When I think of the color of black folks it’s “BROWN SKIN.” India Arie’s lyrics come to mind: “Brown skin, you know I love your brown skin, I can’t tell where yours begin, I can’t tell where mine ends…etc.

LisaRaye McCoy, co-directecd her first feature film “SKINNED”, which deals with colorism within our black communities. Dark Skin vs Light Skin. The Brown Paper Bag Test. Dividing our race leads us to developing racism within our own communities and truthfully we can’t afford the separation.

Our views on the way we see “BLACK FOLKS” “BROWN SKIN” people goes further back than what we can imagine. The William Lynn speech ( a discussion for another time) is an address purportedly delivered by a certain William Lynch (or Willie Lynch) to an audience on the bank of the James River in Virginia in 1712 regarding control of slaves within the colony. Some say the letter is a hoax, but you be the judge of that. I know most of us have friends of all SHADES OF BROWN and we treat them all the same. Let us not let SOCIETY dictate to us how we should treat one another because of the color of our SKIN….IF HAVING BROWN SKIN IS DAMN DEGRADING THAN WHY IN THE HELL DO WE HAVE ALL OF THESE TANNING SALONS AND PRODUCTS.

OH, BY THE WAY, FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA LOOKED STUNNING TONIGHT IN HER YELLOW DRESS AND BROWN SKIN.