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Letter of the Day | A personal experience with skin bleaching

Published:Sunday | November 18, 2018 | 12:00 AM

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I saw an interesting article in the Wednesday edition of Health and Fitness in The Gleaner (November 7, 2018) with some interesting comments about bleaching called 'Make me whiter than snow' by Dr Alfred Dawes.

Skin bleaching has been going on for decades, or maybe centuries. I read the classic book by Marcus Garvey, The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, in 1977. In the book, the great black scholar/stalwart rejected the bleaching norm of some of his fellow Africans. Mark you, Marcus Garvey was born in 1887 and died in 1940, so bleaching has been going on over a very long time.

It is true that some people of the Negroid race, possessed by self-hate, are incorrigible, and it is deeply rooted in their DNA, it seems. Many have tried it but will not admit to this awkward and backward thinking in their early development. I have tried it in the early 1970s when I was very young, but did not prolong the practice because I was taught to love myself by my bigger brothers.

From personal experience, I think the major players who perpetuate the practice today are poor role models - like Vybz Kartel, who has an indelible impact on the impressionable mind of the current era. DJ Spice has place a positive spin on the practise.

The lightening of the skin with all these compounds will only stifle your chance of living a most fulfilled life with the fervour and joyfulness you so desire. To live a most resplendent life with all the necessary facets for a positive and optimistic disposition, we will have to be proactive instead of reactive. The implications of permanently damaging the melanin within the skin is not remote, but you shall have remorse. Cancer is a disease which makes the body reacts in a negative way towards its own self, destroying the good cells in the process.

In my time of bleaching, I used Nadinola and Ambi, which are skin-cleansing lotions and were used by many persons in the beauty industry. Now, youngsters are now fastidious using various substances which rips the skin off completely and make them look like zombies, to say the least.

Paris Taylor

paristaylor82@hotmail.com

Greater Portmore