A Point of View: Brown Skin

Brown skin is rich.

Rich in melanin, rich in culture – yet the currency exchange of melanin empties the pockets of Brown skin at the expense of white enlightenment. Brown skin doesn’t even get to determine if it’s “brown” enough.  

Brown skin doesn’t get the courtesy to “lean into” discomfort, to a slight remark, a stereotypical “joke” gone wrong. Brown skin feels discomfort as a default, assimilation on autopilot.

Brown skin is beautiful, glowing, revered, but only when it’s convenient. Until the brown skin disrupts, until the brown skin adds value that white skin can’t provide. Until the brown skin shares truths that are too complicated to solve with one response. Until the brown skin puts you at risk of feeling feelings you don’t want to feel.

Brown skin is revered if we entertain, if we compete, if we win on behalf of, or for, white success.  Brown skin is loathed when we are given credit when credit is due. Brown skin becomes the rationale for white shortcomings.

Brown skin is selectively permeable. Permeable to things that keep it soft. Impermeable to things that rid it of its moisture. Permeable to love, care, compassion, and trust; impermeable to the culture that our colonizers continue to claim and repurpose. Permeable to joy, abundance, and community. Impermeable to performative “support,” thoughts, and prayers without heart and soul. Impermeable to the systems that want us to be the other, the victim, the alternative, the inferior.

Brown skin doesn’t want to hide. It wants to be free to be, free to do, and free to glow. Brown skin regenerates, stronger and smoother, smarter, and silkier, year by year, generation by generation.

Brown skin is a gift that keeps on giving. Unwrap it gently and liberate it.