“Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do. Access to privilege doesn’t determine one’s outcomes, but it is definitely an asset that makes it more likely that whatever talent, ability, and aspirations a person with privilege has will result in something positive for them.” ~Peggy McIntosh

I came across the video attached just a day after our session on diversity. It made me reflect on what we talked about in our session.

The video further explains “white privileges” shockingly, ArchDuke talked about what we see when typing “beauty” I further typed man…and woman. I was left rather speechless after seeing what had appeared on the screen. In short, It looked nothing like me. Be it man, woman or beauty.

Is that what beauty is? Is beauty long blond hair, thin lips,blue eyes and…being white? It is sad that from a young age, we are tuned to believe so. We are made to believe that we need to be “sexy” to be white in color, have long blonde hair and to admire “whiteness” just like the Barbie dolls we grow up playing with.

But what about admiring our own self? Admiring our own beauty? Our full lips, round brown and brilliance of our eyes. Our noses, wide hips and shapely thighs, bald voices, the crowns we wear on our head, our thick, curled natural hair, our beautiful dark chocolate skin that clothes us.

How often do we see black dolls sold in our local stores?It is important that we bridge this gap! We need to raise our children to know themselves, to play with dolls of different races, they need to know from a very young age that black is beautiful, black is brave, black is intelligent…black is enough.