"My skin is beautiful because it protects me"

When my youngest was around 3 or 4 and learning his colors, he would often talk about the kids in his class or point out someone referring to the color of their shirt.

"Mommy, I was playing with that blue kid." Or, "Why is that purple kid getting ice cream and I have to eat this banana and do squats."

cough, cough well, maybe I'm romanticizing my wonderful parenting/nutrition skills in hind sight...

But the point was I was horrified when he then would talk about a person who was wearing a shirt color that coincided with a skin color... I wanted my kid to be color blind to those types of things and just see people for who they were. And he probably was, he just happened to be referring to his playmate in a black shirt. 

Have you seen the cute Sesame Street clip making its way around Facebook featuring actress Lupita Nyong'o? 

She was widely praised for a speech she delivered accepting the Best Breakthrough Performance Award at the 7th annual Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon speaking of her youth yearning of more pale skin like what she saw on TV and in magazines and her subsequent journey of acceptance and definition of beauty:

"What does sustain us... what is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul."

... and as she says to Elmo, skin is just what protects us and helps us to feel. Nothing to do with the color of our shirts!