Black people have always had a tortured relationship with non-blacks who tan themselves. There’s a certain level of mockery infused in blond bombshells sitting in the sun trying to get darker while innately harboring a sense of superiority over the naturally mocha, and that pisses us the fuck off*. It all goes back to Paul Mooney’s elegant quote: “Everybody wanna be a nigga don’t nobody wanna be a nigga.”
I could go on all day long about white people, tanning, and the evils thereof - but instead I’m going to address something completely confined within the black community. There is a minority within the minority that suffers in silence due to a combination of the awesome power of the sun and the pride we dark people take in our naturally occurring melanin. Their plight has gone on without mention for far too long…
I’m talking about black people who sunburn.
Figure 1: Hiding my shame in Puerto Rico**
The Melanin-Challenged (henceforth called “MCs” for brevity) suffer everyday with their condition. We put up with the darker among us referring to us as ‘yellow’. We laugh along on the outside but cry on the inside when the darkers mock sunburned white people. We lie…LIE PASSIONATELY…when we claim “yea I’m light, but I never get sunburn.” Ever had an MC tell you this? LIES! ALL LIES!
If an MC is on vacation with a bunch of darkers in a place where sunburn can happen, he lives his life in fear. If he is caught putting on sunblock, he will face days of merciless mockery as his blackness is slowly siphoned away like the world’s oil supply. If he fails to get his sunblock on undetected and is caught with the reddish shame of sunburn, the darkers will literally kill, cook and eat him to restore balance to the Force.***
Figure 2: Burns easily
The clever MC will steal away into the bathroom, or decide to ‘take a walk’ alone, or say “hey, I’m gonna go hit on the hot hotel clerk.” This is the best way to get alone time to apply sunblock without getting caught. The best time to do it is first thing in the morning. The darkers, who have spent the entire day freely basking in the sun and are supercharged by mid-day from the sun’s energy stored in their skin, are at their weakest and most docile at dawn when the sun’s power is at a minimum. They are must less likely to question you or ask to come along.
Make sure that you have the sunblock in a clear jar or cup labeled ‘Sperm’. That’ll keep your friends from looking at it too closely and finding out what it really is if they stumble across it by accident. Also if you get caught applying sunblock in the bathroom, you can say that it’s your sperm in the jar and not sunblock. When they ask why you’re rubbing your sperm all over your body, tell them you’re half Mayan. Do not offer any further explanation. If this doesn’t work, pick up the jar and make like you’re gonna throw it at them.
Figure 3: Is probably willing to cover himself in sperm
If, however, you’re unable to apply your sunblock before going out into the sun…you’re pretty much fucked. The best option is to insist on wearing a shirt and baseball cap because “I got eczema n’ shit“. This is usually excuse enough to apply huge amounts of cocoa butter (an effective sunblock in large doses) to your face - the only remaining vulnerable area on your body - without drawing too much suspicion. You’ll be miserably hot for the rest of your vacation, but at least your friends won’t eat you.
There will come a time, though, when you get sunburn no matter what precautions you take. As your darker friends sharpen their knives and forks, try throwing these excuses at them:
- “The sun is way more powerful at the equator”
- “I made love to an unclean woman/man”
- “Man, will you look at these rashes? I forgot I’m allergic to sand and water”
- “Shit, my leprosy’s flaring up again”
- “Dude check out my red body paint! You didn’t hear? You gotta be painted red to get into the clubs here”
- “I am gay”
Figure 4: Have a happy summer, you beige motherfucker
*And yes, this includes the inordinate numbers of fat white chicks from the midwest who are, for reasons I will NEVER be able to explain, incredibly alluring to so many dark black males. I swear there’s some kind of pathological forbidden slave/master mentality that, somehow, both parties manage to get off on.
**If you can peel your eyes away from the trainwreck of gross that is my upper body and look closely at the chicks in the background, you’ll notice their boobies are hanging out. This is the one good thing about white girls tanning.
*** This claim is unsubstantiated
lol I feel you on this one. Im not even that light and I burn. that shit is wack
LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! @ the Bernie Mac Reference!!!!
I continuously fail the paper bag test, regardless of the time of year and I still get sun burnt on certain occasions. Sucks to be you though… HA-HA!
“The sun is way more powerful at the equator”
“I made love to an unclean woman/man”
“Man, will you look at these rashes? I forgot I’m allergic to sand and water”
“Shit, my leprosy’s flaring up again”
“Dude check out my red body paint! You didn’t hear? You gotta be painted red to get into the clubs here”
“I am gay”
bwhahahahahahah hell yea…
I cant wait til it’s beach weather get my tan back. And shit I will admit I wear sunblock cuz i do get red on my neck and sometimes back if I dont and that shit is no joke.
Chris-It all goes back to Paul Mooney’s elegant quote: “Everybody wanna be a nigga don’t nobody wanna be a nigga.”
Fuck yea and that shit piss me off..white ppl stay hatin on us but yet they wanna be just like us…the white guys wish their girls had what every black woman has we have the ass, breast, lips, thighs and the year around tan. what white women have to look like us: brazillian butt implants,collegen,breast implants and spray on tanning salons, which btw always make those bitches look orange and fake. SO SAD.
I remember back in the day when I worked at the local Giant near my house after school and their was this white lady that would come in like she just came from the beach BLACK AS SHIT!!! I mean this lady was like skin cancer pateint blacker than my cinnamon/carmel tan. Blacker than the slaves on the Amastad! I was like WOW!!
AND BTW mmmm…mmmmm.mmmm look at Chris getting his burn on. THATS HOT!
Um, I would consider myself a medium well on the black people’s scale of skin color and I’ve been sunburned in the DR. (Peeling and everything) That sun is hotter at the equator.
HAHAHAHAHA…a tan is sunburn. period. All shades of Black can burn, not just the beige. My dad, who is Wesley Snipes Black gets burned every year on his head and face, it’s just less noticeable since he’s already so damn dark.
Story-time: I visited Tobago a couple of summers ago (beautiful place, scuba diving, coral reef, less tourists), came back to work, nice and dark but with sunburn across my T-zone. I’m typical brown-skinned - neither dark nor light, and I enjoy being darker. Other coworkers came back from their vacations and got tons of compliments - “oh, Liz, you’re so tan, you look great!” Nobody compliments a Black person for getting even darker
White girls tan = oompa-loompas
HA! The Bernie Mac reference alone made my damn day! LOL Personally, I think this is one of those cases where God blessed us darker blacks after all the crap we have to deal with between whites stealing the role of superior, and trying to limit their praise of minorities to the ones who have the lightest skin they can possibly find. So on that end, my sympathy for your plight is severely limited. lol This post was hilarious though! Keep em coming!
I used to have a white friend who would tan and come stand next to me like ‘Look Tia, i’m darker than you’. And i would retort ‘yea but you gotta work to do that, this is my natural color’. Heffa. I can’t standt hat shit.
And i cant stand when dark people say ‘I can’t tan, i’m already black’ YES you can, and YES you can get sunburned. Don’t let the smooth dark skin fool you.. you can get skin cancer too. Everyone should wear sunblock, even Akon. I have a dark skinned friend who went to DR and when he came back i said ‘damn, you got a tan’ he’s like ‘I did? I can’t tell’ and I said ‘yea, you did, does your face hurt?’ he said ‘yea, how you know?’ he had a sunburned. His face had a purple/red tint to it. I told him to slap some Aloe on and don’t go w/o sunblock again.
Not to be a dick… but its not that the sun is hotter, its all about the angle of incidence, refraction, and reflection that burns people. Yes… the closer you get to the equator the sun’s rays get more intense… but it also has to do with cloud cover, humidity, etc. Thats why being in the desert is so dangerous to the skin.
Remember the Dominican Republic is on the Tropic of Cancer at best… yet nowhere near the equator.
…sorry…
Chris is the same color as my hubby btw meaning light skin dudes are still “in” in my book
there is still hope for you in the “black”-er community hahahah let me stop..
@Lady….
You don’t know how many friggin people on my job do that mess during the summer time… and it makes me absolutely furious.
On a side note, I have quite a few East Indian friends who always talk about how burnt black people are. It was really funny when the day came that one of the decided to bust out the jokes towards me… only to have me look at my skin tone and then his and show the world he was darker than me. I love it.
@knaturalbeauty
“Nobody compliments a Black person for getting even darker.”
It’s so sad that’s true.
But damn, at least I save money. More money for more drinks! At least there’s something of a trade off.
Holla!
I went to PR to summers ago to visit my dear old Aunt in Ponce. And when I came back I was at best 5 shades darker. I had the worset case of sunburn on my back, neck and shoulders I was peeling for a whole 2 weeks!
ahahahaha@ the Admiral, freaking know-it-alls
Lady-And i cant stand when dark people say ‘I can’t tan, i’m already black’ YES you can, and YES you can get sunburned.
hahah just reminded me of an episode of Making The Band 4.
” Im going to Miami to get my blue black on” -Diddy
I cracked up when he said that shit and SMH
Maybe this will make you feel better I’m a little closer to medium but still light/yellow to my darker friends and I have never had sun burn (knock on wood) but my skin doesn’t really react well to heat….I turn red really easily and as a reaction to heat I basically get red spotches all over, it happens all the time like when I take really hot showers, but when I expose my skin to the sun for the first time in the summer the heat creates the red splotches as always and then those splotches tan first….so initially I’m just splotchy. As a matter of fact when I was in grammer school we went outside for gym in our gym uniforms on the first hot sunny day and the gym teacher sent me back inside after about 10 min because he said it looked like I had the measles….and in case you were wondering measles are soooo not sexxy so yeah true my friends won’t kill cook and eat me but they probably won’t want to walk around with me lookin like I could be contagious
I learned my lesson the hard way. I’m medium-dark and after years of scoffing at the idea of sunblock and enjoying the sun in both the US and various Caribbean islands, including the one I was born on, God decided it would be hella funny for me to develop a sun allergy. Yup, I’m now allergic to the f*ckin SUN. so I have to use SPF 400 and take prescription medication just to go vacation. Try having to explain that - every single black person I’ve ever told has laughed in my face. LOUDLY. Shoot, even my Dad was like “you’ve been living in the white man’s country for too long”.
Let’s not get it twisted - you don’t have to be light to sunburn.
I found this out the hard way in Costa Rica when my ass broke out in an awful, uncomfortable heat rash. Hubris made me snub at the whites, who were shalacking to their heart’s content with SPF. I, however, sat back and decided to let nature take its course. Brown as I am (Facebook me for evidence) I was covered in these weird ass, tiny ass, almost unnoticeable to the eye, but very warm and sensitive to the touch splotches of bumps, which eventually covered my stomach, entire face, lips, shoulders, arms and thighs. Seriously, who breaks out on their lips?
Nothing gives me peace from this shit besides aloe. And that’s only sometimes. Of course, it all subsides when I get back to stank ass Philadelphia.
Needless to say, this has happened again in Miami, Mexico and every other hot-ass place I’ve been since. My mother has the nerve to be orchestrating a family trip to South Africa. Pray for me y’all.
@ Toyz
Sounds like we got the same thing. What kind of prescription did you get? How’d they diagnose it? Did you see a dermatologist?
um…maya, I think you have the same allergy I do. I thought it was heat rash too, but it aint.
Yes, go see a dermatologist and they should be able to diagnose you. My doc put me on steriod medication the last time I went to Jamaica - sounds crazy but it worked.
i tan…and burn too…i lived in phoenix, az for 14 years (valley of the sun), so it was a real challenge to stay out the sun…plus my roommate was a gay, white midwestern man and would practically lived outside…(we had a pool)…he would turn a disturbing red…the few times i sat in the pool, that sun was vicious…and within 15 minutes, i was burning…the sun must be respected…and i respect it by wearing sunblock, proper shades, a hat and an umbrella…
i would like to point out though, the white people that love to throw their arms up against you as a side by side comparison on how “dark” they are getting in the sun…they seem so proud they can get as brown as you…i guess that’s their idea or bonding or they think this makes them part of the blackhood…no….it doesn’t…
I sunburn but that’s not gonna stop me from getting out in the sun. Don’t care how black I get.
Chris, you’re hot.
I should add: the last time I got sunburned i couldn’t wear a shirt for two days straight — that’s how painful it was. But i’m going back to the tropics to do it all again soon.
Aloe usually takes the sting out. Not lotion with Aloe in it, but it’s more of an Aloe Gel, as high a percent of Aloe as you can get. Or something that doesnt have many ingredients besides Aloe and water maybe.
@i would like to point out though, the white people that love to throw their arms up against you as a side by side comparison on how “dark” they are getting in the sun…they seem so proud they can get as brown as you…i guess that’s their idea or bonding or they think this makes them part of the blackhood…no….it doesn’t…
I didn’t see it as a bond. I took that ish as ‘Ha, i can be ‘blacker’ than you without actually being black’. They love to tan, they even admit that pale white skin is not wassup. If they can get darker than someone black they damn near cum on themselves.. they can look *good* without having to worry about the cops being called on them when they pass the gates around the community.
because i had an aversion to shorts, my legs have been like 5 shades lighter than the rest of my body every since i can remember.
(once a random yt girl i worked with exclaimed as she pressed her recently tanned arm against my leg “LOOK MORGAN! I’M DARKER THAN YOU!!. i had to restrain myself from slapping the orange off her face)
i (finally!) wore some shorts last summer
and still didnt get tanned
boo
I gotta get my banana boat on when we go on vaction to the bahamas and hawaii this summer because I am def a beach bunny. I have been a beach bunny since i was walking. I think I’ll take up surfing when I go.
“I am gay”!!!!! ROFTLMAO! HELP ME!
I wear suncreen, but it’s just so tempting to let myself bake until I am niiiiice and toasty brown. Everybody loves the sunshine! Folks get brown in the sunshine! Also, I don’t actually wear sunscreen.
The summer is the best time of the year for me.
NobodyFar fewer people ask me if I am a mullato, I get the best warm, carmelly glow ever, I look like a piece of….uh, carmel. I don’t feel that pale in the winter though, until I accidentally get a glimpse of myself in the mirror.Another benefit of light-skin privilige: being able to publically and verbally express one’s self hatred. Jealous much?
i’m actually embarrassed to admit that i’m one of the “darkers” who habitually, albeit secretly, wears sunscreen EVERY DAY as to not get darker. I’m a standard brown complexion, but i’m soOo paranoid about getting darker. it’s sickening =(
…then i get mad at “Mc’s” who put on sunscreen! hahahaha
My step-dad is a hood as white dude. And he gets so jealous sometimes of me and my mom and our tan. He would say all the time that he wish that he could tan and not just burn. It would crackme up when we would all go out to the beach or something and me and my mom would get these nice deep brown tans looking like a bunch of amazon bronze women, while on the other hand my dad only gets a tan on his fore arms and legs ahahha and the rest just burnt cherry. SMH
We took a family trip to Va. Beach one year. Needless to say we spent so much time on the beach, when we got home, all of us were peeling. definitely not a good look.
I’ve never sunburned. I’m a little darker than what I’d call brown-skinned, but not quite dark enough to be dark-skinned. (Next post? Skin color gradations?)
It doesn’t take much for me to get to a deeper brown, though. My face is already darker than my neck and upper chest because of company softball twice (yes, twice) this spring.
Maybe I’ll look into that sun screen, Hot, Cool & Vicious…
Not that I mind being darker, I just like to be all one color.
Brran1 from age 2-15 i basically lived at VA beach( the beach itself) every weekend me and my parents would go up there in the summer to visit my family.
I’m about medium-light caramel brown when I’m not tan (aka, all the time since I live in the bay right now). I never got a sunburn until this last spring break. I went to the Caribbean with my family on a cruise and omg. My face burned i think the first day. After that I itched like mad and started peeling. I didn’t understand it as I had been to Mexico in JUNE two years before and didn’t burn. We went to Mazatlan, quite possibly the hottest place on the planet and stood out in the sun watching this Mexican dude, whose skin was the color of a dingy copper tub, making mud bricks. In the sun. It was 110 degrees. I burned in 80 degree weather with cloud cover in Haiti, but didn’t burn in 110 degree desert weather with no clouds. What’s up with that?
PS I looooove when I turn actual brown. Most of the time I am totally yellowish-brown. When I tan I turn a lovely dark milk chocolately brown and it’s sexy as hell
@ Lindsay, I am at least 6 different colors.
You never sunburned?
We were on the beach for at least 6 hours a day for 4 days straight. I was startin to look like a damn snake the way my skin was peelin…
Brran1-hell yea i burnned on that beach many a yrs..we would be at the beach alllllllll day too dude and LOL@ snake..me too..
You know whats good for sunburns with the sting of a sunburn.. put Noxema on it and it will cool your skin. It does wonders and then rub in Aloe for the healing.
Love the blog and the pic. *waves at Sista T.*
My dad is just what you described Chris. The man cannot go anywhere out in the sun without a hat or else he will burn. (Mind you, my entire family is from Jamaica and yes he was born there.) He can’t stay out too long in the sun or else his skin begins to strip. Not a good look at all.
I’m anticipating my tan. At least for the moment during the summer I’ll stop receiving the age old question,”What are you”?
Speaking of white people who like to compare themselves to you as they get “dark”, I cannot stand the self-tanners in a bottle. Irks the shit out of me. It wasn’t just an incident in junior high where one of my friends tried it but cam out looking orange either. It was last year, the night before my best friend’s wedding and we had to go out to Walmart to buy something in the beauty aisle. A guy was there to assist us since he claimed that was his territory. He picked up one of the tanners and told us he always wanted to try it out. We watched him rub it on and his eyes glowed over.
“It really works!”
*cue the bridesmaids giving each other side eye glances*
“No, the women come in all the time and buy this shit and it actually works.”
Then he says to one of his co-workers passing by while raising his arm,”Dude, I’m black!”
And Jesus wept.
Yes, Lindsay! Do it, girl! It will even that “tan” you got right out! I always used to turn shades unevenly… it was soooo frustrating! My left arm conveniently and consistently browns in the car and any type of outdoor activity browns my face and feet first, and neck and legs last. Daily use of sunscreen has eliminated all of that for me.
@ NotBlonde…
Haha, who isn’t? I guess I just don’t like it when the parts you can see in a modestly-cut shirt are a different color from my face. Add to that, make up colors I could wear in the winter don’t cut it in summer. Argh.
@And i cant stand when dark people say ‘I can’t tan, i’m already black’ YES you can, and YES you can get sunburned. Don’t let the smooth dark skin fool you.. you can get skin cancer
I was one of those people until I went to the dermatologist. She was telling me to wear sunblock and I was like “I’m black I don’t need sunblock”.. So of course she started telling me the reasons why I need it. I was actually stupified when she told me that. I have been running around 31 years with no sunblock and to think I have lived in places such as Arizona, Florida and now Georgia!
Figure 1 - oh, hell yes. *changes draws, goes back to read the rest of the blog*
Slyph-Then he says to one of his co-workers passing by while raising his arm,”Dude, I’m black!”
And Jesus wept.
No HE DIDNT!! ahahahha oMG wow.SMH
Hm, HC&V, I might have to try that. What SPF do you use? (I’m completely ignorant to those things because I am a brown-skinned person who thinks she’s invincible and doesn’t use sunblock.)
NotBlonde (17:08:03) :
@ Lindsay, I am at least 6 different colors.
Hahaha, I am all the colors in a bronzer palette , and look a chocolate-caramel-dark-light-Jackson-Pollock-abstact mess in a bikini. My limbs, face and torso are all different shades. I’ve heard Mystic Tan can even it out but f@ck it, I’m black, I am not paying for color.
I’m in the same boat as Lindsay. I never burn. The first day of the year in NY where the sun really shines and I’m out, I get tan and stay that way for the rest of the season. Everyone asks if I’ve gone anywhere on vacation. I’m light, but my body seems to come in different shades, so I like how the sun gives me just a nice, bronze color all-around.
A few years ago, I remember going on a group trip to DC where there was this one dark-skinned black girl who complained about how she was getting sunburn. I was like “Oh, please.” Thanks for the edumacation.
ahahahahahaha @ Merri Lee– i also had to regroup so I could acutally read the post!
Chris, is definitely a dime… which why i’m really not buying his, “im super single and black girls dont digg me” steeze… seems a little suss to me =/
heres a “tanning” tip. If you have dark knees/elbows, or other areas, put extra lotion on, do not rub it in, stay in sun and get dark, then rub it in. You’ll end up more even toned.
hold on….do people actually say ‘mulatto’ to your face sister T?
bloody hell…
we don’t use words like that over here! am stunned… i would cuss someone’s ancestors and their unborn…
i go out in the sun with olive oil on my limbs… i have this fascination about getting darker… it’s great.. get a book, a chair, a radio, a long cool drink and a footstool….
skin looks great..
i know so should really think about getting a bit more sensible but…
nah… next year…
Actually, i keep it pretty simple when it comes to the SPF (sun protection factor) i use on my skin because i’m brown, too. i normally use Aveeno “Positively Radiant” SPF15 for my face, neck, and chest, and then a Neutrogena SPF 30 sunscreen everywhere else (esp in the summer time!!)
Yea, sunblock is not only for when you’re on vacay or goin to the beach. Depending on how much time you spend outside you could be someone who needs to wear it daily. Black folks get skin cancer too.
Hi Sylph!
Sunblock stinks! Can someone reccomend one that doesn’t smell like wet dog and bologna? Everyone who I smell wearing sunscreen smells like that. Wait….
@ London- **Hangs head in shame**
No, they ask if I am biracial or, more specifically “Hey guh, whaa u mixeded with”.
I am the one who uses the “m” word, along with the “q” word and the “o” word. I hope all half-castes will accept my deepest apologies. If it helps, my father is mul…mixed. Thusly, I am half mu…biracial. So, as so many “part Native American” White folks have said, I can’t be biased!
Pet Peeve #147: When silly ass white people ask me if I can tan.
Of course I can! Just because my skin is already brown, doesn’t mean it can’t get more brown. I’m not even that dark to begin with (I’d describe myself like Lindsay—a little darker than brown-skinned, but not dark enough to be dark-skinned).
But I’ve never had a sunburn.
You took the words right out of my mouth…(look at them lips)!
@ Sister Toldja
Don’t feel bad. I also enjoy bringing out old-timey words to describe colored (there it is again) folks. I have said “quadroon” to my 87-year-old grandmother, who looked at me first like I was too young to know that word (I’m 23), then like I was the best grandchild ever.
Hi Sylph!
Sunblock stinks! Can someone reccomend one that doesn’t smell like wet dog and bologna? Everyone who I smell wearing sunscreen smells like that. Wait….
@ Toldja
Hawaiian Tropic (in the orange bottle) smells REALLY good IMO..
Sister Toldja (18:02:25) :
Hi Sylph!
Sunblock stinks! Can someone reccomend one that doesn’t smell like wet dog and bologna? Everyone who I smell wearing sunscreen smells like that. Wait….
************************
You are beyond wrong and you know it.
@Chris. You forgot to mention how miserable it can be going outside with certain “darkers”. Specifcally certain “chocolate” ones. My chocolate friends wont come outdoors until after 6 because they don’t want to “get blacker”. I know i will never understand what its like to be dark skinned, but why come to the beach with me if youre going to wear full clothing, a hat and sneakers and its 100 out? Better yet, why not move out of CALI??
Sunburn: A cautionary tale that leads to broke-ness: I grew up by the beach, I surf and everything, and LOVE to be outside. (Thats why I hate NYC in the 9 months of the year that it has gray skies and NO SUN) Once I feel asleep on my roof top deck last summer in CALI-two hours, and I will never recover from that sunburn. I still have freckles and a red tint from it too. Its bad for your skin. I looked like a lobster afterward. The next week I went to PR for a week. I couldn’t use any of the pix or work for a few weeks so i use spf 30 religiously now. Broke v Tan? Not worth it. Be careful next time you tan.
Chris, do you have someone elses swimming trunks on your head in that pic? Just wondering.
@ Merri Lee: Whatever do you mean?
*points at halo*
I love this post but I esecially love Knatural Beauty’s line: Nobody compliments a Black person for getting even darker :D. That is so true, but i think that the reason that don’t or won’t is because they don’t know how to say WOW YOU SURE DID GET BLACKER!! or I DIDN’T KNOW THAT YOUU CAN GET DARKER. lol I don’t know how that would sit with me as a chocolate sister who loves to lay in the sun and absorb the energy of the sun. Good one Chris.
Jamaica here I come.
Chris you look like Digital Underground in that picture. A DO THE HUMPTY HUMP!
@ Ms. Epps…
” Im going to Miami to get my blue black on” -Diddy
LMAO!! You have officially given me the reason I needed to give Diddy yet another foolywang award! His first was for his Proactiv quote “I use proactiv to moisturize my situation and preserve my sexy”.
Merri Lee and HCV, I completely agree…Chris is sexy!
“Chris you look like Digital Underground in that picture. A DO THE HUMPTY HUMP!”
I look FUNNY…
Yeah, having more melanin does not protect against skin cancer … UVA and UVB rays can both cause damage. What most ppl do not know is that not all sunblock protects against UVB rays. Also I read in an article somewhere that Black ppl especially need to protect and monitor the lighter parts of their bodies that we take forgranted like the bottoms of your feet - do a spot check for sings of skin cancer.
I wondered the same thing@ Esquire…
Mygrandmother uses the “m” to describe her childrena nd grandchildren..so dont feel bad saying it. Whne I go back to Ponce, PR they often use that word towards Black Puerto Ricans like my family. But its annoying when ppl ask me what I am mixed with they automaticlly think I am mixed with Dominican because I am darker than the normal PR which is kinda nuts considering it is hot there yr round. I hate how they only show light skinned white looking latinos on the “spanish” channels. Then ppl “white, black, even some america born latinos” think that all latinos are fuckin light skinned when we all shades of brown as blacks. But anwyho Im proud of my Brown Suga skin tone(well right now I’m more like caramel).
shoot. i just punk out and apply the sunblock. pain != fun and i learned the hard way that sunburns hurt.
Ahh I also used to have a friend of Srilankan descent who was deathly afraid of getting darker. She would slather herself in SPF80, wear a hat and long sleeves, and re-apply every 10 mins, everytime we went to the rollercoaster parks in the summer.
LMAOOOO@ iloveblackpeople-“I use proactiv to moisturize my situation and preserve my sexy”.
ahhahaha I remem when my proactiv came in the mail and i was washing my face and my hubby came in and he was like so you got some huh i was like i gotta preserve my sexy bwhahahahhahahah he was dying. and then said that was some BITCHASSNESS ahhaha. Diddy SMH
ahahahahahaha@iloveblackpeople…Diddy
Miss Cocoa Luv, that job (an all White lobbying firm) was kinda fun because of the racial tension amplified by vacation tans. Once, the CEO commented on another coworker’s tan, within earshot of my desk, by saying, “oh, you sure are dark, you must be working to hard, that’s not good” HUH? Darkness always equates to badness, I guess. I used to remark, to my White friends (White friends? is that an oxymoron?), let’s see how threatening - meaning dark - I can get this summer.
AF-“Chris you look like Digital Underground in that picture. A DO THE HUMPTY HUMP!”
thats fucked up and Chris isssss farrr from that bumby fake nose wearing clown! hahaha but now i want to hear that song ahha
http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/02/13/59/image_5359132.jpg
why Chris why…no boo stop..SMH that..hahah http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/02/13/59/image_5359132.jpg
You know what? What color IS carmel? I have heard it used to describe people from as light as Alicia Keys to as brown as Usher. Can we have some clarity? I’d like to nominate myself as the official face of the carmel complextion. All in favor say “I”!
“I”
And so it shall be.
I’m not trying to be a bandwagoneer, but Chris IS kinda looking right in this picture. I don’t see the Craig David* resemblance, but he has his own merits. Perhaps I am just in heat.
*I was watching Craig David on the youtube last night and that is one fine piece of London broil right there! Good Lord! Don’t judge me…
Lloyd Banks = Craig David
Yo, and Lloyd Banks could get it too. I’d just not tell anyone.
Eww@ Lloyd Banks being compared to Craig David ahaha Lloyd Banks face of frankenstein face hahahahah
http://www.sites.si.edu/images/exhibits/Art%20of%20the%20Stamp/images/Frankenstein_jpg.jpg
Chris you look like Digital Underground in that picture. A DO THE HUMPTY HUMP! - AF
GREASE.. lol
Chris, do you ask fat girls if they’re ticklish? Do you get busy in BK bathrooms?
Pleeeease say no lol.
hahahah still laughin at what i said..
“high yaller, yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown” - Zora Neale Hurston’s color scale for Blacks
Oh come on Mrs. Epps.
Lloyd Banks looks a little better than that. But to my credit, I never said Craig David was attractive either. As for Banks, I’d rather just talk to him on the phone. I don’t need to see him.
lol @ Lindsay..I agree but i had to compare him to something and thats what I thought of hahah but uyea I would talk to him more on the phone than in person cuz he and craig david sure aint a Wil Smith or a Denzel
lol @ Lindsay..I agree but i had to compare him to something and thats what I thought of hahah but yea I would talk to him more on the phone than in person cuz he and craig david sure aint a Wil Smith or a Denzel
ummm opps?
Chris looks like he almost passes the paper bag test in that picture
*brown paper bag
Out of curiosity, what doth one talk to Lloyd Banks about on the phone, or anywhere else for that matter? I think I’d put him in the category of “skip English/let’s talk body language”. If he spoke words to me, I’d probably put my bra back on. I’d accept his verse from that one song with the Marvin Gaye “Come Live With Me Angel” Sample.
Craig David, on the other hand, could talk to me allllll day and alll night, so long as I could look at him.
Hmm… I don’t really care about what Banks has to say. I just like his voice, hence the phone convo…
ahahah@ Sister Toldja..
nyc (19:16:26) :
Chris looks like he almost passes the paper bag test in that picture
**********************
This is his Earth Day post (ok, I’ll stop)
I’m definitely guilty of being MC, but I try to fake sooo hard on the sunblock like I don’t need it. But my ass learned the hard way when the fam was vacationing in the islands a couple of years back and i was DETERMINED to get a nice mocha-brown tan (I hate being so pale during winter). I sat in that sun for like a good 2 hrs, and when I woke up, my shoulders felt like I received a thousand lashes.
I learned my lesson that day, but ask me if I still put on sunblock when I go out? I guess imma fake on the sunblock till I die :o/
of topic but Sister Toldja how u get that icon pic there..i always notcied that
*off
@ Mrs Epps- It’s not a picture, I’m in your computer.
LOL@ Sister Toldja get out get out i dont want you finding my porn collection of Bang Bus! NOoooooooooooooo
“Sister Toldja get out get out i dont want you finding my porn collection of Bang Bus!”
Wow.
eeeew to craig david.. and lloyd banks…
gimme denzel and his fine self any day…
he has it going on…
are those teeth even or what!
sis T…. thanks for clearing that up.. i was worried for a mililsecond there… a hard days work and my prospective cleaner not showing does that to a woman.. - cleaner / maid as she wants to be called (okay!) was late due to a prison van running over and killing some poor woman down the way from me this evening - poor thing knew it was her interview and now has to work twice as hard tomorrow to get in my good books and keep her job…. am making the biggest mess in my kitchen tonight.. lol..
the other ‘acronyms’ mean what pray tell… is q = queer or queen.. o= orgasm?.. let me into your lexicon otherwise i will be lost…
hahaha Chris dont act surprised, women collect porn too
So…
What I’m about to say might upset every black woman on the planet.
But given all these Denzel references, I have to ask..
…Isn’t Denzel not aging all that gracefully? I mean, I’m not denying his attractiveness in his heyday, but um, I’m just not seeing it anymore. Or are all these references to young Denzel?
Maybe I’m missing something…
First time I finally felt like i needed to comment on something. *first time commmenter, long time lurker, yadda yadda..*
I was just having this discussion with my husband last night about how nobody understands how horribly I burn in the sunlight.Everytime I start to say that I sun burn badly, someone always interjects “I bet you never burn! Lucky!” And then I have to try and explain that I ALWAYS burn, and then they’ll laugh “What kind of black person are you?” One that burns, dammit!
I always have to act like I’m just not interested in the outdoors so my skin doesn’t catch on fire. *sigh* and I’m so happy I’m not alone.
By the way, I love this blog. Love it, love it, love it.
@ Lindsay
Did you not see American Gangster? Granted hes getting older but he still has it. Yum.