This blog post was contributed by Tichana Griffith, student in Miller's SOC 3013 class.
I wanted to share this video with the class because the
topic was not touched on a lot over the semester. The video addresses skin-color preferences, among a number of concerns related to racial identity. Despite the late-1960's Black Power claim that "black is beautiful," even today black teen girls still seem to believe that light skin is better than dark skin. This idea appears to have been prevalent since slavery when lighter blacks were given preference and permitted to work inside slave-owners' dwellings, while those who were darker remained outside to toil at hard labor in the fields. This video brings me to question actual changes in racial identity. Do we black Americans today really see our blackness in ways that radically oppose traditional racist definitions, or do we just think we do?
For a similar discussion about skin-color preference, see this clip from Dark Girls.
For a similar discussion about skin-color preference, see this clip from Dark Girls.
I've recently watched the documentary on Oprah's OWN channel called Dark girls which basically talked about the same color issues but more in depth. It talked about where the roots of this classism came from, how many are effected at young ages, and shared black men opinion on skin-color preferences of black women. I noticed in the clip when the children were asked between the black doll and the black doll which one they liked more, a large majority picked the white one. Then one of the girls was asked to picked the doll that most reflected herself. It was then that the little black girl who was asked hesitated and wanted to pick the white doll because of all the positive qualities she felt lighter skin had. I'm really glad that after the 60's black people started to embrace who we are and be proud of it, but I think it's well over due to stop this "light skin is the right skin" thing. We need to embrace everyone in the community despite the color of their skin and realize all shades are beautiful. If we don't, we'll just keep teaching the next generation that if you're not of lighter complexion you are not beautiful, which isn't true.
ReplyDeleteBrittney Malloy