I feel you Brown girls.  I just wanted to say to my Brown Skin/Dark Skin Sisters that I had many issues and insecurities concerning my skin color when I was younger. 

Especially coming up and going to school during the 1960s, Black was not Beautiful. It still took some convincing even after James Brown declared “Say It Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud”. I can’t tell you how many times I was called “Tar Baby” and various other insulting names by the other Black kids on the playground and in the neighborhood.
        
I used to go home to my Daddy crying. Daddy used to tell me, Deborah, “The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter the Juice, if the Berry’s too light it has no use”. My Dad was dark skinned like me and he soothed me as well as instilling self-esteem and pride within his daughter.
        
Well the 1970s came along. Soul Train, Watu Wasuri use Afro Sheen.
Black Power. Famous Black Models gracing the covers of fashion magazines such as Vogue.
        
Props to Beautiful Brown Skinned SisterGirls:
       

• Grace Jones
• Bethann Hardison
•  Beverly Peele
•  Naomi Sims
  Toukie Smith
  Roshumba Williams
          

 My current favorite: Alek Wek
        
Essence magazine came into being.
        
Suddenly it was a good thing to be Dark Skinned. My Dad and I wore our Afros proudly.
        
Ethnic looks, fashion, the flavor of the month. All Cyclical. Especially in America a nation caught up in the youth craze. America, a nation that equates youth with beauty. America, whose standards of beauty change with each passing fad.
        
Now that I’m middle-aged I thank God for this dark brown skin. Why   because many of the white women want to know what I do to look the way I do. As soon as they hit their late 30s, 40s the wrinkles and lines appear. Why do you think those anti-aging creams and formulas are so popular? Botox. Restylne. 

 Those things are not being marketed to us. For the most part we don’t need it. I’ll be 51 on Feb 27^th, look 41, if I colored my hair could pass for 35. 

 This dark brown skin I used to curse; now I celebrate every day when I look in the mirror.
        
My baby cousin Veronica, age 15 showcases the beauty of African, Hispanic and Native American in one gorgeous package. Yes she has the light skin coupled with the shoulder length hair. 

 Years ago I would have been jealous of someone like her. But many years have passed and I’ve been her caretaker off and on since she was two so Veronica is my defacto daughter.
        
When I see Veronica I feel love and joy, not because she’s light skinned and pretty. Roni just has a different type of beauty than mine. My family has mixed heritage from many branches. If you saw all of us together, you’d see a living human rainbow bound by blood. Even though we are on two shades of the skin color spectrum when my friends, neighbors and co-workers see us together they assume that’s my daughter. As far as I’m concerned Veronica is my Daughter. One of my goals is that when Roni is around me to teach her not to capitalize on her looks. Not to manipulate men or people in general. 

 I want Veronica to get her education. I envision her receiving a BA,
then a MA in whatever discipline she chooses. Leave the boys alone. They’re no good anyway. She is a girly-girl. Loves the latest looks but young women dark and light skinned need to get wisdom, knowledge and understanding in their heads.
        
I still get plenty of attention from men. All men Black, white even some from the Middle-East. Some unwanted but that’s another story.
        
As for my current love interest, whom I’ll nickname the Bouncing Bulgarian. He likes this dark-skinned woman. Very much.
        
So, Thank you to both my African and Native American Ancestors for dark brown skin, high cheekbones and Nappy/Kinky hair. I am the best of all worlds.