Unfortunately, within the black community, there has always been an oftentimes unspoken division between women of color. With its roots in the days of slavery, skin color was used to separate and determine one’s perks and advantages within the black community. Sadly this “house” versus “field Negro” mentality has been internalized by our beautiful queens of today.
In an upcoming documentary entitled Dark Girls, it explores “the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color–particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture.” The Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry-directed film is set to be released in Fall/Winter 2011.
Do you think we’ll ever evolve from this light vs. dark skinned mentality?
Watch: ‘Dark Girls’ – Preview
( Photos: GETTY IMAGES STOCK PHOTO )
Guys. for the black guys that say they will prefer to date a light chick i pay them no attention guess what you dont have the qualifications to date me anyway regardless of your opinion …come on people do not feed into stuff like this. Ive never experienced certain things in my life. ..degrading, disrespectful…uneccessary behavior as when i came here to the states. this is not good. Black people that feel they are not goood enough are putting their own ill feeling upon others…You have to love yourself and realize what it takes to be a productive member of society. Its sad the things only a quart of my friends are involved in…while i love art the museums learning my friends rather party and look cute…while i am driven to finish school the ones that are pretty or think they are prettier enjoy shoppin and having a man take care of them. ?? r u serious…when guys come to me with their opinions i dont take it i let them know what time it is.. what does the bible say about responding to fools?? look it up..alot of these people out here giving so much of their own opinion what kind of life are they living ??? i say take it back to the basics the things that really matter are being shoved under the rug. I will not be a product of my environment or others opinion. trust me i dodged alot of bullets…its all about what u INTERNALIZE. and unfortunately these stupid songs on the radio these days dont talk about anything positive…like come on
I’m a dark chocoloate beauty and if someone has a problem with my skin tone they need the help not me! People like what they like and don’t like what they don’t like. Some men don’t like big women, some women don’t like big men BIG DEAL!!!! You can’t help what your attracted to! Get some confidence and move the hell around. Stop letting someone else’s perspective of you determine your love of self!!
I’m brown skinned, naturally long hair. Have always love my skin color and I love wearing bronzers. Never had any comments about my skin color, but I get “Your so pretty.I can tell you have Indian in you” As if Black can’t be pretty. I get that from my fellow Black folks.
My sister has three kids two brown skinned one lighter skinned. She calls the lighter son “yellow boy”. I’m trying to teach her to not place emphasizes on his shin tone and to teach her kids to love themselves,not making him feel like an outsider amongst his siblings. Kids need to feel beautiful and safe at home. Lord knows he will have to go thru this ignorance in the REAL world.
No, I beleive the skin color issue will never be resolved. Too many people, races idealize white people.
People seem to think that women with fair skin don’t have struggles or issues as well. I am a fair skinned complexion woman and I grew up in a house of 5 siblings (all girls) and I am the only one the color of vanilla. Imagine being in a group of friends and within that group, I was still had the most fair skin. I can’t believe after watching that video that any women of a darker skin tone would think that their struggles are much more different then a person with skin that doesn’t match theirs. My mother was asked by a nurse in the hospital was my father a white man because she is the color of a coffee bean. Struggles are struggles no matter the color of your skin. Embrace who you are and be thankful to God that you have breath in your lungs and activity of your limbs…..NO matter the skin you’re in.
BOTTOM LINE THIS IS PUT OUT THERE TO DESTROY THE BLACK RACE PERIOD. DIVIDE AND CONQUER. THE BLACK MALE IS BEING INCARCERATED, ON THE DOWN LOW OR JUST OUT AND OUT GAY, NOT ALL BUT YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE. GANGS WILL TAKE OUT ANOTHER SECTOR OF THE BLACK RACE BECAUSE NOW WE ARE FIGHTING AND KILLING EACH OTHER. NOW WE ARE ONTO THE BLACK WOMAN AND THE REJECTION OF THE BLACK MALE, WHICH IS THE ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION OF THE BLACK RACE AND FAMILY. FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO CANNOT SEE IT, THAT IS WHAT IT IS. LOOK BENEATH THE SURFACE. IF A BLACK WOMAN HAS A STRONG SENSE OF SELF, THERE IS NO REASON SHE SHOULD FEEL UGLY BECAUSE OF HER DARK SKIN COLOR. AFRICA IS THE MOTHER OF CIVILIZATION AND THAT IS THE REASON WE ARE BEING ATTACKED. LADIES KEEP YOUR HEAD UP AND READ YOUR HISTORY. YOU COME FROM KINGS AND QUEENS. PARENTS EDUCATE YOUR CHILDREN BEFORE ITS TOO LATE.
From a non-USA point of view this is a trip…Wow, this is like going to the twilight zone. Why can’t there ever be flicks on dark skinned girls who are happy being dark, or for whom their skin colour doesn’t matter?!!
Most light skinned girls are treated like sexual objects by men, do you think that we like being smacked on the but out of nowhere and called a stuck up bitch for not giving someone the time of day. I dont like seeing light skinned women on everything cause it sends the message that we like the attention, I for one dont like it at all. Yes I feel I am beautiful but not above anyone else.
Another issue someone brought up was being over weight, dark and light women who are over weight get treated way more disrespectful than what is being showed on TV. so shut up and love yourself and stop worrying about what others think of you cause there are some people who have it way worse out here than you. there is people who are homeless, jobless and need help but cant get it, I would rather help them than to make some some dark skinned girl with perfect health feel better about her skin and hair issues.
The greeks created that light skinned dark skinned nonsense,good luck getting black women to stop imitating white women. LOL,SMH
@UNFRIGGIN REAL. Africa is not the craddle of civilization Iraeal is,get of this blog with all that afrocentric nonsense if you love the children of ham so much then go and live amongst them,of course you wont because like most negroes you despise their culture.If you belive that africa is where humanity began then you believe you came from a monkey or an ape.That is another one of the white mans lies to cause confusion
black women are really in love with this land (america) so why would they complain so much about whats being done to them by the people of this land. That documentary is an attempt to make black women feel better about being black,but all it will do is show how crazy,obtuse,and self defeatable they (blackwomen) are.
why the fucc is my comment in moderation
shit testing.
nevermind my last comment
I am so happy that someone took the time to make a documentary about skin color and the divide within a single race. I for one am a Beautiful brown skin women. Thankfully I never experienced any personal prejudices against me. I’ve had guys tell me “I’m pretty and theres not many pretty dark skin girls”, It pains me to see this hatred and even I personally wish I was lighter as well, (even though I’m comfortable with my complexion). In all honesty the majority of the black women in that documentary was NOT attractive. So judging by the color alone, there is some truth to that. But NOT all light girls are pretty.
What bothered me was that little girl, already having the mindset that darker is dumb/ugly and lighter is smart/pretty.
I pray that black people could be united like other minorities such as Hispanics and Asians. We need to stop acting as if we are a separate race and love an embrace all the shades in which we come in.
@SuperNovaDeja
This is sad, but true. I am proud of who I am, and proud to be black. I would be lying if I said that I am not grateful to have “light skin” and naturally long hair that is less kinky than most. Even before I went to preschool I always felt the darker girls could never be as pretty or as smart. I am not proud of these feelings, but I am admitting them because pretending that these issues are only in the minds of women with darker skin is unfair. My parents say they don’t understand, but every now and then they make a comment about how someone is “black and ugly.” Mixed messages, no? I married the love of my life, but I am afraid to have children because his skin color is like Denzel Washington’s. Before you judge me, look at the images of black women on television, and compare the attention Rihanna, Halle, and Rihanna get to Kelly, etc. I don’t want to be part of the problem, but I can’t fix it by myself either.
I wish people would stop being so ignorant and shallow. I don’t even see color when I look at a person. And the whole concept of racism escapes me…. It’s not as if any of us can take credit for our looks, skin color, heritage, etc. People need to change this mentality man.
I’m a lighter skinned black woman. My mother is a BEAUTIFUL dark skinned black woman. I have always thought that my mother was the most beautiful woman in the world. I also believe that she had a very HIGH self confidence. She always held her head high. No one could tell her that she wasnot the bomb!People saw her beauty because of how she carried herself. My mothers head never hung low. She notice her beauty and because of that people couldnot help but notice it too!
Ps. I do see the prejudices against my darker skinned black sisters and it’s not right in no means. I know some gorgeous darker skinned sisters inside and out. What’s unfortunate is, a black man would choose a lighter skinned woman that is not cute and plain ugly inside before choosing the darker skinned woman! It’s sad! It’s apart of that Slave mentality!
Americans cant be any dummer than this, this is hilarious,if people are still calling each other dark/light this is the worst backwardness I hae ever heard of. I am African and we dont have that, we have used our struggle to unite with each othe and not care who is lighter,the only people lighter in my vocabulary is a white person. And Africa as a continent is becoming very cosmopolitanover the decades, So yall get yall’s act together and unite. This is utter rubbish, not to the person who was hurt but to whomever think that if they are lighter they are better. For all I know most light skinned girls are dumb, they need those boyfriends to realise their worth. Is Beyonce educated?????Not sure, using her body and her voice to get ahead,and dating an ugly rich guy. Very unreal……most guys would want to date lighter skin gals because they agree to everything esp in a community that is compatmentalised like America,basketball players,models,hollywood and all that crap…..
It’s very sad to say but I don’t think this issue will ever go away .I mean it is the black community who is still doing this.I have a family member who is still stuck on this,he makes ignorant comments all the time about being light skinned or yellow as he says even though he clearly is not. He happens to be a very pretty shade of brown but that isn’t good enough for him he wants to be considered yellow.I’m afraid that he has passed this ignorant mentality on to his son ,who in turn will pass it on to his kids.Just sad!!!!!!
I don’t think this issue will ever go away. I consider myself to be a very attractive, intelligent, and driven dark skinned woman. However, the man that I loved and wanted to marry told me that his grandmother told him to never be with a dark-skinned woman. For that reason, he ended it with me and married an Asian woman, but yet still wants to see me. That tore me apart as a woman. I remember being told “you’re pretty to be dark.” WTH does that really mean? Is it impossible for a woman to be pretty just because she’s pretty? I hear of men marrying white women in my area simply because they don’t want “black babies.” We really need to wake up and stop all of this self-hatred.
if only films could be the answer to some of these deeply-ingrained issues we face today . . .
This video made me cry. Alot of black women have serious issues with low self esteem. Whether its light or dark, long or short hair, big booty or no booty etc. Its just sad we need to learn to love ourselves and yes black men need to learn to love us BETTER too! As a dark skin woman the one thing that pisses me off more then ANYTHING is when a man tells me “you are so beautiful to be dark skin” or “dang you are a beautiful chocolate woman”, thats the quickest way to get turned down by me. Why can’t they just say you are beautiful and leave color out of it? Why does it matter if I was mocha, caramel, chocolate, or vanilla? Beauty is beauty doesn’t matter the color. Seriously we got to do better!
This issue has exploded especially with Beyonce, poor thing has problems!
What I don’t understand is how the issues are addressed regarding darker females feelings but they don’t address how us lighter girls feel. They need to talk about how it will be a group of darker girls that don’t like one light girl for no real reason at all but make up o she is a slut or she is a bitch. Or how dark girls jump light girls. Men feel it too because dark guys always want to call a light guy a fag or sweet and wanna fight them because he light and he get a lot of attention
YES! I ALWAYS say that. What about how us light women feel?! 2nd grade, I had to leave my FAVORITE school because a group of dark girl always picked on me. One tried to cut my hair to the point I had to wear my hair in a bun until I transferred. And God knows I HATE ponytails! During a parent/teacher conference, she FINALLY ADMITTED why she didn’t like me. Because I was light skin/long hair. We all gave her the puzzle face like “What?!?!?”. I can tell her mother was the SAME way because all she could say was “Aww kids are going be kids”. She stared my mother down like she was the biggest scumbag once we came face to face. I can’t lie, for YEARSSSS, I had a DEEP HATRED for darker women. I wouldn’t speak, hang around, talk, I didn’t care if you asked me the time, I hated you. But luckily, with age comes wisdom. Now I love EVERYONE. But yeah alot of this is MEN. The same ENVY dark men have for light skin men, they ADMIRE in a light skin woman. They chase women his color to have children his color, they WISH they were his color. Backwards ass thinking.
Hey folks, what’s up? I am a 26 y/o recent graduate of a Master’s program here in New York City. I have heard different perspectives on this topic and will put another twist on it.
I am African American with very dark skin (about India Arie’s color) and have locs. I have been natural since the age of 7 and wore a low natural cut in high school. I have NEVER had a weave in my entire life; in being raised by an Afro-Caribbean mother who is to say the least, VERY Afro-centric.
But, what’s so intriguing is I realize and have come to grips with the fact that Black men, for the most part, do not embrace darker sisters; especially if she’s natural as well. Brothers have shown this so many times, that now at the tender age of 26, I do not see a romantic future with the Black man. I mean, even if a brother is upset with me for anything as small as letting him know that I can’t give him my number because I’m in a relationship, the first thing he goes after is: ‘You tar baby bitch’ or ‘You nappy headed hoe.’
Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t advertise this or walk up to a brother and make nasty comments. I’ve just silently walked away. My walking away from brothers is something that my mother and I disagree on. She always raised me that ‘the blacker the better’ and that my color was beautiful. But, at the end of the day, I can’t marry my mama. (LOL!)
In placing it all together, Black men prefer lighter women, even if she’s not as attractive as her darker skinned homegirls. I’ve seen situations where the darker sister was prettier and had a nicer attitude and spirit, but the lighter sister still get more attention from brothers, PERIOD.
If a sister is dark skinned and gets alot of brotherly love, her weave is from here to the moon. And, she is so insecure about her look to where she will openly say, ‘Girl, I’m already dark. I can’t be nappy headed too.’ A light skinned sister can get away with being natural. But, if she’s dark and natural, White or Latino men will get into her face first. I know it because I’ve lived it and have heard the same experiences from other dark skinned black sisters.
And, what was said to me has been so hurtful that I no longer hold on to the false reality of finding my ‘Mandingo king.’ Because for the most part, Black men do not show me the same love and I’m not begging anyone to love me. If you can’t take me for who I am, then goodbye.
Lots of love!
This is a great website to counter the negative images of dark skinned women:
http://darkskinnedblackbeauty.tumblr.com/
As a biracial sixteen-year-old boy, I can confidently confirm that dark complexioned black females (across all possible age barriers, by the way) DO receive a disgusting and distasteful amount of sociological abuse (emotionally, mentally, and often physically) just for BEING the human beings that they are. To witness the stunning ignorance of some of the human beings on this page that are claiming that dark complexioned females need to “evolve” and/or “move on and let the past go” simply angers and frustrates me further. How the hell are the females that suffer from the ignorance and stupidity of this racial discrimination form supposed to “ignore” something that has burdened the minds of dark complexioned females for CENTURIES now, wherever European colonialism has existed? How? Do you just expect them to submissively giggle and nod when males — black, East Asian, white etc — tell them that they are pretty “for a dark skinned girl”? Do you just expect them to turn a blind eye to the media and mass society communicating messages that dark skin is unattractive or undesirable? Why is it, that when a black woman wants her experiences to be known by others, people assume that she is trying to “guilt trip” them or “play the victim card”? If you have nothing to feel guilty or remorseful about, then shut the **** up and listen to what these women have to say. These are women that have been told by their own FAMILIES that the features given to them by DNA and genetics are ugly and unacceptable, but when they want their experiences to be heard, they’re complaining and “whining too much in 2011″ – give me a damn break. You people KNOW that dark complexioned females deal with this crap, you just don’t want to communicate a shred of respect or sensitivity to the matter because of what damn year it is… Who the hell cares if it’s 2011? These problems are still every fraction as existent as they were sixty years ago, only more closeted and hidden because of the time in which we currently live. Some of the people here remind me of the idiots who claim that “racism ceased to exist in 1965″ lmao, wake up people, for the sake of your community and your future, wake up and start giving a damn about the crap that dark complexioned females in the black community face. I’m biracial (with a black (West African) mother and a white (British) father (they’re the most amazing parents in existence, I’m incredibly blessed)) and even I can see it. The mind-blowing intensity of social abuse I once witnessed being directed toward a (beautiful) dark complexioned black girl that I’m a close friend of actually made me feel physically sick at the time (even AFTER I defended her). And this goes on EVERYWHERE. The human beings who would like to pretend that this matter ceases to be a problematic thing for dark complexioned females or is no longer a situation with any importance rooted in its continuation, are foolish individuals who need to educate themselves worth a damn. What if dark complexioned black females suddenly DID decide to forget about this ongoing situation, what the hell kind of difference would that even make? It’s not like the media or their male counterparts would let them forget it anyway. How about males terminating the use of the phrase “you’re pretty for a dark skin girl”? How about the media promoting dark beauty instead of shoving the images of Beyonce, Rihanna, and Tyra Banks in our faces at every given opportunity? Then we would have something to start with. And this whole entire “you give your oppressors the power” argument is flawed from start to finish, too. What if YOUR families told you that because you were of a dark complexion, you would never achieve physical attractiveness and beauty or be desirable? Put yourselves in the shoes of those who have experienced this animalistic treatment, instead of telling them to forget about it when it would clearly leave a mental scar on YOU if you knew what the hell it felt like.
im a white girl olive complexed.i think black women are one of the most beautiful women in the world.its werid how dark and light women are sometimes agaist each other.the thing is white people rather be tan then fair complexed.thats how i am.some white peope are born dark complexed anyway.like me im was born olive comepled not pale.but still in the summer i look like a mexican.i just love it.some.now some white people cant even tan for example red head white people now thats white.in the summer they get burnt really easy and turn red like a lobster.everybody wants what they dont have.i have blue eyes and always wanted brown.when i was younger i always come home when a black barbie.i always thoght she was the prettiest.black.black women are so pretty.its crazy how sometimes peopel think just cause u are lighter u r prettier.no thats so wrong,in school i saw alot of dark skins way prettier then the lighter skins.its not about skin tones it about maybe facial features nice shape head for ext.
the commenter above is not real. no white person would want to be black. they would want some color but they would lose it if they were as dark as some blacks. some poor attempt by some black girl/boy to raise the self esteem of these black women
dark girls stop crying! there are more important things than this. most of you are perpertrators of your own problems. when usher married that dark girl. I saw so many blacks that were dark comment on why he was with her. when you have kids by different men and one looks lighter you always favor that kid and say disparaging things to the dark kids. most of the time its YOU that perpretrate the abuse. YOU get the contacts and the light hair color and look rediculus with it. you are the ones that prasie rhinana and beyonce as being beautiful you never support good artists like india ire or kelly roland. You are the ones that buy your daughters WHITE dolls.to own up to it and stop making like everyone is picking on you. you are a part of it. and the truth is. that they picked some of the ugliest dark girls for this documentary. no one is going to simpathise when they look ugly like that. america is a very shallow place and no one gives a fuck if you are not attractive. and there are very attractive dark girls but they put this big ass bald headed looking ape to talk so no one really has sympathy.
Yeah, I say get over it! showing this pity party doc will not solve anything whatsoever. this will still go on to the end of time. I feel most dark girls are mean and phychologically damaged. I would never mate with a dark man because I dont want to create one of these cry babies. im not light either. Im brown skin indian black with long hair. stop showing our weaknesses to whites, they will use it against all of us. do you know that in europe you would be treated as god. if you are so crying over somone liking you that bad, then go to europe then! smh
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