Hello my lovely readers. I missed you all so much. I hope you are all doing fine. I just wanted to write a post in regards to the tragic incident of the late Lufuno Mavuhnga who took away her own life due to bullying. The fact that she was bullied because of her looks still breaks my heart. My condolences to her friends and family.
WHY DO I WRITE?
I strongly believe that we are all one people so the South African girl is just like a sister to me despite being Kenyan and that is why I chose to be part of this conversation.
NORMALIZATION OF BULLYING
As a dark skinned woman who was severely bullied due to my looks(dark skin tone) growing up, I really do understand the extent, detriment and heartache that comes along with being bullied especially on features that are ascribed to us by God Himself. This ranges from weight, height, skin color, hair type, race etc.
Honestly we really need to do better. Colorism is real and so is bullying.
Bullying dark skinned women is so normalized such that if we address it we most certainly get bullied even more and or nobody stands up for us. People bully dark skinned women for bleaching, remaining dark skinned, using filters and for so many other reasons.
Is the Argument redundant? Yes and No (It depends on how you perceive the issue)
I know my argument might sound redundant at this point but please stop bullying please because they have a dark skin tone. It is regressive and pointless.
It is so deep. It is still an issue that needs concise efforts and intentional conversations. We cannot afford to keep hurting and losing girls to this evil and regressive hierarchy of who is who based on skin tone.
Why it may seem redundant?
DEFLECTION
The argument may seem to be stretched out and meaningless because some people have normalized bullying of dark skinned women such that if people address it they are received with a ton of deflection and further bullying, you are just a bitter, self conscious, insecure and ugly dark skinned woman, that is why you speak about it. Stop using filters, fix yourself first and the list is endless. This dilutes the weight of the real issue.
CONCLUSION
What can we do?
We can collectively choose to stop glorifying bullying in any space including schools, work place and most especially, in social media platforms.
Choose kindness. It is free. I mean if you are well aware that a dark skinned woman bears the brunt of colorism almost daily, why bully her about the same and then ask her ‘to fix herself?’
Set up practical life skills programs in schools and encourage students to report bullying incidences.
Thanks so much for reading. See you next time. Goodbye. Kindly watch and sub to my channel. I address colorism there too.
Vert Berry 