The poem by Nellie Wong really struck a chord when I was reading it. This girl, I'm assuming that it is a girl, longs and desires to be white and despises not being born white. There is an association with darkness and "badness". There was praise for being lighter skin and she was ashamed of her own skin and tries to "wash away" her color.
White skin has more power and more desire to the public eye. It is everywhere in the media; television, magazines, billboards, ads, commercials, you name it. There have been countless psychologists who have tested this theory. This view of white power is evident even in young children. For example, a study was done in a first grade classroom that had two women come and read to the children, one white and one black. At the end of both readings the children voted on reader 1 (white woman) or reader 2 (black woman). The majority of the children preferred the white teacher, even some minority children.
The girl in the poem struggles with her desire to be white and the biological choice she was given. She feels life will be harder for her and she will not have the same opportunities because of her skin color. The media favors white people and you often see them as the leading roles. Even when there is a group of different races, usually the white person is leading the group or speaks the most.
There needs to be a colorblind society, very much like a colorblind casting in a movie. When a casting director is "colorblind casting" they look for who brings out the character the best rather than skin color. Society needs to be colorblind I think and be more open minded to other races and skin colors.
I also wrote about this poem because it really made me open my eyes to the fact that many people feel inferior to the white race. I remember growing up and wishing I was skinnier or taller but never a different race. I really like your idea on society needing to be color blind, now only if we can convince the rest of the world! :)
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