Blacks in America certainly have had issues with light skin versus dark skin over the decades (or should I says centuries). And I won’t even start on that age-old ‘good hair’ debate. But it seems that India and its caste system can take name calling to a whole new level. The Time of India is reporting that a woman named Syed Fathima, who was married for only two months, committed suicide when her husband called her “black”.

This case actually went to court where it was found that being called “black” was equivalent to mental torture. On her deathbed she declared that her husband didn’t like her because of her dark complexion. And do you want to know what her husband got for this heinous crime? Two years in jail. Makes you wonder about the world, doesn’t it?

But as a black woman living in America I can’t help but think about how long it took our people to get to black —journeying from that derogatory “n” word to colored before we embraced it as a compliment. Folks were walking around with t-shirts saying ‘black is beautiful’ and singing James Brown’s anthem, “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud.” Then we wanted to be African American (sometimes with a hyphen, sometimes without) and being black didn’t seem to mean as much. Because as we were trying to distance ourselves from being black, we didn’t notice that it too had become a derogatory word used to harm people. I think we need to start proclaiming “black is beautiful,” again. Let’s not let a once beautiful word become ugly.

Man Gets 2 Years for Calling Wife “Black”