That’s a good point our race is like the only thing people can see or remark on. It’s like a big vacuum stealing all the life and dimensionality out of the person they see in front of them. Just labels on a page: African American, Black Person, Minority.

I do want to say though that as a young person obviously I didn’t fully understand what the phrase meant but as I have aged. My god it is staggering the difference between me and the classmates I graduated with. I’m still getting carded, I’m 32.

To be fair a few things I never did:

Party hard at 21 involving alcohol or drugs. I didn’t get drunk for the first time until I was 27. (religious upbringing) So that was a good 6 years I never put anything inside my body besides water while my peers were partying hard and going into work on no sleep. I drink a hell uva lot of wine now though.

I’ve never stayed up for more than 24 hours, ever. My body never allowed me to do this. When it’s time to sleep. I will fall asleep anywhere at anytime. Often during movie nights at my friend’s houses which annoyed them at the time but I didn’t start noticing discoloration of any kind under my eyes until last year. All my friends have had bags under their eyes for 6–7 years now. Even the ones who are 7–8 years younger than me.

I’ve never worn any foundation on my face, ever. I use water and have only ever applied makeup on my face to my eyes and lips. I really think all women from all races need to reconsider that it is possible the makeup you cake on your pores and skin might be designed for you to come back needing more of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the next few years we find that they have put stuff in the products to cause women to have bad skin which causes them to need to cover it up with more of said product. I’m 32 and I still have never found a need to wear any foundation or anything on my face other than mascara and eye shadow. I’ve had one breakout in the past 18 years and it was because I was taking a supplement. I can’t prove it but people always remark on my skin that it has a glowing appearance. When they ask me what I use on it, I just change the subject. Most women have used the products for so long thinking it will help their skin I doubt me saying I don’t use anything will be able to convince them .

Since most women really have begun to rely very heavily on products to make them feel confident. I am guilty of it as well with things like mascara but I know that many people cannot feel confident stepping outside without their safety blankets. So even if I said, “Don’t use anything but water for an entire year and see how your skin changes.” They will inevitably be placed in a situation where they feel the need to have it on. It’s sort of something that is hard to go back and try for after the fact.

In my case I think in highschool some white girl tried to do my makeup for picture day. It was awful she tried to make my skin whiter. Since then I remembered how heavy and invaded my pores felt just from that one instance. So I decided I wasn’t interested and my face looked fine. I also remember using face washes in highschool and every time I did so my whole face turned bright red. So I just stopped and it’s a good thing I did. I listened to what my body was telling me rather than what marketing and magazines were telling me.