Omarion and his kids, Megaa and A’Mei, gave ESSENCE fans a wonderful treat on Monday (June 29). The celebrity father and his little ones conducted a storytime session on Instagram Live for the magazine’s “Story Time Takeover.”
Omarion and his kids read Chocolate Me by Taye Diggs as well as Hair Love by Matthew Cherry. Both of the books Omarion read to his kids placed emphasis on self-love, especially when speaking of African-American children.
“I think it’s important that we speak to our kids about being comfortable in their own skin,” Omarion said before diving into the reading session with his kids. “[Chocolate Me] gives them that kind of self-love that’s very, very important.”
Taye Diggs wrote Chocolate Me (2011) as a way to address racism and its effects. Specifically, the actor shared his experience with colorism during an exclusive interview with Rage Against The Minivan.
“When I got into high school I started to hear, from the black community, ‘oh everybody is more attracted to the light skin girls and the light skin dudes and the light eyes,'” Diggs shared. “And from within the race, the light-skinned black people and more lighter brown people would make fun of the darker people. So then it was a completely different kind of struggle.”
Taye Diggs created a story in hopes of helping his son, Walker, embrace all of his cultural makeup. You can learn more about Chocolate Me here. Get your copy of Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, which tackles the stigma surrounding Black women’s hair, here. Stay tuned for more celebrity father news!
Photo: Omarion/Instagram
