But you're not Black and it's kind of oppressive of you to say this given that you have the privilege of never having to hate your skin so much that you whiten it, you have the privilege of never having to base your whole career and success around self-hatred and you have the privilege of living in a society that…

um, okay.

ahhh, so gorgeous!

Who is "we" though. I'm not judging her for her choice other than I know this is wrong because it's dangerous and it upholds white supremacy. If you see comments from all of the other Black women in this thread, including me, we are sad for her and want better for her. We are able to see the line between hating her…

Yes, because I see a lot of basic ass opinions from white people who think they are contributing something of worth to the discussion but are in fact attacking this woman for something that is not entirely her fault and missing the context in which this issue still exists.

Your analysis is very simplistic and is missing the complexity of the history of colonialism and white supremacy around the world.

Can you please not call her stupid? This is the result of colonialism and white supremacist socialization, it has less to do with stupidity than brainwashing and socialization. I hate that she did this and acts this way but before judging a Black woman so harshly, you need to examine the underlying issues and the…

Though, if you're a person of colour people are not only dicks, there are laws, systems and structures in place meant to oppress us, not just to hurt our feelings. So while you meant well, I don't think "people are dicks no matter what color you are" really adds to the discussion.

This. Thank you for pointing out how their contributions derail an important discussion about racism and colorism.

I'm Black. I use the Peter Thomas Roth glycolic acid gel on my hyperpigmented spots. I apply it with a q-tip.

Yes, completely missing the point.

Yes, this is a good rebuttal that dark skin is beautiful. However, these representations in the media and our culture are few and far between. That is the problem. For every Lupita and Alek there are hundreds of other media personalities that are light skinned Black and white that are upheld as the standard of…

Can we not call her an idiot please? You admitted yourself you don't quite understand the issue so please reserve judgement and don't resort to calling a Black woman, who has been socialized to hate her skin because of our racist world, an "idiot".

Well, as a Black woman, tanning is healthy for getting vitamin D and the incidence of skin cancer is very low. So yeah, using this stuff is worse than tanning.

I think you don't grasp the devastating effects of colonialism and white supremacy. You are right that we shouldn't judge her too harshly but I say this because it's not her fault that white supremacist power structure has socialized her to believe that "white is right". However, this issue is different from someone…

It's the legacy of slavery and white supremacy.

I have used them before for hyperpigmentation due to acne spots. But I only applied them to the spots, not my entire face and not for an extended period of time. However, I didn't know how dangerous they were until a while back so I switched to AHA products.

No, it's not wrong. This genuinely hurts my heart as a Black woman. I feel sympathy more than anger that she felt the need to do this and that she is so drunk off the white supremacist koolaid to listen to anyone. Victim blaming does nothing but obscure the fact that this issue is systemic and deeply imbedded in…

Yes. I'm sad for her. I'm angry that she's peddling this stuff but I'm angrier that this world is still in a state that would compel her to whiten her skin and sell this cream.

You seem to be lacking an understanding the socio-historical context in which this issue exists. You have to consider things like colonialism and white supremacy in order to understand why this is different.