Skin Bleaching a Major Problem in Jamacia

I'm so sad to hear this.. My boyfriend was telling me that this as been a growing problem for years.... His cousin's have done and regreted it. It's dissapointing that people feel so bad about themsleves that they resort to buying roadside "remedies"....

Im going to have a child soon and the last thing I want is for them to feel like his/her skin colour is "bad".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10718945

 

I'm 100% Jamaican and this is the first I'm hearing of this.

 

PUH-thetic!!:smt019

 

have you lived in Jamacia?
my BF lived there for 19 years and he saw them selling this stuff downtown..

 

News to me...it's like a bunch of Mich Jacksons in spot. It's sad that they are reverting to such extremes to fit in...I know this sounds stupid and cliche, but I wish we could all be one color, and have similiar attributes.

 

I don't know why they're doing that when everyone pretty much looks the same down there. Its weird.

 

Why perceive skin based on the ignorance of the population's perception of beauty? I love my skin. I'm dark, tall, and handsome and I let no one get to me.

 

skin lightening is a piece of the cosmetic industry that not alot of people like to talk about...women spend big money on treatments here in the usa...there was actually some controversy in 2006 around the ingredient hydroquinone...the FDA was unsucessful in banning this product completely but instead set guidelines that companies could not sell OTC (over the counter) anything higher than 2%...a person can however get a prescription of a higher percentage...kojic acid is also a very popular skin lightening ingredient...just about every skincare company know to woman has some type of skin lightening product on the market...most women use these products to even out skintone due to sun damage hyperpigmentation as well as hypopigmentation

this practice in jamacia takes us back into history where if you were dark it must mean that you are poor and work in the fields...if we look at slavery the lighter you were in skintone the closer you worked to the slave owners house...the lightest often worked in the house...some cultures never let go of the stigma attached to the light to dark spectrum

 

That makes sense in a country where the majority is white and the closer to white the more accepted you are but in a country where the majority of country is dark skin to brown skin black I don't get why it's a plus. There's virtually no white population in Jamaica to emulate.

 

you would have to look at it as a spectrum of shades from light to dark...these women are not looking to be white...just a lighter shade of darkness...evidently the stigma of being very dark could hinder mating potential...success...movement out of the slums

 

this is also a very common secretive practice in the usa among black women...when you have beyonce obviously transitioning in skin/hair color much lighter as if she bridges herself between white/black...there was a huge scandal over the cosmetic campaign that she did for loreal...i'll find the article and post it...

this is the most recent arcle over her appearance at the grammys...it was a 2008 article that loreal used her in an advertisement for feria hair colour and her skin was noticably lighter than pervious pictures

Beyoncé blasted with skin lightening allegations


02/18/2011




Left, Beyonce in 2006(AP Photo/Jennifer Graylock)/Right, Beyonce in 2011 (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images For The Recording Academy)
By Leslie Pitterson

This week, when pictures of Beyoncé in Los Angeles for the Grammys hit the web, people seemed to have many questions. If they weren't asking where Jay was or why Gwyneth Paltrow was her date instead of her hubby, the onlookers had one other thing on their minds: her skin.
Why is she so light?
Did she bleach her skin?
One article, though, seems to stick out. Today in the Daily Mail, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown wonders if Bey is setting a bad example. In "Why I believe Beyoncé is Betraying All Black and Asian Women," she writes:

Her complexion and limbs were translucently pallid, her locks long, straight and blonde.
​

Now, racial mixing since the days of slavery means 'Black' Americans come in a whole range of skin hues, but in recent years Beyonce's tone seems miraculously to be changing from dusky to peachy.
​

In truth, it is hard now to tell she is the daughter of an African-American father and Creole mother. It was three years ago that L'Oreal was accused of whitening Beyoncé's face in a magazine advert, a charge denied by the company. But now there she is, looking like a willowy Caucasian.
​

Okay, let's back up. While it's one thing to note your preference for a bronzy hued Beyoncé, it is quite another to imply that she is purposely seeking to lighten her skin. It seems like the oldest trick in the book of back women's criticisms to attribute paler skin to self-hatred.

 

I gotta call bs on the article because Beyonce has always been loved for her bronze appearence. It's not like she's being over looked for lighter skinned actresses or singers. Truth be told she's the most successful singer in decades so I don't buy it. I think it was lighting that made her look lighter or maybe it was winter when the picture was taken. Believe or not black people get lighter in cold weather too it's not just whites and Asians.

 

i don't really care about beyonce...how sucessful she is or what she does for a living...she is a representative of the black female community...i only used her as an example of why bw feel the need to lighten their skin...this is not the only time this has happened in fact beyonce color has been in question over the the last four years she has been accused of skin lightening...not convicted...accused

 

Yeah and I bet haters are the ones accusing her. Her life is virtually perfect on the outside looking in and again she's poster child for black beauty I don't get why she would feel the need to lighten her skin especially since she's light to begin with, she doesn't seem dumb enough to believe anyone will mistake her for being white.

To me its like Pam Grier doing shit like that and she was the poster child for black beauty in the 70s

 

this isn't really even about beyonce or any other celebrity...again, i only used her as an example...the article is wrapped into the slums of jamacia...these women feel the only way out of the slums to a better life is by lightening their skin...

 

Which is probably true. Interesting how my family made it out and we're all dark. I wonder how it happened.

 

I should also stress, that it's not only women... Plenty of men are involved in this too.. Which seems strange to me because Black men here seem to love their darker skin.

 

Here as in Canada or in the forums?

 

I read about this yesterday where some Caribbean folks lighten their skin. This is tragic since whitening the skin is dangerous. It must had been a self esteem problem.

 

Yeah.. Canada. I would assume America too. no?