The painting is by an anonymous author. It consists of three African-American women with different skin tones. Looking at the picture you can see the lighter-skinned girl at the top right corner, the medium brown-skinned girl in the middle left, and the darker-skinned at the center of the bottom. The author portrays this as how skin tones are depicted in society. Among the African-American community people with lighter skin tones are seen as the most beautiful. It is a controversial topic with the history dating back to slavery. The lighter skinned people always had better jobs and were treated with a little more decency then those that were darker. Due to circumstances of slavery, people with skin tones that appeared lighter or close to the "European glow" were deemed as more attractive. It is common for darker-skinned people to be made fun of because of the color of their skin. There are so many discrepancies in what is deemed acceptable in society regarding the color of your skin. All of their eyes being closed ties in to the mood and tone of the painting. It makes the ambiance of this piece slightly darker and innocent. When your eyes are shut, you shield out the world and your surroundings. The eyes are known as the gateway to the soul, so in this picture it symbolizes the absence of that characteristic. The envious nature of this topic makes us less inhumane to one another. It makes us blind to judgment. We can't see that we are all the same despite of our diverse skin shades. Blindness prevents us from seeing the truth about the nature of a person. Overall this unique painting gives us awareness about mindset of society in relation to skin tones in the African-American community.
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