- Today, friends, we're talking
about the light-skinned elephant in the room
and why it keeps getting all of the attention.
(rocky music)
In the world of pop culture, darker-skinned women
have frequently gotten the short end of the success stick.
Just consider the most successful
black female singers in the last decade.
You can probably come up with dozens of names,
including Alicia Keys, Ciara, Mariah Carey,
Jhene Aiko, and of course, Beyonce.
But can you name even five deeply melanated
female pop stars?
I mean, we did have Brandi as Cinderella,
but that was 20 years ago.
Wait, was it?
From Lena Horne, the first black actress
to sign a major studio deal,
to Halle Berry, the first black actress
to win a best actress Academy Award,
lighter skinned and often mixed-race women
have usually broken through society's
biggest barriers first.
Now this isn't to say they weren't hard-working
or didn't deserve it, but black people with lighter skin,
straighter hair, and more Eurocentric features
have always been more likely to be given
the paltry number of opportunities
to access white spaces and institutions.
This is the reality, but why?
Now, before we answer that,
we gotta say, who's considered dark-skinned
or light-skinned is all relative,
and definitely varies from culture to culture.
But for our purposes, when we way light-skinned,
think, Nicki Minaj, Zoe Kravitz, Rihanna, Zendaya.
And when we say dark-skinned.
Think Viola Davis, Kelly Rowland, and Lupita.
The roots of this light versus dark inequality
stem all the way back to the days of slavery,
when lighter-skinned slaves,
often the mixed children of white slave owners,
aka, the product of rape,
aka, you're not slick, Thomas Jefferson,
were given domestic work as opposed
to the physical labor of darker slaves,
thus landing higher on the skin tone hierarchy
because of their proximity to whiteness.
This separation was enacted based
on the slave traders' false beliefs
that darker-skinned people were better suited
for hard labor, whereas lighter-skinned blacks
were thought to be better suited
for intelligent and domestic tasks.
Don't get it twisted, though,
whether in the house or in the field,
they were still enslaved, so it was definitely not a choice.
No matter what your weird cousin on Facebook says.
Out of the house slave versus field slave mentality
came white supremacist stereotypes
that framed light-skinned people as the good blacks,
and darker skinned people as lazy, unintelligent,
unattractive, undesirable, criminal,
aggressive, and just all around bad.
Now, while the skin tone hierarchy known as colorism
is a by-product of white supremacy,
it's not just a white thing.
Stereotypical figures like the angry black woman
and sassy black friend are, unfortunately,
also present in black-made media.
In the recent past, there have been numerous examples
of black people in the media
perpetuating the idea that lighter is better.
The popular 90s sitcom Martin, as brilliant as it was,
is a shining example of this problem.
Light-skinned Gina was positioned
as attractive, intelligent, and funny,
versus her dark-skinned friend, Pam,
who, despite being banging,
was often coded as unattractive
and the butt of many of Martin's jokes.
And what we will not do is stand for anyone
coming for sitcom legend, Tichina Arnold.
And there's been even more recent instances of this.
Remember that time Kanye West held a Yeezy casting
asking for multi-racial women only?
Or when the casting call for the movie
Straight Outta Compton described A girls
as the hottest of the hottest, with real hair,
and D girls as, and I quote,
African American girls, poor, not in good shape,
medium to dark skin tone.
Yikes, it be your own people.
Or, remember when rapper Kodak Black,
himself a dark-skinned black man,
said that he doesn't date women who share his complexion
because they're too gutter.
Come on, now, Kodak, black is in your name!
These examples point to the fact
that many black people, even those with the power
to create change within their own industries,
sometimes internalize the very colorist stereotypes
that have kept them down.
Now, the media doesn't necessarily cause colorism,
but it reinforces it in ways
that have real-world implications.
Colorism has much wider ramifications
than just who we see on our movie screens
or on the cover of magazines.
So prepare your hot Cheetos and Tums,
'cause this gets even sadder.
A 2011 study conducted in North Carolina
found out that of the over 12,000 African American
women prisoners, light-skinned women
were sentenced to 12% less prison time than darker ones.
Or, consider the fact that according to
a Harvard University study, dark-skinned blacks
from the United States have lower socioeconomic status,
more punitive relationships with
the criminal justice system, diminished prestige,
and less likelihood of holding elective office
compared with their lighter counterparts.
There have even been black dating apps
with filters for skin tone.
In other words, by privileging lighter skin,
straighter hair, and more Eurocentric features,
the media creates an environment that affects
dark-skinned people on a social,
political, and personal level.
And yes, the only Aunt Viv I recognize
is the original, dark-skinned Aunt Viv.
Now, of course, lighter-skinned people of color
are not exempt from discrimination or racism,
but acknowledging that they experience
light-skinned privilege doesn't negate those struggles.
But don't worry, I have great news.
Well, maybe not great news, but helpful.
There are some things that all people of color
can do to combat colorism within their communities
and in pop culture as a whole.
This includes catching yourself
from using language like pretty for a dark-skinned girl,
engaging in open and honest conversations
about how colorism affects your daily life,
and if you're light-skinned, acknowledging your privilege.
Because at the end of the day,
it shouldn't be team light skin versus team dark skin.
It should be team melanated people of all sizes,
shapes, and shades versus society's dumb (bleep).
And look, we all have biases.
To learn more and to challenge your own,
check out lookdifferent.org.
Thanks for watching.
We'll see you next time right here on Decoded.
(rocky music)