Yesterday, Lupita Nyong’o won several hearts—once again, and gave us another reason to be proud of our dark skin because dark is beautiful. In fact, let me say “dark skin girls rule”.
At the Essence Magazine’s 7th Annual Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon in Beverly Hills, USA, the Oscar nominee-Lupita Nyong’o walked unto stage to pick an award and it was her speech on the beauty of dark skin that got many people talking…
At the high profile event which was attended by guests like Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Gayle King, Michael Ealy, Chaka Khan, Angela Bassett, Kerry Washington and others, Lupita’s speech confirmed that her success and the buzz around her is greatly due to the colour of her skin.
Why then would anyone want to bleach or go the skin lightening way?
I wish Yvonne Nelson reads this and I am certain if she does, tears will fall from her eyes. Like Lupita said to end her speech, ‘there is no shame in Black beauty’.
Lupita’s full acceptance speech below…
I wrote down this speech that I had no time to practice so this will be the practicing session.
Thank you Alfre, for such an amazing, amazing introduction and celebration of my work. And thank you very much for inviting me to be a part of such an extraordinary community.
I am surrounded by people who have inspired me, women in particular whose presence on screen made me feel a little more seen and heard and understood. That it is ESSENCE that holds this event celebrating our professional gains of the year is significant, a beauty magazine that recognizes the beauty that we not just possess but also produce.
I want to take this opportunity to talk about beauty, Black beauty, dark beauty. I received a letter from a girl and I’d like to share just a small part of it with you: “Dear Lupita,” it reads, “I think you’re really lucky to be this Black but yet this successful in Hollywood overnight. I was just about to buy Dencia’s Whitenicious cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the world map and saved me.”
My heart bled a little when I read those words, I could never have guessed that my first job out of school would be so powerful in and of itself and that it would propel me to be such an image of hope in the same way that the women of The Color Purple were to me.
I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful. I put on the TV and only saw pale skin, I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of a mirror because I wanted to see my fair face first. And every day I experienced the same disappointment of being just as dark as I was the day before. I tried to negotiate with God, I told him I would stop stealing sugar cubes at night if he gave me what I wanted, I would listen to my mother’s every word and never lose my school sweater again if he just made me a little lighter. But I guess God was unimpressed with my bargaining chips because He never listened.
And when I was a teenager my self-hate grew worse, as you can imagine happens with adolescence. My mother reminded me often that she thought that I was beautiful but that was no conservation, she’s my mother, of course she’s supposed to think I am beautiful. And then…Alek Wek. A celebrated model, she was dark as night, she was on all of the runways and in every magazine and everyone was talking about how beautiful she was. Even Oprah called her beautiful and that made it a fact. I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me, as beautiful. My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome and all of a sudden Oprah was telling me it wasn’t. It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy. But a flower couldn’t help but bloom inside of me, when I saw Alek I inadvertently saw a reflection of myself that I could not deny.
Now, I had a spring in my step because I felt more seen, more appreciated by the far away gatekeepers of beauty. But around me the preference for my skin prevailed, to the courters that I thought mattered I was still unbeautiful. And my mother again would say to me you can’t eat beauty, it doesn’t feed you and these words plagued and bothered me; I didn’t really understand them until finally I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.
And what my mother meant when she said you can’t eat beauty was that you can’t rely on how you look to sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul. It is what got Patsey in so much trouble with her master, but it is also what has kept her story alive to this day. We remember the beauty of her spirit even after the beauty of her body has faded away.
And so I hope that my presence on your screens and in the magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside.
There is no shame in Black beauty.
What do you think?
Siaaaaafuo leave the girl alone wtf cares if she is bleaching
Or not is it your skin Otoleges
Really? SAD
Wow, that was an inspirational speech. Go Lupita. Tell those black sisters who find no beauty in their dark skin
coooool
I strongly believe her comment is unfortunate. How can you atribute your success to your skin colour. If this comment had come from a white skin person, the same people who are so proud bout her comment and want the whole world to know would have described it as a racial comment. Sometimes i am tempted to believe black skin people are more recists than the whites.
What the heck are you talking about?
What is wrong with her saying that despite people think you can’t succeed in Hollywood if you are black, she has achieved great success and it is because she is black. This is to kill the wrong assumptions and also to encourage dark skin people from not going to all lengths to change their colour so they can achieve success in hollywood?
All the attention she gets on red carpet, don’t you hear people talking about her color and how great being dark is? Is she wrong to say her colour has contributed to her success?
We all know she is not saying, her color is the ONLY reason why she is successful. She means, it is part, it makes her beautiful, it seperates her from the lot, it makes her unique and it should be embraced by all who has it
White ppl wouldn’t make such a comment because they don’t need to! so that is an unfortunate comparison. Their skin colour is not mentioned or an issue because it does not pose as a barrier to their success. I don’t know where you are from but her shade of skin is always the topic of conversation because in America that is always the focus for black ppl.
I am more disgusted at the amount of sales that Dencia’s Whitenicious is making. My white uni friend asked me about it, she was confused and asked why it’s so damn popular and why so many people are buying it, why would you want to change you skin colour? …could I answer? What I took from her speech is that she is reping for dark skin young women and girls who can turn on the tv or read a magazine and say ok so you are dark and successful and they can be inspired by that…I don’t see the issue with that. I am not disposing of your opinion but really we need to lift this woman up she is doing big things for dark skinned women who are in my opinion misrepresented. If Lupita stops one person buying that rhatid stupid bleaching cream then she has my attention and my applause. I love what her mum said…’you can’t rely on how you look to sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you’. There are a few ppl in the industry that could learn a few things about that….
I must confess, you’ve made a very intelligent submission and really enjoyed reading your contribution. I am 100% Ghanaian and black, and therefore will never speak ill about the black race. Yes i agree with you that her motivation for that comment was about encouraging other black sisters which is very commendable. I sincerely think she could have done it without referring to her skin colour. Because those she was trying to encourage wouldn’t have difficulty noticing that she is black and therefore identifying with her. Being black is not a handicap and therefore achieving success as a black woman shouldn’t be seen as something out of the ordinary. Yes agree with you that most whites look down on us but we can only change this perception they have about us if we stop pitying ourselves by always referring to our colour when we achieve something as if being black is a handicap. This is my difficulty about we blacks. Thanks
Her color is natural but she’s not that cute sorry… Truth must be told. None is cute about her this is not the face we call beauty. She should fu.ck off with the color sucess thing is she the only dark skin girl in hollywood?
Well Bernice I doubt you are the authority on beauty as we surely know it is in the eye of the beholder so I know people will surely look and say she is stunning. Also I’m sure when you made your decision that she shud f off coz she is not beautiful to you, you notice that she has an amazing body which is part of beauty so far as I’m concerned. I know white people love how we black hate on each other…carry on with your ignorance. well done! clap for yourself lol….
Your an idiot of the highest order.Do you have to be so insulting? Bet you look like the back end of a tro-tro.
I’m proud of her achievement and I love her for being herself, great and inspiring speech too but girl take it easy ooo. If you’ve made it, its not just because of your skin colour wai. Mind you this same people praising you today will be the same to crucify you some days or years to come.
Don’t let the praise get into you much.
And GC must you bring Yvonnes name in this ahhhh hmmm. I see almost all the popular Ghanaian celebs skin going light yet you guys don’t talk about them. Even the mixed race celebs in Ghana are all bleaching.
For me if there is any bleacher of all bleaches it has to be our first lady, I mean Mahamas wife. I will love to hear her name on ghana radios as much as I hear Yvonne’s name because she is in a way the mother of Ghana. Thank you!
Hahahahaha well said.. Our prez’s wife is bleaching too.. YN isn’t the only one doing it.
Well her skin is super hot!!! bleaching is a disease, Lupita is making it too.
Gcc which one be this, lupita speech is okay, if she succed in her caree is okay, why do u want 2 bring our own sister down bcos of lupita nyong’s, i know she is from africa but look at the distance between kenya & ghana , if she like not only 12 year’s a slave’s, let her do 100years a slave’s i don’t care , she even have mouth 2 give brath pitt a peck , if she like let her join angelina jolie with D kids in their house, shilon & zahara jolie pitt only can drive her away. I don’t care about D modelling she is doing, i luv my yvonne unconditionaly, bringing yvonne nelson name in almost 90% of ur post will just make her more famous, bcos pple only talk about u when u r somebody.
I couldn’t have said anything better than you said. Thank you.
My comment was meant for Goldengurl.
Also, for those people putting Lupita down for no reason, you all will deal with her success. You all keep bleaching and get skin cancer, because that’s what you’re looking for.