Colorism

There’s more than one Lupita in the world. There are millions. Lupita Nyong’o has become a world phenomenon. She is an Academy Award winning actress from Kenya. Lupita has a flawless brown complexion, a short haircut, and a smile that makes the world a little brighter. With that being said, I see 'Lupitas' EVERYDAY. No they are not Academy Award winning actresses, but I’m sure they deserve an award for the work they do daily just to provide meals for their families. Lupita’s face is splattered across magazines and I see her photos at least 10 times a day on my social media feeds. She is the talk of the town. It’s as if she is the only beautiful, dark skinned, short-haired women in the world. Right now the only message I am getting from the Western World is ‘Look, we like a brown skinned girl. See, here’s Lupita;’ one of at least a million, beautiful, dark brown skinned shorthaired women in the world. I’m getting frustrated typing this and seeing Lupita’s name underlined in red, when I know that when I type 'Albert Einstein' his name will automatically autocorrect to being capitalized and there will be no red underlining, as if Albert and Einstein are 'normal' names. 

Lupita N'yongo

I remember before I left the states, being asked ‘Niani, why did you cut your beautiful hair?’ ‘Was it in preparation for your trip? Did you want to look like them?’ Who is ‘them’? Oh, is it the African women who have such beautiful faces that they don’t need long hair to enhance their beauty? Yeah, I was trying to look like them. I really cut my hair because I was tired of it. Does that answer suit you? After hearing these comments, I doubted my beauty for a moment. It took me a minute to stop thinking I looked like a boy if I didn’t wear earrings with my short hair, and I thought I was missing something. Now, I look back at my photos with long hair and I prefer my short hair. In American society, short hair is viewed as an act of rebellion, I must be an activist if I have short hair, and it is often looked down upon. I admire the normality of short hair in SA. Ladies here are drop dead gorgeous, and can be nearly hair-less. I remember my friend telling me she put a wig over her short hair because of that awkward length. What is this awkward length that she was speaking about? I have yet to see it. 

A Few Lupita's I See Daily....

Recently it was brought to my attention again, that the media industry is giving dark skinned women a lighter complexion. Last week, InStyle Magazine published an issue with Kerry Washington as their cover girl. Kerry Washington, who we know as 'Olivia Pope' in the popular television series Scandal, looked almost like a white woman on the cover of InStyle. I googled images of Kerry Washington to make sure I wasn’t trippin’, and I saw pictures of her at award shows and compared them to magazine photos she has been in. Her skin complexion is 5 shades lighter on the cover of InStyle, than her natural caramel hue. The media screams ‘light skin is better than dark skin’, then tries to cover themselves by saying ‘look, here’s Lupita. We love Lupita, but ONLY Lupita.’ They aren’t enhancing the impression of black women's beauty, they are destroying it, by limiting our beauty to a singular image.

 

In 2012, the documentary 'Dark Girls' was released. It touched on the topic of being a dark girl in America/globally, and "the damage done to their self-esteem and their constant feeling of being devalued and disregarded.” As I reflect on the documentary, nearly 3 years later, I realize that we (black people) are promoting the light skin verses dark skin drama. This year, the documentary Light Girls was released. It talked about the ‘unfairness’ of being a light girl. Celebrities talked about their struggles in Hollywood; the casting crews would tell them they were 'too light’ for the role. On the other hand, darker girls are being told they are too dark for roles. Hollywood tries to sell the idea that as actors, they should know that the complexion of the character matters, so that the viewers can relate to them; then they cast Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone...and we shouldn't complain, or believe there is a conspiracy in Hollywood to control OUR narrative? 

There were also complaints in the Light Girls documentary about people asking ‘what are you mixed with?’ Those being interviewed took offense to it. I am constantly asked what I am mixed with, and I simply answer ‘black and more black’. As opposed to taking offense to people's limited perspectives, I stand proudly in who I am. Yes, I am sure down the line somewhere in my family history there are other races, BUT I don’t know those people. The family I see is black, real black...unapologetically so.

As a black person, I don’t feel like I get better treatment because my skin is lighter. In America, where "white is right", I have still found myself being treated like a 'nigger'. Trayvon Martin had lighter skin. Did George Zimmerman say “oh, you’re not THAT black.” NO. 

I think that one of the curses of the social conditioning we have received in America, is that black people (my people) now promote the light skin vs dark skin drama. Why is there a #teamlightskinned and #teamdarkskinned hashtag? We can laugh and joke and say it started with Mufasa and Scar in the Lion King, or we can say it started when the slave masters put the light skinned people in the house while the dark skinned people worked in the field. To me, it is an embedded system to keep us (BLACK people) divided. They might want us to be divided, but it is up to us to not let that happen. We are all black, no matter what shade; can we just be proud of who we are? 

In Dark Girls, they referenced the 1940’s black doll experiment where young black children said that they thought the white dolls were prettier/smarter/nicer. As a little girl, my family made every effort to make sure I had dolls that I could identify with. I remember a towel set my grandmother got me that had a black Barbie doll on it. It was my favourite towel because I thought that Barbie looked so pretty. Now, I go into Toys R Us, in South AFRICA, and the ONLY black doll I see is Doc McStuffins. 

In the documentary, black male celebrities said comments like, "I like a light skinned woman on my side." It was as if a dark skinned woman wouldn’t look just as good. It is sad to see how far this cultural self-hatred can go. If you are born of a black woman, raised by a black woman, in a community surrounded by black women, how can you hate us, and not realize that it is indicative of hating yourselves? 

I don’t know guys. The problem is CLEAR. The solution is clear too. We have to love ourselves, despite all odds stacked against us. We can’t let complexion divide us. Let’s stand together and stop this light skinned vs dark skinned madness. Embrace the beauty that is in ALL that we are as a people. 

Thank you to all of the Lupita's in my post! You are beautiful! 

Source: Wikipedia