You're Pretty... for a Dark Girl

You're Pretty... for a Dark Girl.

Throughout my life, I've received compliments from men of different races. However there is one underhanded compliment that I've received and sadly from men of my own race. 

"You're pretty... for a dark girl"

I would venture a guess from experience that majority, if not all my fellow, beautiful dark sistas have been thrown this so-called compliment. As if we should take it like it's the best affirmation of our beauty, we will ever get. News flash! It's anything, but a compliment! Why not just say "I think you're pretty" and that be the end of the statement. Adding the "for a dark girl" is a slap in the face. 

Now I know the whole team light skinned vs team dark skin has been around since... forever. Our race being divided, as if one complexion is superior over the other. I can remember riding the bus in middle school on field trips and the girls cackling about who their "famous future husband" was going to be. Around that time Al B. Sure, Babyface, Prince, L.L. Cool J, El DeBarge and Allen Payne (the light skinned brotha from New Jack City) were the top contenders. Girls screaming who their pick was. Saying his name multiple times staking their claim. Boys had their version of the same game. Picking between Vanity, Appolonia, Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. Dark skinned women and men were left out, as if we were the sooty stains of our race. 

Red bone, caramel, chocolate, dark chocolate. We are all beautiful and we are all in the same struggle. 

I thank my parents and my family for not making my complexion an issue. Thus teaching me that my beauty doesn't solely lie in the tone of my skin. I love the skin I'm in and apparently so does the sun. The sun loves it so much that it kisses it multiple times, just enriching my tone. So why can't my beautiful brothas love it, just as unconditionally?