Can I tell you...Black is Beautiful!
Rafe Totengco
Aisha Beau Johnson with her Rafe bag in Chelsea photographed by Marta Skovro McAdams.
I can still hear her warning me. Growing up in the Philippines, my nanny used to discourage me from playing out under the sun all day. She was afraid I would get too dark. She would often say that I would look like a peasant if I wasn’t careful.
Filipinos have colonial mentality and colorism embedded into their psyche from the day they are born. You hear people compliment how beautiful fair skinned babies are and lament when they are dark.
It was considered a good thing to be as pale as possible. A fair skin tone was associated with beauty, wealth and privilege. You could be Mestizo or Chinoy, but being Moreno or Kayumanggi was a not considered as desirable. There were even product ads that used the tag line, “kutis mayaman” which translates, “complexion of the rich”.
I grew up with this negative attitude towards skin color up until I moved to New York City in the late 80s. Once here, I made friends from different ethnicities and embraced the diversity my new home had to offer.
You would think that in a such a culturally diverse city racism would not exist but it was in New York that experienced my first brush with racism. It happened on a bright sunny day while I was walking home when I saw a few guys walking directly in my direction. When they got closer I swerved but one of them intentionally shoulder bumped me and yelled, “Go back to your f….ing country. You Japs don’t belong here.” Imagine my bewilderment! I yelled back, “I’m not Japanese, a…hole!”. That’s when they turned around and started to walk back towards me with menacing looks. Luckily, I was at my apartment so I dashed inside and didn’t leave until the next morning. I was traumatized, confused, afraid and angry. I wish I had a cell phone then because I could have recorded the incident. I mentioned what happened to friends and their advice was just to ‘let it go’ and that if spoke up again I would just get hurt. Best to shut up and take it. I never encountered anything quite that hostile since.
We are now at the threshold of change. I am truly hopeful that all the protests in the USA and all over the world will bring a reform in policies within government and corporations, a positive attitude shift towards people of color, and an equality of justice.
I am hopeful. The next generation of my family is growing up with a very different view of humanity. They’re surrounded with a multi-racial environment and that is their reality. We are teaching them to love and not to hate. But we still have a long way to go. We are all looking in the mirror to confront what we are taught.
We must eradicate racism and colorism. We must all work together for this change to happen. All lives can’t matter until black lives matter.
Here is a list of organizations that you can support if you have the time and the means. Every little bit goes a long way.
American Civil Liberties Union