Skin―Aron M.

What a strange thing. Skin. How it can quite literally define a persons worth. So many different types of skin. Black skin, white skin, tan skin, light skin. All only a melanin pigmentation, something that seems to be so simple and basic yet has a much more complex and intricate understanding for most. It is known to have cause multiple social imbalances in time.

Tattooed skin, pierced skin, oh the amount of stereotypes they place on them.

Scarred skin, flawed skin. How must they fear the laughter behind them or the stares in front of them.

It’s funny how something as simple and as basic as skin can literally be the reason why someone didn’t get a job, or someone was being picked on. It could be the reason why skin-lightning creams are bought for seven year old “dark” girls. How some people refuse to sit next to a darker person just because of the melanin in their skin. How can something as simple as skin be the root of so many of our problems? I sit here, as I trace my grandmothers wrinkled skin, like soft crumpled paper. Folds of skin that crinkle in the corners of her eyes when she smiles, roads and pathways of skin, showing me her journey through life. Skin, a simple concept, mostly known as the largest organ in the body, and one of the largest problems in society.

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