Just to start off i want to say i love being black. I may not have always loved being darker than most of my fellow black brothers and sisters but i am a proud black woman. I thought after years off torment and not understanding myself and where my place was in life i finally reached a place in my life where i was o.k with myself until that horrible day. That horrible day when my five year old walked up to me after school and said" mommy i dont like being brown" i sat with my son for 2 hours talking to him about all the reasons why being dark is beautiful and sharing my experiences with him. I felt like it came so early, i was expecting it because most darkskin people deal with selfhate issues but not a five year old. I wondered and blamed myself for why he felt this way until i realized that i can change myself but i cant control how other people raise their children. My son told me how kids arent his friend because of his complexion and i understood immediately. I told my son the same thing my mother told me but an updated version lol. "Kids are cruel and you need to understand that even some adults are cruel, we cant worry about what people are thinking about us and only what we think about ourselves, and you know you was born with swaaggg  so you will be just fine lol". i know it will be hard but i can feel that something special is in my son just by how he is and ill always be there with understanding and sharing with him my experiences to help him avoid some of the mistakes i made myself in life.