hmm..sooo, my skin is pretty because it's "light" in your eyes??

so.. i wasn't expecting to have such a deep conversation with the nail tech who was doing my nails today. I mean...usually when i get my nails done anywhere, the convo stays pretty much on the surface level. Today's chat while beautifying my paws was a bit different...than any other i've had before, in such a place. Maybe there was a little more of a comfort level between us because i'd been sent to this particular salon by a girlfriend of mine whose nails i've marveled at for years. she told me to ask for a particular gentleman, and so i did. Once i told him who'd sent him to me...it was ON and poppin'....

Things started out innocently enough... i was kind of tickled because though he was from vietnam originally, and had a pretty thick accent... i could tell he'd been in the south for awhile...and I could also tell from his conversation he'd been around..... well... black folks! lol. He shared with me that he'd first been in atlanta... and shared some of his experiences there.... We talked about the challenges he's noticed by being a man of color in the particular area of nashville he lived and worked in.... I must admit, i was honestly a bit impressed with him... he seemed to be very grounded, and rooted...and we shared many of the same ideals about how customers...and well, just people in general should be treated, regardless of their skin color...

the big ol' monkey wrench was tossed in the convo' bucket, when i asked him a question about my nail beds... he kept referring to how pretty and pink they were, naturally... "Cool." I thought, i mean.... what woman doesn't like a gratuitous compliment every now and then...or ALL the time...about their beauty... even if it's a compliment on the cuticle of my right pinky toe nail.... i'm happy.... and so i thanked him and stared off at the television to avoid an awkward silence....

THEN he continued his nail bed flattery by explaining that not all black women had cuticles like mine.... Most of us, he said....had Dark, Ugly nail beds... because of their darker skin complexion... he then went on to point out to me my skin... tapping my forearm... "see... your skin is not so dark..its light and pretty... not so dark"...

sadly i didn't respond the way i probably SHOULD have, because it was such an awkward, unexpected moment... but immediately my mind spun into absolute orbit... thinkin' things like... "uhhhm... did this fool just say that??!"... Still i kind of nodded and stared off again, trying to avoid my mouth from getting me into trouble..... Later he commented about my hair.. and how it was "GOOD" hair.. because it was curly and etc... (what he DIDN'T know was that i was wearing a fall... a hair piece that you can clip onto your head, to add fullness and volume and etc..) Well... i wasn't going to miss my chance this time. I asked him if he'd seen Chris Rock's documentary on black womens' hair..and the hair industry... He said he'd seen some of it.... I wasted no time in letting him know about the movie...and about how i felt...

i explained to him the sad fact that for as long as black women have been in america... and probably even longer... there has been an "invisible" force...telling them that their natural hair..skin...lips...butts...thickness...and the such... was NOT considered beautiful.... and that many of us bought into the idea that... the western worlds' idea of beauty, was the real standard... in other words... we believed the crappy hype that told us, White, is Right...lol.. that straight her, and porcelain skin... equalled beauty....

we had an engaging conversation... we shared our opinions..but i left him with a few thoughts that ultimately he seemed to agree with... We have to love ourselves... our skin tone..our full lips, our thin lips..our kinky fro's, our red hair and freckles... whatever it is we've been given... Because we all... every last one of us reflect the beauty and splendor of God. God who created us all in his image, the image of BEAUTY...filled with variance.... NO man, woman, cat, or flying squirrel should ever fix their lips to call another ones God given skin tone...dark and ugly... i mean besides... where the H' has he been?? the product is called DARK AND LOVELY!!! OKAY?!?! haha!

siiigh......