Did you ever wish you were white?

How racism shapes what we see in the mirror

Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

I love my skin, though I’ve not always been comfortable in it. That took a long time. After my first experience of racism in primary school, I knew my pigmentation could make me a target. Being called a ‘dirty paki’ once at a swimming pool affected me more profoundly than I realised; I developed the habit of scrubbing myself furiously in the shower after that…