I was born with a different race. While many might disagree or associate the word “race” with someone who they define as “discriminatory” or “dissimilar,” people have yet to acknowledge that within their own community of alike people there are many people dressed up in all shades of colors. Just like in art, there are multiple kinds of reds and not just one.
I was chosen to embrace the paleness of my skin. My face mirrors the pureness of a plain white piece of paper and my body resembles the wholesome color of milk. I have dark circles under my eyes that make me look a human who has not slept in days and any pimple I get is hard to hide away with makeup. It is fair to say that many times people will mistake me for looking ill or unusually pale when in fact I am feeling just fine and the color of my skin is normal for me.
I find it challenging to overcome the standards that are accurate to somebody who isn’t me or who isn’t pale. I am the way I am because...I just am. People need to realize that asking a pale person if they’re okay and feeling alright is the same scenario for if you were to say congratulations to a woman who is not pregnant. Not only does it make the person feel even more insecure about themselves, but it places a name tag on their image: if they are pale, they are sick. However, that is most certainly not true. Yes, everyone gets sick but asserting that pale people are always ill and unhealthy is like saying that your age always matches how you look.
In society, the majority is accepted and the minority is questioned. But are pale people a minority too? In fact, many people that you know of start off pale and get darker over time. The only difference with pale people is that their skin tone remains in its natural state of color. If you think about skin tone this way, asking someone if they are ill just because they are paler than what seems normal to you is absurd. It is like telling a newborn bird whose body usually starts off pink after hatching from their egg that they look abnormal from the rest of their brothers and sisters who were also born with the same original color. The truth is that we fail to recognize that what we say will affect a person with pale skin just as it does for someone who is of a different race. It convinces us to judge ourselves in a less beautiful and important kind of way.
Even worse is the desire to look like the models that supposedly represent the new definition of beauty and perfection. While we automatically assume that most models who look perfect in pictures on social media are airbrushed, we not only learn that looking fake is the only way to get many likes and comments on a picture, but also that tanner skin is so-called more beautiful than pale skin. As a result, people who are pale feel the need to change their color to look sexy and usually turn to spray tans, tanning beds and booths, tanning mists, sunless tanning lotions, bronzers, and even tanning pills to fit the new-kind-of-beautiful. Luckily, the industry is drastically changing for the better, promoting the beauty of bigger-sized woman and also pale models and celebrities.
I was born with a different race. Many people who are pale-skinned struggle similarly to those who are discriminated upon and belittled because of the color of their skin. People who are pale are not always sick and are not any less beautiful than everyone else. While we continue to embrace the diversity in the world, we must not forget about the unique qualities that set people aside in their own communities. Everyone is perfect in their own way.
