*There has always been a racial bias between dark women and light or white women.
Hell, the racial playground of America has always pitted white against black. But, when it comes to the women or shall I say mothers, something totally different happens. The bias in America of course leans toward white women or what reminds America of white women … light skinned women. And if we’re going to have an honest conversation about this dilemma, there is a documentary waiting for you.
“Dark Girls” is directed by the legendary Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry. It touches the heart of, not just dark women, but the country that built the perception that dark African American women had (more…)
![The Howard University debacle that we reported Monday, with a letter from Renee Higginbotham-Brooks, vice chairwoman of Howard’s board of trustees, saying that “Howard will not be here in three years if we don’t make some crucial decisions now.” The letter sparked so much controversy throughout the Howard University community that the chair of the university’s governing board Addison Rand, came back with a formal letter of his own stating that ”without proper context [the letter] paints an unduly alarming picture of the University’s condition.” (more…)](http://eurweb.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/renee-higginbotham-brooks-100x100.jpg)
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This is an absolutely ridiculous video — and a missed opportunity.
The filmmakers should have interviewed people who have prejudices against dark skin women. Some men now are so brainwashed, clueless and bold they’ll admit their warped views openly. I bet casting directors will too.
Show how cinema and advertisements (print and TV) exclude dark skin women (Use stats) or depict them as undervalued, worthless, undesirable.
Talk to teens in high school. LOTS of prejudice there. Talk to people on the street who mock, degrade, put down, etc — sometimes just for sport. Talk about the peer pressure boys face when they do like a dark skinned girl. Talk to men who have spoken openly about their perception of light and mixed equaling beauty.
Then, under the harsh spotlight of a documentary, these people would all look like brainwashed fools.
This could be such an effective spotlight on how SOCIETY treats dark skin women and the psychopathy behind it.
Instead the filmmakers chose to spotlight these women as victim by making them share sob stories and seem like they have no self-esteem.
That is exploitative.
That is not how this topic should be handled.
Don’t drum up sympathy and throw a pity party.
Focus on the subtle psychological fabric at fault in society.
Ignore this comment. Wish I could erase it as it was based on the first 4 minutes of the video and was a kneejerk passionate response.
Now, that I’m further into the video I am seeing comments from people with prejudices and am confident Bill Duke will present a balanced portrayal.
Moderators — feel free to erase.
I can’t wait to see this documentary being a dark skinned woman, I can definately identify and feel the pain of the women in this doc. My school years were the worst, my classmates were horrible to me, even my third grade teacher was merciless. It took many many years for me to finally become comfortable in my own skin. I even remember while being pregnant with my now 16 y.o. daughter, praying that she not be dark like me. Now thankfully, I am loving and proud of my dark skin and natural hair, I have accepted that I am a beautiful black QUEEN, whose skin happens to be the color of the earth and that for me makes me even prouder cause we all know how beautiful mother earth is!!!!
Am I the only one who didn’t consider most of the women shown in the clip were “dark skinned”? Most of them were brown to me. Manute Bol, Chad Johnson, Bria Myles (FINE AS FUCK) is what I consider dark.
Moving forward, I don’t have issues with dark skinned people. For those men/women that are dark and have problems finding a mate, don’t stress yourself out my people. Yours will come in time. Keep your chin up.
TA, those women are considered ‘dark’ in our community. Blacks don’t differentiate between who’s more blacker than the other. Anything darker than a paper bag (I’m using degrading stereotype here), is considered dark in our community. Sad but true.
TA I once dated a brother a looooong time ago and as we got serious in our relationsip, he told me that his mother always told him not to bring home a “dark skinned” girl – both he and I are brown skinned. I was shocked when he said that to me. We later broke up and went our separate ways, but as time went on I discovered that he had moved on and married a white girl…..Sadly, in the black community we still hold on to severe dark skinned dysfunctional thinking and have over the last 400 years.
I have a story to share as a black woman. I’m not light, I’m not dark I’m just a black woman. When I was in my twenties I dated all kinds of men.
One day I brought home an african dude. He was tall, dark and handsome had a great personality. My mother who is a dark skinned sister later told me. Please don’t date a dark skinned man you’ll have dark babies. I looked at my Mom very differently, however, I’ve come to realize while she didn’t mean to discriminate. She thought she was trying to help my children because she was raised in the south and had that southern mentality. I later asked her what if someone said that about your son. You see my brother is also dark skinned. I say this to say the child in the video said it best. We are taught from an early age not to like ourselves. I celebrate my blackness by refusing to perm my hair (after years of abuse). I wear it natural and it’s not dirty as a young lady mentioned in the video. When I first started wearing my afro, my co-workers were like “how did you get your hair like that?” Can I touch it? We as a people have to learn how to love ourselves.
No disrespect but your mother, like most blacks, suffered from a slave mentality. It has nothing do with region. Even though, it’s the 21st century, we are still struggling with these kind of issues. It’s very sad that even after some of us have made some strides economically and socially, we are still don’t love ourselves.
I torn on whether her mom acted out of a self-hating “slave mentality” or simply misguided protection. I do believe some people see how badly dark skinned girls are treated and want to protect their future generations from the pain.
It’s still an unfortunate mindset, though.
@synthia,
“The filmmakers should have interviewed people who have prejudices against dark skin women. Some men now are so brainwashed, clueless and bold they’ll admit their warped views openly. I bet casting directors will too.”
I agree. These videos make them even more vulnerable IMO. If you notice, many Black men are extremely ecstatic and proud to stand before the world displaying their views…apparently believing they will somehow garner a windfall of benefits/advantages by doing so. Deep down I believe the damage is so severe and intractable they are now rendered incapable of caring for any woman remotely similar to their shade. It’s pretty much over and sadly Black women must accept this reality.
Yeah, I agree with several of your points and was initially outraged that these women were making themselves so vulnerable.
The real problem is with people who harbor these subtle prejudices. They are likely our friends and family who don’t think they are doing harm.
There’s more to be gained from their angle than from using this as a confessional for the “poor, lonely, low-self-esteem” dark girls.
However, the video is only 10 minutes and I”m going to have faith in Bill Duke, who is very dark skinned. I am hoping this will be balanced and not just exploitative — in the way that “Good Hair” was exploitative.
Really, Good Hair made a mockery of black women’s hair to me. It was not a balanced documentary…. and I feared this was be of that ilk.
Just looking at the girl pointing to the pictures and saying the white girl was smart/beautiful and the black girl was dumb and ugly — THAT’S NOT A COMPLETE PICTURE and it makes the little girl look so self-hating. But where’s the media role in this. This girl has watched TV likely and found only people NOT like herself being feted as desirable and pretty. She absorbs that.
When she shops and finds “nude” bandaids, “nude” hosiery, makeup, beauty mags… all catering to mostly lighter skin tones as the standard… how does she absorb that?
To just ignore the perpetual messages being sent out and absorbed is irresponsible. But I guess I’ll just have to wait for the entire movie to see what’s covered. Surely, Bill won’t just put the spotlight on these girls.
I can remember when I was an R.A in school and a makeup company came to do makeovers for girls on my floor. None of them came with ANY makeup for darkskinned girls, sending the message that dark skin girls were an afterthought … or even not worth thinking or preparing for at all.
I was so pissed off. I made it clear.
I hope Steven Stoute who created Carol’s Daughter’s new ad campaign which eliminates Black women takes heed to this video.
I used to purchase CD’s products but stopped because it was obvious her line was moving away from her core base. Not to mentioned, the product that did work for me, she discontinued it! Her other products, particularly, the hair balm, was liquid grease! Her ingredients were no longer ‘natural’ so I stopped purchasing her products. I saw Steve Stoute’s ridiculous campaign which really makes no sense. If one is talking about diversity, why are all the models the same color? And there is no such thing as ‘colorless’ as it pertains to humans. He needs to just stop the madness!
Right. I read that explanation of the new campaign from Carol’s Daughter — the future of beauty is pan-ethnic and mixed race, according to them, so they are highlighting that.
Wow. OK … thanks Carol’s Daughter.
No room or need for dark skin beauty in the future, huh? How they can flaunt this and still get sales I don’t know.
My heart broke watching this video. It’s funny one of the women mentioned said that people from the Caribbean don’t call themselves ‘black’. That’s true but it has nothing do with stigma. In the Caribbean, it’s based on class first and race is second. Also, most Caribbeans come from countries where most people are dark. The racial politics in the Caribbean and even in Africa are little different. Though, it is true that those who are fairer in complexion are able to move up society faster than their darker counterparts. Still, I find the whole damn thing sickening and intolerable. Most of the women in my family are of a darker hue and I find that to be beautiful. I don’t understand how some of us can complain about being discriminated or being degraded by whites yet we do the same thing to each other. We have to learn how to break this vicious cycle for the betterment of our children. It’s no wonder that some of them is so screw up. I will definitely be checking for Mr. Duke’s documentary.
I agree with your NYCsoul
Except I don’t think this is limited to the black community. I saw where one lady acted like whites just loved her skin.
But let’s face it…. who’s chosen for the movies? Who are the news anchors? If a black person is cast, it’s a very light variety most of the time.
White people are sensitive to colorism, too. It’s a myth that they aren’t.
Since the field and house division originated with them, I”m always baffled when people act like this is simply a black issue and not a whole society issue.
“But let’s face it…. who’s chosen for the movies? Who are the news anchors? If a black person is cast, it’s a very light variety most of the time.
White people are sensitive to colorism, too. It’s a myth that they aren’t.”
Very true. But try to get the black community to discuss this issue and it gets swept under the rug or those who bring it up are being ‘divisive’. Whites are very color struck whether it pertains to hair (the all american girl type: blonde hair or straighening their naturally curly hair) or skin color. With blacks, because it’s so pronounce in our differing shades of skin tone, it’s much easier to focus on.
I watched this video and cried. As someone who is considered dark skinned, my experiences growing up weren’t as extreme as those in the video. However, I do recall hearing ‘you’re pretty for a dark skin girl’ or ‘ you’re dark and lovely.’ Why couldn’t I just be pretty or lovely? Thankfully, my parents instilled in me pride and self-esteem. It certainly didn’t hurt that my father only bought me black dolls so I grew up loving and playing with a dolls that looked like me.
I can’t wait to see the full-length documentary because I believe the filmmakers will explore the cultural and economical impact colorism has on society and how this discrimination permeates itself in media, advertising, corporate America, film/tv, etc.
It’s very strange that in this day and age were still talking about dark skin light skin. I just thought we were all african americans.
It’s not strange if you’ve been observant. I agree we are all African American but the point is, as synthia mentioned above, clearly there is still an issue within our community with people who are darker. When you have rappers, for instance, talking about they don’t date ‘dark butts’ or big upping light skin/’exotic’ girls in their lyrics and videos, the question should be directed at them as to why it’s okay to discriminate under the guise of ‘preferences’? Why put down one to uplift the other? Yeah, it is the 21st Century and we should get past the skin tone differences but some of us can’t. As long as we keep telling our daughters that we need to have ‘light skin babies with good hair’ or commenting about how this woman/man is ‘too black’, this issue will always come up. For a people who always pride themselves on being godly, our behavior can be very ugly towards each other.
Yes, it’s strange is one is not very observant or is fine with the status quo. I agree with you that many will call you ‘divisive’ for pointing out the obvious. So many people are cool with colorism especially if they benefit from it. As far as I can tell it will never diminish because too many are afraid to have children who reflect their image and continue to instill the same colorism and distaste for Black skin in their ‘new and improved’ offspring.
I must say that the fact that this is still an issue makes me feel very shameful as an African American. Blacks cry about racism from white people, but to treat our own brothers and sisters differently based on the shade of their xkin is just pathetic.It’s the same thing! My parents taught myself and brothers from a young age that they type of thinking is just plain old wrong, ignorant and unacceptable. I wish we would wake up and realize that type of thinking is due to colonialism, you know due to being brain washed. This teaching was used to pit us against each other so how can we continue to say “she’s pretty or he’s cute to be dark. DUMBEST thing I ever heard! I heard a woman say that to a very beautiful dark skin girl in a store. I was very offended but since I was a teenager I kept my mouth shut. I’m definitely going to promote this video. We as a people need to stop the foolishness and free our minds as EnVouge once said.