Good Talk

June 19, 2015

            Several days ago I made a little boy cry. How? I’m not sure. My theory is, that to him, my face resembles a monster. However, I saw him again today at the clinic, because his mom was due to give birth in a day or two, and yet again, when he saw me, he burst into tears. I hope I get to see him again, my goal is either to befriend him or make him cry harder. It’s surprising how a country filled with people with beautiful brown skin, seem to find beauty in only light skin. Even Dr. Jeremiah unconsciously made an insensitive comparison between dark skinned and light skinned. Since it was a slow day at the clinic, she was telling me stories about babies who have been abandon by their parents. One child, Ruby, was born to an unmarried 17 year old girl, whose father wanted to kill the child, rather than face the shame. As a result, Dr. Jeremiah kept the child at the hospital. Another, name unknown, was also a girl, a light skinned baby, abandoned on their church steps. The only description I got for Ruby, was that she was a dark skinned baby and that was it. For the other baby, she described her as a very beautiful baby with fair skin. I know she probably didn’t think that Ruby was ugly, but the difference in description made me think about how big of an issue skin color is. I have seen multiple TV commercials about skin lightning cream, and all the female stars are light skin girls. I can see that light skin is valued and I want to say that I understand, but I don’t. As an African American female, whose skin color is much darker than their own, I wonder what they think of me. Hopping off of my soap box, the two babies had a happy ending. Ruby was adopted by a Swedish couple and the other baby was taken in by a nurse’s aunt. Dr. Jeremiah showed me pictures of the girl all grown up, and she is a very pretty little girl.

Day 20 in Trichy and I don’t know how I’m feeling.