Toni Morrison’s rich debut novel, The Bluest Eye (1970) tells the story of a sexually abused 11-year-old black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who is constantly told she’s ugly and fervently prays for her eye to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as blonde, blue-eyed children. Unable to escape a world that bases the ideal of beauty on whiteness, Pecola is driven to insanity.
Dramatic and no doubt tragic, The Bluest Eye illustrates the levels of self-hate that sadly still persist within the black community — even in a so-called ‘post’ racial society — manifesting itself in the persistent use of dangerous skin lightening creams and skin bleachers.
In the 1940s, psychologist Kenneth B Clark’s Doll Test and Colouring Tests made startling revelations about self-hate among black children. In the doll tests, when presented with a white doll and a black doll — identical in every aspect except for hue — child after child would choose the white doll over the black doll, which they said was ugly compared to the white doll.
In the Colouring Tests, children were given colouring paper with a leaf, an apple, an orange, a mouse, a boy and a girl on it. They were asked to first colour the other objects to make sure they had a basic understanding of what colours things should be.
When they passed that test, they were asked to colour the boy or the girl. The results spoke for themselves: 88% of black children would colour themselves black or brown, but always a few shades lighter than they actually were.
I wanted to see what it would be like to be white, and I’m happy
The tests were recreated in 2007 with the same results, once again revealing the self-hate prevalent among black people, which equates beauty, success and intelligence with light skin.
A recent United Nations report found that despite the dangers of skin-lightening creams and the link to cancer, their use is still widespread. In Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Togo, 25%, 77%, 27%, 35% and 59% of women respectively, are reported to use skin-lightening products on a regular basis.
Singer Nomasonto ‘Mshoza’ Mnisi send ripples of shock throughout the country in 2011 when she underwent skin lightening treatments and appeared several shades lighter, saying her new complexion made her feel more beautiful and confident. “I’ve been black and dark-skinned for many years, I wanted to see the other side. I wanted to see what it would be like to be white, and I’m happy,” Mshoza told the BBC.
Earlier this year, Nigerian singer Dencia made headlines when she began peddling her ‘dark spot remover’ cream, Whitenicious, which she used to transform her chocolate brown complexion to almost albino white.
Dencia before
Dencia after
Professor and ethnographer Dr Yaba Blay, whose work focuses on black culture and aesthetics, says the use of skin lightening creams is prolific.
She says the signs and images projected by mainstream media in certain African countries, like Nigeria, constantly push the idea that whiter is better, with Nollywood stars advertising skin lightening creams on billboards, radio and TV commercials, and with popular movies such as Beyoncé and Rihanna where mixed-race actresses play the much-sought-after love interest.
“You might ask an aunty in Nigeria if she bleaches her skin and she would say, ‘No’, but in her cabinet you would find bleaching creams.
“I don’t think she’s lying, but in that particular social context you have people who deliberately bleach their skins and those who use products to do what they call ‘toning’ to even out the skin a little bit, but they wouldn’t call that bleaching, however they are still buying those products.
“So those numbers [From the UN] reflect how much those products are being purchased in those countries,” Dr Blay says.
She adds that despite the obvious damage and the risk of cancer, women persist in using these products. “They are aware that it’s going to hurt, but for them the benefits of light skin and the perceived social benefits far outweigh the risk. For them, the process of lightening the skin is less painful than having dark skin.
“It’s nothing short of a way of life for some people. In the same way that you would not think twice about taking a shower and putting on lotion, I think it’s the same sort of logic.
“Just as you don’t have to explain why you put on lotion, for many people using skin lightening creams it’s exactly the same thing. It becomes part of their daily ‘skin care’ routine and they don’t have to explain why.”
Half-caste
Earlier this year, a Ghanian website, www.halfcastebabies.com, reportedly selling the sperm of white men to perfect fertile African couples who want to have light-skinned babies, was shut down.
While the peddling of white sperm is certainly extreme, we cannot ignore that there are some dark-skinned people, broken down by years of being discriminated against because of their complexion, who — consciously or unconsciously — seek to have children with white or light-skinned people to ensure their kids are fairer.
“It’s a nuance; it’s a type of bleaching,” Blay says. “There is no judgment; it is something that happened as far back as slavery days. Often we think of mixed race children being the result of rape, but throughout the diaspora, there are many narratives of African slaves who ‘tolerated’ sex with their enslavers in order to ensure that their resultant light-skinned children would have a better life than them.”
Blay references the book Cane River where four generations of women, who have internalised the ‘lighter-skin-is-better-than-darker-skin’ complex, systematically have children with white men so that by the time you get to the eighties, the surviving members are so light-skinned, they are effectively white.
Dating across race has become a way of life in a democratised world where colour no longer matters, but Dr Blay says we have to admit the hard truths that some dark-skinned people seek out these interracial relationships — not because they are so open and humanist, but because they want their children to come out with light skin and good hair.
“That is part of the conversation that we’re not having, but it’s the truth.”