Not to revive an old topic, but I just read this article that (maybe not in the most...er... ~temperate~ terms - some of what she says I'm having trouble with) talks a bit about colorism. I think this is relevant to the way YA is today - biricial girls/brown girls, as it seems to me, are more accepted (in text and on covers) then dark skinned black girls who are closer to their African roots. I love to see brown girls of any shade getting love in the industry, but I do think there's a way we hierarchize shades in a way that teaches dark-skinned girls to hate themselves. I know I did, for a long time.
T.V, movies, music and books taught me that. And I fear they'll continue to teach our kids that.
http://www.womanist-musings.com/2011/06/rappers-and-colorism-wale-lil-wayne.html
She seems to be targeting the 'black community,' and only targets our Eurocentric-society implicitly, but I think the way that society is structured in favor of whiteness not just via individual people, but structurally (ie: the gatekeepers, publishing music industry, casting directors, etc) needs to be put more into the forefront. I also don't like how she goes on to state the dark black girls who defend these type of men are the problem, because she's ignoring just how deep this learned self-hate can go. It's socialization. Blaming the victims is never a good idea. It's just wrong.
I don't know. I definitely love brown girl solidarity, but I wish we all would acknowledge that in this society, certain kind of brown girls are elevated against others. At the end of the day, the more African you are, the most disgusting; the whiter you are, the better - that's the message. Which doesn't bode well for some of us and our sense of self worth. But then, we're not even allowed to talk about it. We have to keep our mouths shut, or we're haters. It's enough to make you break down.
Most of the TV and movies I watch practice the But Not Too Black rule (Revenge, Vampire Diaries, that one JJ Abrams Spies Show with the two half-black leads) especially for women, unless it's some stereotypical black role like the Mami. I'm glad we have Scandal and Person of Interest now this year (thank God) but we still have a long way to go. It seems like very book I've picked up that features prominent young black women, the authors always go out of their way to mention that they are biracial (Sarah R. Br3nnan, C@ssie C1@re etc) or 'brown' but not black (H0lly Bl2ck), and especially not dark black. I just don't get it.
Anyway, sorry for these incoherent ramblings. I hope I don't get pummeled because of this, as I often am when I bring up colorism. I'm not hating, I'm just stating something that I see is a problem and I hope we can address it together...a lot of young black girls like me are growing up hating themselves because their skin is too dark, and every bit of culture surrounding them tells them that they're too dark and therefore too ugly to be worth anything, to be desired, to be wanted, to matter. It hurts.
This is also a good article to read: http://bougieblackgirl.wordpress.co...ness-the-stupid-profanity-and-hella-colorism/
T.V, movies, music and books taught me that. And I fear they'll continue to teach our kids that.
http://www.womanist-musings.com/2011/06/rappers-and-colorism-wale-lil-wayne.html
And truly, let’s acknowledge that White Supremacy is exactly what most of the Black Diaspora has come to practice in our daily lives—from the epidemic bleaching of skin in Africa and Jamaica to the Western Black male celebrity’s intolerance for dark skinned mates to black men’s unbridled hatred for authentically Black children to the older black woman’s craving of grandbabies with “good hair” and mulatto images in place of the Black images we can’t stand—Blacks in general; worldwide—have been reduced to practicing an unspoken White Supremacy that is beyond bone deep; it’s to the soul. Yet we always want to deny it or make excuses and keep on committing the very atrocities against each other that we demonize Whites for. We are willing to kill our own mother (the image of our Black mother) just to be light skinned; just to have a perceived easier life. We are that rat-hearted and pathetic and the images in our art; our art—tell it all!
She seems to be targeting the 'black community,' and only targets our Eurocentric-society implicitly, but I think the way that society is structured in favor of whiteness not just via individual people, but structurally (ie: the gatekeepers, publishing music industry, casting directors, etc) needs to be put more into the forefront. I also don't like how she goes on to state the dark black girls who defend these type of men are the problem, because she's ignoring just how deep this learned self-hate can go. It's socialization. Blaming the victims is never a good idea. It's just wrong.
I don't know. I definitely love brown girl solidarity, but I wish we all would acknowledge that in this society, certain kind of brown girls are elevated against others. At the end of the day, the more African you are, the most disgusting; the whiter you are, the better - that's the message. Which doesn't bode well for some of us and our sense of self worth. But then, we're not even allowed to talk about it. We have to keep our mouths shut, or we're haters. It's enough to make you break down.
Most of the TV and movies I watch practice the But Not Too Black rule (Revenge, Vampire Diaries, that one JJ Abrams Spies Show with the two half-black leads) especially for women, unless it's some stereotypical black role like the Mami. I'm glad we have Scandal and Person of Interest now this year (thank God) but we still have a long way to go. It seems like very book I've picked up that features prominent young black women, the authors always go out of their way to mention that they are biracial (Sarah R. Br3nnan, C@ssie C1@re etc) or 'brown' but not black (H0lly Bl2ck), and especially not dark black. I just don't get it.
Anyway, sorry for these incoherent ramblings. I hope I don't get pummeled because of this, as I often am when I bring up colorism. I'm not hating, I'm just stating something that I see is a problem and I hope we can address it together...a lot of young black girls like me are growing up hating themselves because their skin is too dark, and every bit of culture surrounding them tells them that they're too dark and therefore too ugly to be worth anything, to be desired, to be wanted, to matter. It hurts.
This is also a good article to read: http://bougieblackgirl.wordpress.co...ness-the-stupid-profanity-and-hella-colorism/
Lil Wayne
Beautiful black woman, I bet that b*tch look better red.” “…my daughter is the first and last dark skin child I’m having. The rest of my baby moms [are] light skinned chicks. I even got an Asian baby moms to make sure I have a daughter with good hair. Too bad we had a son.
Young Berg
I’m kinda racist…I don’t like dark butts…You know how some women prefer light skin men or dark skin men.It’s rare that I do dark butts – that’s what I call dark skinned women…I [don’t date women] darker than me.
I love the pool test. If you can jump in the pool exactly like you are and you don’t come out looking better than you looked before going in the pool – then that’s not a good look. Any woman that uses brown gel to set down her baby hair is not poppin.
Pilow the Don
…black women need to get their shit together, period, point black. And if you’re in denial of that, you are part of the problem.
Kanye West
Rolling with some light-skin chicks and some Kelly Rowlands.
If it wasn’t for race mixing there’d be no video girls. Me and most of our friends like mutts a lot. Yeah, in the hood they call ‘em mutts
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