Sammy Sosa, before and after

I don’t have a problem with people going through the expense and sometimes painful procedures to change themselves in order to feel better about themselves. Women in particular are good for nose jobs, cheek and/or lip implants, breast reduction or enlargement procedures and more. Women will perm their hair if they feel it is too curly or nappy. Some are addicted to acrylic nails. Women often alter their appearances with makeup, hair products, hair dyes, etc. and as far back as I can remember, Ambi, a skin lightening cream marketed primarily to Black women, was once a stable found in many medicine cabinets.

My experience with Ambi was frightening. I used to have bad acne and used Ambi hoping to “even out” my skin tone as was advertised on the box. What happened was quite the opposite. On those areas where I applied the Ambi, my skin turned a light pasty color which caused me to apply the product to my whole face which created a worse situation, my face was lighter than my neck. I gave up using the product because it did not “even out” my skin tone as advertised, quite the contrary, it made a horrible mess.

In recent years, men have started applying makeup, are using Botox, are undergoing cosmetic surgery and I figured skin lightening would soon follow and now it has. I do not know what product Sammy Sosa is using but the pasty light complexion screams some sort of skin lightening cream. In some of the photos I have seen of him, not only does he look pasty, he appears to be wearing the wrong makeup as well. Instead of looking natural, he looks peculiar and I believe this is what many see when they look at photos of Sosa. He is not only a lighter shade of brown, he also appears ghostly.

I know it’s shocking — a man or woman changing their skin color to appear lighter — and after reading the story about Sammy Sosa on Essence.com (here) and the NPR story on men in India (here), skin lightening has been going on for ages and people of all nationalities have done it. White men and women back in the old, old days used to wear a pasty white makeup so they would appear whiter than white. Many Whites today spend hours in tanning beds or in the sun just to brown their skin.

I will no more attack Sammy Sosa for running from his blackness than I will attack any White person for running from their whiteness. The truth is many people are not happy with what they were born with. Men will purchase hair pieces, hair plugs or products guaranteed to grow their hair. Men are now using dyes to color over their gray hair and why not? Today, if you don’t like your nose, change it. If you don’t like your hips, change them. If you don’t like the wrinkles in your forehead, Botox it. If you don’t like your sex, change it. If you have the money you can either buy the products or have the surgery.

So, Sammy Sosa decided at this stage of his life he is a lighter Afro-Latino in a darker Afro-Latino’s body and as such, he’s changing things. Good for you Sammy if it makes you happy.

As for me, I’ve worn hair extensions, wigs, makeup, used a little Ambi with horrible results, wore push-up bras, shoulder pads, girdles, name it, I’ve done it and many of us have too. Many are running away from something. They were not well endowed, they have nappy hair, their nose is too full, their lips too thin, their tummy too big, their face too wrinkly, or perhaps it’s age.

Quite frankly, the world in which we live has lead us to believe that White women with straight hair, full lips, a little tanned, no wrinkles, with perky breasts and rump are sexy. White men must be tall, a head full of straight hair (no balding), some lines on the face but not excessive are sexy. Certainly, no one can be considered sexy with a tire around their waistline. As for other nationalities, the rotten truth is too dark will get you no where. Quite sad, yes? I agree but until we change our perception of beauty by changing the images seen in advertisements, in films, on television and in our magazines, the above will remain the status quo.