I am a dark skinned African American woman. Similar to Michele Obama, maybe just a bit darker. I am mixed with Native American and probably some French to boot, but I am a dark juicy berry.
I first got sun burnt in upstate New York the summer that Elvis died. I was with friends, an Italian-American and a Polish American, they were on the lawn laying on this aluminum blanket all greased up to tan. I was just sitting there chatting with them under the hot summer sun.
A few days later my nose began to peel, the first time ever and I thought that I had skin cancer. I was in a panic, I was young and I hadn't put two and two together. You see, a few years earlier we had gone to Hawaii and when we came back, my older brother, who is shades lighter than I, had sun burn on his back and was peeling but I did not equate that to what was happening to my nose. Soon enough, my girlfriends who had much experience with sunburn told me kindly that my nose was peeling. I calmed down and thought about it, then life goes on as it does when you are 17 years old.
Fast forward 10 years later. I went to Africa for the first time with my mother. Kenya. There were a few other African Americans traveling with us as well. Older women in my mother's generation. By this time, I had been tanning for some time. Usually with European American girlfriends, it was relaxing and most of all, I got darker and I loved the way my skin looked afterwards. I made sure to use sun tan lotion each time I did the activity. So anyway I am dark already, the Kenyans I meet on the street speak to me as if I am Kenyan. Really dark berry. So, one day that we are not safaring, I go to the hotel pool in my bright orange and red, two piece suit and look for a spot to lay down to bask in the sun. Needless to say there were all Europeans doing that, not a single African or American of African descent were lounging around the pool. I turned to look under the awning and huddled there was my mother and nearly all the African Americans who were on our tour. I was the youngest there. So, I took my sun tan lotion, and my towel and plopped down in the middle of basking Italian ladies in bikinis and proceeded to get a tan and wondered why my mother and company were not out enjoying the sun. My mother was shades lighter than me as well. Her mother was 1/2 Native American...many of our family members in her generation were 'reddish' like Redd Fox.
I had heard stories about the dynamics of 'lite' and 'dark' African Americans. I even experienced it myself growing up in a largish NE City where the 'redbones' were to be desired and were the most beautiful, while a dark girl like me was not that attractive. My father was dark skinned but he had very 'good' hair and was handsome. Good hair is totally another diary :)
Well anyways, I was out there basking for a while and my mother dared to go into the sun and tap me on the shoulder saying that I had enough sun. I was getting darker. I told her that I would stay out a little longer and she asked me why I was doing this. I adjusted the top of my two piece suit and showed her the difference between my tanned skin and my regular skin. I said to her, "Because of the tan lines." She just went back to the shade. My mother loved me greatly, but she and I had different opinions on things. I am sure on one level this amused her. But coupled with my shaved sideburns and spikey punk hair...she was at a lost why her child wanted to get the dreaded "darker."
Many years later, I lived in a SW State, hotter than Africa and I stayed tanned year round. Not consciously, it just was hot and the sun seemed to always be up and I stayed a really dark berry. I met my European husband there and he loved the way my skin looked. He even bemoans the fact that now that we live in NW Europe, that my tan is gone...
So we tan, burn...and it looks beautifully on us as it does anyone. But with the ozone layer and strong sun, I am careful about my skin because of sun damage. But I loved being tan. My tan lines were great and sexy :)
My father use to tell me when kids teased me for being dark..."The darker the berry, the sweeter the juice." My husband would agree.