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I grew up learning that the color of someone’s skin was not reflective of their beliefs, behaviors, thoughts, feelings, or emotions. I grew up learning that the color of someone’s skin was not what defined them.

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You are different from me. You are beautiful. I celebrate you. I respect you. I think you’re smart. I think you’re capable of anything, I think you are changing the world in beautiful ways.

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We are obsessed with pigmentation, or a mere chemical compound that is found in our human body, and we are using that as a hallmark of beauty.

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As someone of Indian ethnicity myself, I often heard advice from my older relatives telling me not to go out into the sun for fear of getting too dark. I saw my grandmother use Fair & Lovely and cover her face with powder to look fairer. When relatives told me that I had gotten ‘darker’ from being in the sun too much, I always used to wonder why that was something to be ashamed of; something to worry about.

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I am a woman with brown skin.

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If you’re going to bleed for something, bleed for an idea.

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We’re the most privileged race, yet still face some prejudice.

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I remember the first time a white girl I was talking to drunkenly told me, with a wink, “I’ve never been with a black guy before.”

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Why I stopped being a voluntourist.

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If the lighting is bad, we might have to pass on being in a picture (because even if we’re in it, we might not be in it).