Sammy Sosa’s New Skin Reflects an Ugly Mentality
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By David A. Love
Many have been shocked to see recent photos of retired major league baseball player Sammy Sosa. Not only is he wearing green contact lenses, but his skin tone is considerably lighter than usual, something which he claims is the result of a skin “rejuvenation” process, some reports say. The once dark-complexioned, undeniably African-looking Sosa now looks more like Ricky Ricardo from “I Love Lucy”. As the late Nigerian activist and musician Fela Kuti would have said, it appears that Sosa is guilty of having a “colonial mentality.”
Throughout the African diaspora, black people internalized the racism they experienced under slavery and colonial rule. Bad habits are hard to break, and there is still self-hatred among black people today. With years of conditioning, societies were made to believe that blackness was bad, and anything associated with blackness was inferior and undesirable.
This problem is also prevalent in Latin America. For example, Brazil has the largest black population outside of the African continent at 90 million, which amounts to roughly half of its people. Yet, despite their conspicuous presence in society, black Brazilians face discrimination, poverty, and lower education and health standards than whites. According to a “racial atlas” created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais, 65 percent of the poor and 70 percent of the extremely poor in Brazil are of African descent.
In the Dominican Republic, Sosa’s country of origin, people are overwhelmingly black: 90 percent have African ancestry. Yet only 11 percent identify themselves as black. And as UN experts found, there is “a profound and entrenched problem of racism and discrimination against such groups as Haitians, Dominicans of Haitian descent, and more generally against blacks within Dominican society.”
A strong anti-Haitian sentiment is rooted in the country’s history. Haiti is a former colonizer of the Dominican Republic, as was Spain. Yet, Dominicans only celebrate their independence from Haiti. Haitian cultural practices are viewed as inferior. The government has engaged in mass deportations of Haitians – and sometimes Dominicans mistaken for Haitians – while also attempting to deny citizenship to the Dominican-born children of so-called “illegal” Haitian immigrants.
But a large reason for this hatred of Haitians is a denial of Dominicans’ own African origin. Simply put, sometimes it is difficult to stare at oneself in the mirror. For years, under the Hispanidad movement, the government of the Dominican Republic emphasized the nation’s white, Spanish and Catholic heritage, and conveniently left out the black part.
The Dominican Republic is a nation whose hairdressers are known for their hair-straightening prowess and most Dominican women get their hair straightened. Although dark folks are the overwhelming majority, black skin, wide noses and ‘pelo malo’ (bad hair) do not fit the standard of beauty. So, hair relaxers and skin whiteners are in, and people will call themselves a number of things, such as Indian, burned Indian, Moreno and cinnamon – anything but negro (the Spanish word), or black. This is what years of submerging your culture will do.
But in an interview Wednesday, the Dominican Republic native blamed a night cream and the bright television lights for the way his skin appeared. Sosa, who celebrates his 41st birthday Thursday, said he is not suffering from any skin illness.
“It’s a bleaching cream that I apply before going to bed and whitens my skin some,” he said on Primer Impacto, a program on the Spanish-language network Univision.
Sosa, who also wears colored contacts, said he uses the cream as a moisturizer and is in discussions to market it.
thegrio.com
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There is no need to comment on this article because it tells a sad but true truth about the unseen and not talked about cast system in Latin America and South America that is based on the color of the skin and Sammy Sosa is a victim of this system and so are most Dominicans of African decent or people of Haition decent living in the Dominican Republic. In Latin America its very unpopular to be of African decent or having dark skin. Light skin woman think their better then the woman with dark skin light skin people get the better jobs in most Hotels their shown more on the TV they get more magazine covers in fact most people from Haiti work under a system of modern day slavery in the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic a place where no light skin Dominican would work. So Sosa is a victim of his own skin color growing up in a country where skin color matters but not talked about Cuba is the same. People need to understand that if it was not for the hard work of the African slaves Latin America would be nothing today. Sugar was king in Latin American a long time ago and its still king today so lets not look down on the skin of the people who put you where you are today the same one who build the hotels and clean the beaches and take out the trash and build your houses. Any black person that´s ashamed of their color should be ashamed of them selves. Stop calling you selves Dominicans when when you know your from Haiti. Dominicans need to understand they are of a mixed breed of people with African blood and Tino and Spanish blood. The Africans brought Latin American dance and music and food and most of worth.
> butch
All I can say is OMG. He’s truly sick physically and mentally.
> Clara
I am Dominican, raised in the island and with very pale skin because of my Puertorrican father. Everything that was said in this article is true. The majority of Dominicans are dark but they don’t feel black as in Haitians or African which they consider extremely black, it sounds to stupid but is the truth. Dominicans do have a wide variety of skin tones from very black to very pale but I feel that color difference over there is not an issue, I never saw it that way, it’s very common over there to see interracial relationships, it is very normal, it is not look down by others unlike here in the US where racism is more in your face. I never felt inferior in my country, my family which were darker never felt inferior, unlike here in the US, I never saw hate crimes over there, Black and whites always together and color was the last thing on our minds, I guess that as long as we were Dominicans everyone was equal, their apprehensiveness was with the Haitians for some reason. In DR the African culture is widely celebrated, something that African Americans don’t do. We still listen to African music called Palos all the time, we celebrate our independence dressing up like African tribes do, putting black oil in our skins and dancing for days with African music. Even here in the US, Dominicans still do Fiestas de Palos, which are gatherings in which African music is played and danced. Do African Americans do that? So the African influence is still very present over there.
> Lily
Sammy is truly sick. There was nothing wrong with his skin before the change. There is something wrong with his mind. He looks like the joker. If the dominican republic is that bad for black people i would build myself a boat to get out of there or stowaway or something. Never ever would i change may skin the way sammy did.
> risingsun
Lily i understand what your saying and i think its easy for you to think everything is ok and maybe with the lightness of your skin you don´t feel the same racism as many dark people living in Latin and South American. It might help if you would just ask them how they feel. In America black people celebrate their African roots everyday by just calling themselves African American they understand all black music and dance and most of the food they grow up with is based on Africa. African or slave history is not widley celebrate in the DR and if its is celebrated its done in the back streets but its not embraced like it is by African Americans. The African influence might still be very present in Latin and South American but the people of African decent are the poorest of the poor and thats not just because they want to be poor it has much to do with skin color. Cuba where it is over 70% African decent but the country is lead by the Cubans of Spanish decent and the same goes for the DR,PR,Colombia,Brazil,and many more. All these counties were built on the backs of slaves and sugar and the slaves did´t come from Spain or Portugal they came from Africa. Sammy changed his skin because he is a victim of the system of racism in the DR.
> butch
He looks like micheal jackson
> sabrina
Michael Jackson is not in the same case with this guy, Michael did it because of his vetiligo..
> cotton mattress
Sammy need’s to listen to my country man Bob Marley and “emancupate himself from mental slavery”.
We will never begin to rise-up and stay-up if we don’t start to practice self-love.
> Lorna
Sammy need’s to listen to my country man Bob Marley and “emancipate himself from mental slavery”.
We will never begin to rise-up and stay-up if we don’t start to practice self-love.
> Lorna
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