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Hello my foodies!
Today's video will be a response to "TinyAndBrown"
who released a video untitled "i am too dark"
The video was a featuring with a friend of hers. During the whole video, she is making her up.
I don't personaly know this youtuber, you can find the link of the video in the description box, (there is no english subtitles in it though ^^')
but for what i understood through the video and the comment section, she is a make up artist.
I found the video in my thumbnail (i don't remember what i was watching at that time, nevermind)
i was attracted by the title of the video so i clicked on it. She asked a friend of hers (dark-skinned)
to talk about her life and struggles as a dark skinned.
Let's start with the positive aspects!
i did not see TinyAndBrown herself in the video,
she quickly said that she did not wanted to talk about the subject herself, even if she really feels concerned by the issue
because she is a light skinned.
She thought that the only a dark skinned person should talk about the issue.
That's why she wanted her friend to talk, which i found really positive.
Another thing i liked : they really tried to promote black beauty
she even made her friend up
To me, her friend was more beautiful before she had make-up on
because at the end, the difference of skin tone was too much for me, but that's just my opinion.
Anyways, her friend is beautiful with and without make up on.
Now, let's go to what bothered me!
it started really fast!
it started when i heard "me as a 'black' "
when i heard that word ('black') i felt like...
i have some issues with people who talk about blacks calling them "black" (in french, black is "noir" and instead of using the French word, they use the English one)
as if the word "noir" was an insult or something like that, we are "noirs" not "black"
we don't call "blancs" "white", we say "blancs"
we shouldn't be afraid of (some) words.
when we talk in english, we use "black", not "noir" to talk about us because we are talking in English
when i was in China, i heard Chinese to talk about us, over there, they say "hei ren", which literally means "black people"
so we shouldn't be afraid of some words, we are "noirs", it's ok.
so the use of that word bothered me a little.
They also talked about words people are using to "compliment" black women
i was also said that i was beautiful "for a black woman"
"intelligent 'for a black' " and a lot of things like that "for a black"
when i was a kid, i thought i was compliment and i took them as compliments.
In their video, they also said that the first time they heard those words, they took them as compliments too.
I remember that day i was talking with my father about black people in general
and i told him that i had a discussion with a white and that this person told me how black were uneducated, ghetto and so on, but that i was different.
(i think at that time i was in high school) My father replied it was not a compliment
that what this person told me was : blacks are rude people and telling me
"you're different" was not a compliment and that i should not take it as one.
after that, i thought to myself "that's true, it's ain't a compliment. This person is judging a whole community without any knowlege of it.
Talking about that aspect to make black women to understand these kind of talks aren't compliment at all is really a good thing.
I liked the fact they talked about that.
If i did not have that conversation with my father, it's possible that i would have never known these are not a compliments.
It's also possible that i would have learnt it later, i don't know.
But i was bothered by a specific part of their video and that's why i wanted to make a reponse.
It was when they talked about Khoudia Diop
So, Khoudia Diop is the wonderful young lady you would see up here in the pictures!
They talked about her to say that in the black community, we are used to slander ourselves and that we are unable to support each others.
They added that a lot of black women were violent in their comments towards Khoudia (that's true).
They used that example and started to critic and to generalise "the black"
saying "we don't want to generalise buuuuut"
let's be honest : it IS a generalisation.
it looked like "the black is : selfish, unable of solidarity, dictator, bad..." well a lot of negative adjectives to describe the community.
i was bothered by that fact and i thought to myself :
i don't know how to translate that idea in French, that's why i said it in english ^^"
we are criticizing.. you..well, i say "we" because it's a general "we".
We are criticizing people because they are criticizing others.
With those kinds of arguments "blacks are always in the judgement and the critic"
"we are always judging each other" "we are unable of showing solidarity" "we are this" "we are that"
Here is what i want to say "playing in that game isn't positive either"
This young lady who is called Khoudia Diop is really beautiful, she's really gorgeous, i mean...
the first time i saw her, i was thinking "she looks like a doll"
if i want my brothers and sisters to think the same
and say "she is really gorgeous"
i would say "here is another model who could represent a part of the black community which doesn't feel represented
let's support her, let's put a lot of positive comments for her to feel a lot of love, for her to feel supported,
even if she does not know the people who put the comments, it doesn't matter"
"that each time there is a new person who can represent the communitiy, we have to support him/her"
they could have talked this way,
but they'd rather being negative, it really bothered me.
i was also bothered when they made a comparison between black community and other communities.
"we as blacks are always like that, but north africans and asians aren't like that"
"that's why we never succeed" "that's why there are troubles in Africa"
I don't know the origins of those two ladies, when i say that, i literally means : from which countries they are
and if they often go to Africa (and in their country)
I am Cameroonian but i grew up in France
but from what i heard from relatives who often go to Cameroon,
there are creating communities, associations to support each others
If it's not AMAP as in France, which is an association which favors local trade and creates a link between farmers and consumers
it's villages which are creating communities to do things all together.
so limiting black as someone who is selfish, unable of solidarity, who does not do anything
and that's why we are poor in Africa, that's why we can't succeed, that's why we have dictators and so on....
when i said "i don't know where they come frome" i meant : i don't know if they went to their country to see how it goes over there.
i won't say everything is perfect but saying we don't do anything, we don't support each other...
i won't say it's totally wrong cause there are some people who are jealous and who can't accept when other succeed
that's true, but i dont' think it's specific to black people. These kind of people exist in any community.
They also forgot to talk about something else.
I really felt that they were minimizing black suffering
i heard them say : "there is racism, but not that much today"
no, there is not "less" racism, it's "institutionalized"
it's a pity to look at consequences without paying attention to causes.
Saying the Asian and the North African communities know how to support each other when we don't,
is avoiding the fact that they don't share the same history.
I did a bit of Chinese civilisation, so i will only talk for China :
yes, Jesuits came to China but it was different, even if they considered Chinese as "less than whites"
the expression of "superiority" (white vs chinese) was more controlled with China.
When they understood during the XIX and the XX century that Chinese did not want to "negociate" with them, they started to
create dissensions between Chinese, introducing corruption, *** and things like that.
So Asian don't share the same history as blacks, they suffered as well though,
i don't want to classify suffering.
But it's just not the same history.
it's not a population which suffered from V century of slavery
we every time have to remind people of that fact...
it's not a population which was dehumanized (during the same duration and at the same scale),
which was used to do scientific "researches" (during the same duration and at the same scale).
It's not a population whose people finished in zoos,
they did not succeed to make them disown their own culture and identity
It's not similar at all.
As a consequence, we are not all aware and we are not all able to be aware (of our real history, of our current struggles)
every one does not have access to newspapers, literatures,
every one does not have relatives who are aware (of the same things),
every single one of us is not coming from the same place.
So making a whole generalisation saying
"black are like this, black are like that, it's not a generalisation buuuuut...what people think is not coming from nowhere."
is a shame. To me, it's really a shame.
The video they made was coming from a good place,
but the focus about aesthetic was maybe too important, but not that much, just a little like this!!
Because it is also true that as black women we also need to hear that we are beautiful as we are.
That we have charms, that our differences are beautiful, we need to hear that more often.
If i'm not mistaken, her channel is about beauty so it's normal that it was what she highlighted.
But once again, criticizing "the black" without analyzing all the aspects around our community was a pity to me.
That's why i wanted to make a response.
Do not hesitate to tell me what you thought about the video and if you liked it.
Do not hesitate to like the video if you like it
do not hesitate to subscribe and to click on the little bell
to be able to have notifications each time i release a video
because i planned to make videos more often!!!
i hope to see you next week
i can't tell right know but i hope so!!
Waiting for that : eat a lot of vegetables, drink a lot of water
but first and foremost, keep smiling :)
Deuces!