A friend of mine is black. When her older sister was born, her sister had very light skin. It was difficult for strangers to see her sisters blackness and she would frequently be mistaken as a white child. When her mom was pregnant with her second child- with my friend- she started praying. She loved the beauty God created within her first daughter and would never want to change Gods creation, but she also wanted to pass down the beauty of her own color. She asked God to make her second child darker skinned. And thats exactly how my friend came. My friends mom never told her girls not to go out because they would get too dark, nor to stay home in fear they would get too light. She didnt encourage her lighter skinned child to use tanning creams to get darker, nor her darker skinned child to use whitening creams to get lighter. Instead, she instilled in both of her daughters a love for the way they had been naturally created and a love for their Creator. Most of us do not have control over the medias perpetuation of stereotypes, nor are we able to immediately change historic, systemic, institutional injustice which specifically affects communities of color. But there is one thing we can control: our own messaging to ourselves, our families and one another. Are we microcosms of the media when we perpetuate stereotypes about other races to our own children? Are we microcosms of unjust policy when we tell our kids they cant marry someone due to race or color? If we have it, do we recognize our privilege and consider how we can be allies? Our differences are signs of God. We may not feel we can change the world or politics or the media. But we can change our own thoughts, discourses and behaviors, working to find healing with the support of one another. And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge (Quran, 30:22).
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 06:17:22 +0000
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