it's to show that just because I am light skin, it doesn't mean I haven't experienced self hatred BECAUSE I AM BLACK. Even the fact that I am the lightest in my family and people would ask me if I am adopted, made me hate my skin. Just because my pain isn't the same, does not mean the pain wasn't and isn't there.

This has to stop. All this competitiveness and downplaying each other has to stop. If we as a community cannot be united, how are we supposed to expect other communities to unite with us? We experience prejudice too. People thinking you're arrogant just because of the colour of your skin. People thinking you're less black just because physically you have less melanin. It has to stop. 

As a daughter to a black man and black woman. A sister to 2 black brothers, I am just as frustrated as you. We are not your enemy. We are on your side. 

And to the people reading this that say 'I see no colour', I leave you with this. See it. See it VERY clearly. See every detail. Every fine line (or lack of because face it, we age well). See the colour and honour it. 

I could keep writing until my fingers bleed but if I'm being honest I should hope this is enough. We all want the same thing, please don't forget that. 

Whether dark skin, light skin or in-between, you are enough. 

Justice for George Floyd Petition: If you have not signed it, please do. It takes less than 2 minutes but the impact could be more than you know.

https://www.change.org/p/mayor-jacob-frey-justice-for-george-floyd

Words That Would Make Good Baby Names

So, this post is going to be super random and different. I was just thinking to myself one night, trying to fall asleep and I ended up thinking of random words that would make good baby names, if they didn't have the meanings or connotations that they do. I thought it could make a great blog post, so I put up a poll asking if people would want to read a post like this. Pretty much everyone who voted said yes, so here we are. ENJOY!

My Makeup Wish-list

For me, makeup has been so much fun to do whilst in quarantine. Of course I have lots of no makeup days but I also have days when I do a full face just to sit in my room. I don't wear makeup to impress anybody, I do it because I enjoy the process. Having all this time, it has been fun trying different beauty hacks, looks and techniques. Since exploring beauty at home, my wish-list has grown and I thought I would share the products that I am really keen to try. There are a mixture of drugstore and high-end products, which I hope eventually I'll be able to purchase. If you want to know what is on my list, just keep reading.

Answering Assumptions About Me

Welcome or welcome back! For today's post, I wanted to do something fun and light-hearted. These type of posts tend to do pretty well on my blog and it's nice to write something that doesn't require too much effort sometimes. As you can tell from the title, I am going to be responding to some assumptions people have about me. This is really popular on YouTube and I wanted to get on board with it. It's a good way to feed my curiosity and also for my readers to get to know me better.

All the assumptions were taken from people over YOLO (an anonymous app linked to Snapchat) and Instagram. If you want to get involved in future posts like this, make sure to follow my Instagram.
I'm excited to answer these, so if you want to read my responses, just keeping reading :)