I have to tell you a story and it is not an uncommon one. It starts with a young girl, with skin the colour of chocolate. According to her mother, this young girl spends too much time in the shower. Sometimes scolding her about wasting water and time and other times gently teasing her vanity.

But on those bathroom tiles, this young girl is crouched over, hard at work. She's scrubbing at her knees.

I don't know if you've ever noticed a brown girl's knees but they tend to be darker than the rest of their body. Even if you haven't, this young girl has assumed you have. According to her, you've seen her knees and you think she's ugly. She is confident you saw her knees, noticed how they are several shades darker than the rest of her and have decided that she is disgusting.

Hence the furious scrubbing and eyebrows scrunched up with focus. She refuses to leave that bathroom till she's forced at least one layer of ugly off. So her mom complains and shouts and makes fun while the young girl rolls her eyes in response because she's sure her mom will not understand her need to be one single colour.

Everywhere.

And preferably not the colour of chocolate. She would be overjoyed if she looked in the mirror and saw more white: the colour of clouds and purity instead of brown: the colour of dirt and mud. She'd even settle for caramel. As long as she had knees to match.

The time she spends on the bathroom tiles abusing and mistreating her skin, she is unknowingly scraping away the same colour her forefathers fought wars to keep free and equal. She is erasing the connection that ties her to a land of diversity and culture and history like no other. She is actively attacking herself, scrubbing herself raw because she is so sure her knees are too dark for her to be beautiful. Desired. Loved. Or even normal.

If only she knew that while white may be the colour of clouds and purity, brown is the colour of pots that keep water cool in far corners of the earth and the colour of chai that comforts the soul. It's beautiful because it is necessary and is no less than the white it's being pitted against.

If only fair skin wasn't so ridiculously coveted. If only every female lead in the films she watched weren’t fair-skinned. If only society had banded together to protect that young girl from the horrors of bleached skin and 'Fair and Lovely'. If only she had been taught to wear sunscreen to protect her health rather than to avoid tanning.

If only she had been told that her knees are just as beautiful as her skin, body, mind, heart and soul. If only someone told her that if a boy found her or her knees ugly he was simply blinded by how vibrant she was. Maybe if someone told her that having blonde hair was not only almost as common as having dark knees, but equally as gorgeous.

But none of that happened.

That girl only got up off those bathroom tiles because she was exhausted, not because she knew better. She got up because her back hurt, not because she knew how to love herself. And tomorrow she'll be back at it again. And again the next day.

You'll never meet someone as determined as this young brown girl with skin the colour of chocolate, who could sit for hours, torturing herself, on her bathroom tiles.

 
 
 
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