Dark Skin By Christine Ratnasingham

“Dark Skin” written by Christine Ratnasingham is a poem which expresses the idea that she is unique from other people due to her skin tone and it illustrates her experience of being different to others through her relationship with her identity. Her journey of feeling different is depicted with the many emotions that she expressed throughout the poem.

The sentence “to remind me that I was not of their whiteness” expresses Christine’s feeling of being different from her classmates and the use of exclusive language in the phrase also demonstrates how she differs from everyone. Her classmates would constantly keep on making her feel excluded and different and this is something no child wants to experience. She thinks back on a childhood memory that seems to be a negative one as it shows her feeling rejected and excluded due to her skin tone. She lacks the sense of feeling belonged and accepted by the group.

“I forget its beauty until I see it on other bodies that carry it with dignity” the poem continues. This rhyme demonstrates how Christine is oblivious to the beauty of her dark skin tone and only notices it when it appears on other bodies that wear it with grace. People with dark skin tones

This statement explains that in Christine’s opinion, you will notice a person’s skin colour first among numerous other features. People’s skin tone plays many distinct roles in defining their cultural identity because it gives a brief idea of their country of origin. The diverse weather patterns and climates around the world influence a person’s skin tone and cause evolutionary traits and this is where culture, connection to land and religion develops. However, these cultures are connected and identified by those traits. Cultural identity refers to the various ways that individuals live their life with diverse religions and cultural celebrations