I loved your articles on skin lightening in the third issue of New African Woman. They were all very enlightening and informative stories. I didn’t really realise all these years how harmful these skin whitening products can be to our health. Thank you. I was however enraged by the implication in one of the articles which said, the only reason women (and some men) use these harmful products is because they are self-loathing and are of very low self-esteem.

This might probably be the case, but why have we as a race allowed ourselves to be perceived in such a way? Could there be other factors as to why these people do this to themselves? The same could be said about why some women get themselves pregnant even when they know that they are HIV positive. What should be done, as a matter of paramount importance, is to raise awareness on the health risks these products have, instead of just slating black women for every little change they make to their bodies and that includes wearing fake weaves on their hair (although that’s not a health risk).

Articles like the one you published on skin bleaching only help to bring more shame on us black women and the choices that we make about our beauty. It perpetuates the thought that how we look physically is more important than what we are!