CoKo Blogs "Skin Has NOTHING To Do With Talent" on Global Grind

One day I received a letter from a young lady on MySpace. In her letter, she told me something that was bothering her and had asked my advice. She said she loves to sing and could I check her out. I did and I must say, she was AWESOME! She said her problem wasn’t her voice but whenever people would see her they’d say, “She can sing BUT she’s too dark.” She was devastated!

Now my question to the world is, why do we base talent on the brightness of ones skin?! Skin color has nothing to do with talent and the gifts God had bestowed upon the person! I was livid!

I told the young lady, if I had listened to everyone that talked about me being dark skin, I wouldn’t be who I am today. I remember when SWV first got signed. I was told that we weren’t really the epitome of what a “GIRL GROUP” should look like because we weren’t all light skin AND the lead singer was a dark skin sister. That hurt my feelings so bad! But what could I do? You had groups like The Good Girls and En Vogue who were all light and they were doing their thing! Even though I was hurt, I didn’t quit. But it didn’t help to know what the record execs thought and it made me an angry dark skin sister.

I felt like I had to prove myself in everything I did. Whether it was my singing, dating, dressing…whatever! I just felt like I had to prove the point of “I maybe dark but I can do whatever you can do.” In being like that I think I began to lose my sense of self, sort of became superficial.

I was already an angry chick and just knowing what these people thought just added fuel to the fire. I began to take it out on everybody around me. I couldn’t understand why my skin color was such an issue! Not just in the music industry but life in general. This color thing really affected me. For a long time I wouldn’t date dark brothers. They had to be light or straight Puerto Rican. All my homegirls were dark like me. It’s crazy because this is just another form of racism.

Eventually, I had to step back and re-evaluate myself. I had to get myself together because I was headed no where real fast with that attitude. I began to pray and ask God to deliver me from myself. I didn’t want to be like that. God was the only way out.

God showed me that I am a beautiful black princess period! My dark skin doesn’t take away or add to who am I…it’s just who I am. I have come to accept my skin color and I’m loving it!! I’m a beautiful person inside and out. God doesn’t make mistakes. There are a lot of people struggling with their skin color but you have to love yourself no matter what! Black is beautiful no matter what shade you are. Stand up and be proud because you ARE one of God’s creations and that means you are ALL THAT!