Made of Shade: Bill Duke’s ‘Dark Girls’ is A Necessary Conversation
June 27, 2013
By// Quassan Castro
Dark Girls
premiered on the OWN network earlier this week, featuring the
narratives of women wounded by the effects of colorism, and it’s about
time the taboo conversation was brought to a mainstream platform. In the
superb documentary, one of the most haunting accounts of colorism was a
woman that recalls her mother praising her because of her light skin
while shaming the existence of her dark skinned daughter. Of her dark
skin daughter, the colorism-affected mother says, “Could you imagine if
she had any lightness in her skin at all? She’d be gorgeous.”
Colorism is still something that a lot of African Americans try hide but I’m glad that Dark Girls
brought the issue to the forefront. However, for some, the point of the
film was missed, which became evident with the negative backlash that
included people taking sides on Twitter with hashtags like,
#TeamLightSkin and #TeamDarksin in something similar to the digital
equivalent of the infamous scene in School Daze (from more than twenty years ago) that pit the “jiggaboos” and the “wannabes” against each other.
Over the course of our history we have endured ignorance like the paper bag test, where if your hand was darker than the paper bag, you were considered too dark, and in some cases excluded from Black upper class social organizations. We had replaced the slave owners with our own oppression due to the residual psychological trauma of slavery being deeply ingrained in our psyches and also perpetuated by media stereotypes.
When representations of beauty do not mirror all skin complexions, it’s no wonder why the narratives in Dark Girls
reflected self-hatred. Since women are encouraged to be beautiful and
held to insular standards, it’s no wonder why issues of colorism as it
relates to Black men never become the forefront of conversations. Women
are made to be the face of colorism but although Black men’s struggles
with self-hate aren’t much discussed, we are not exempt, which was
evidenced in the documentary where you hear Black men admitting to
excluding women of a certain skin color for ignorant reasons like “Dark
skin women have attitudes,” or “I want light babies.”
In some homes of friends I can recall light skin black
males being encouraged to pursue highest levels of academic achievement,
while darker skin siblings were encouraged to pursue athletics. One
dark skin male associate spoke openly about how in vicious fights with
his lighter skin siblings, they would almost always use his skin tone as
a basis of shaming. We cried together in private as we spoke of ways in
which we could bond in solidarity void of colorism. However, I worried
that as a light skin Black male, I might soon be looked upon as the
enemy by my psychologically wounded friend.
As I speak, I speak to you not in the language of the
oppressor but as your brother and comrade. Let us go back to the “Black
is beautiful” movement that took place over 50 years ago in part as
resistance to the dominant culture’s limited ideas of beauty. Those
rigid standards of beauty undermines our capacity to be self-loving and
loving towards each other but it’s time we find validation in our the
diverse but unique beauty whether we’re dark, light, have big lips or
whatever.
We have perpetuated this problem far too long and it’s time
to embrace positive changes in how we think. I want to live in a world
where my one-year-old niece does not have to battle sexism, racism and
colorism. We must go back to chanting “Black is beautiful,” for the sake
of every color in our rainbow.
Quassan Castro is a news and entertainment journalist.
Follow him on Twitter @Quassan.
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