COLORISM: The Conversation Continues | Part 2 | Full Episode | De'Ron World Spotlight

[Music] tonight the colorism conversation continues and because i have been in the all-white school i wasn't comfortable around my own people i equated like darker skin and all that with people who i was afraid of it's all about proximity to whiteness and it goes as far as facial features wide nose big lips you know things like that dark complexion creates this look this unfair life for dark-skinned black women like all together like their whole life is completely different because of something they can't control like being dark but there have been girls who literally told me they didn't like me because i was light skinned these are black girls started in middle school you know the girls would pick at me all like you know you think you're better than us or this and that or had that perception that i was a light-skinned girl so with that perception that they had that's when they'll pick it in the bullying will come in some light-skinned women i feel like do think that they're prettier because it was like that for so long but the ones that were just just like us just being equal like them they don't have no dark skin women so they kind of started jumping on the train too parents had lots we had lots but it was one of those things that you're gonna love your hair in all four if i wear um twists it's like oh and i'm just like y'all like y'all don't do this for other people i wore my hair in an afro pose right before i got locked my siblings would have their hair and we were all like people would just call us names like me name african booty scratcher and booty like her all these things no matter where you go in the world dark-skinned people are at the bottom of society and that can't be just something that's taught in the home someone has literally told me i know you have a pretty vagina because you're a lighter skin tone what yeah part two of the conversation starts right now welcome back to part two of the colorism conversation tonight we delve deeper into the different aspects of colorism and how they can affect the lives of black america now we all know how big of an issue hair can be but what happens when your grade of hair isn't that highly favored watch as my colleagues tell us their experience [Music] yes yes my question to you have you ever experienced hair discrimination oh for sure i mean between hair discrimination but more so upon myself do you know what i mean like um just having my own insecurities about my hair and i remember this one one thing specifically um i was looking at this magazine and said what beauty looked like and it was all uh women that did not look like me uh with blonde hair and i was thinking well if that's what beauty looks like then where do i fit in wow and it's just so interesting because you put all these uh visuals out here i think you know media is responsible for that these different companies are uh responsible for that so you have to be really careful because i think as a kid you you want to be able to see yourself you know through so many different women that's why this show is so important and you know social media is so important we have to remember like it's more than just us what we see all over social media it's the big beautiful loose curls with honey blonde highlights everyone doesn't have that everyone certainly doesn't have that naturally honey blonde hair come on really it's still trying to get back to that sort of almost straight type of hair like if you're not going to have straight hair then let's have those big juicy round curls that we see white girls who have curly hair have i want us to be able to celebrate the entire scope of natural hair and textured hair and black hair instead of this tiny little bubble that we tend to put ourselves in that still to a certain extent still upholding european standards of beauty and not our own standards of beauty so my parents raised us we all had locks growing up parents had lots we had lots but it was one of those things that you're going to love your hair in all forms even if you got to deal with people talk and about you you're going to learn how to back yourself up you know you're going to work learn what that looks like elementary school my first time going to a public school when we moved to georgia actually which is why you know what i'm saying a public school in georgia that's where i had my first interaction with colorism i would wear my hair in an afro pose right before i got locked my siblings would have their hair and we were all like people would just call us names like mean names you know they call people um african booty scratcher and booty liquor all these things you know like that's kids are mean the kids are mean like they used to call them that but it's like you're black and you're latina like what are y'all talking about you know what i'm saying um and i went to a predominantly black school it was a public school you know that was one of those things that it was just confusing you know i don't think it took a huge toll on me in terms of how i grew up and saw myself but it was just always interesting because it like it was confusing because i'm like well you got the same hair as me you just did something different with it but i've always thought like that growing up like well that just doesn't make sense like like i would cry now don't get you know it hurt my feelings when i was younger but also it's just like i'm confused why is that why are you calling me names because of how i have my hair when you you know i'm saying your hair is exactly the same you had a pump ball last week girl what are you talking about you know what i'm saying you haven't brushed your hair you haven't gotten a haircut like we are not in a position to be talking about each other you know because we're all the same when i wear braids or if i wear um twists or you know it's like oh and i'm just like y'all i don't do this for other people you know and also i'd say i'd say colorism and like dark skinned with hair like hair type and colorism are like best friends at least from my perspective if you're a dark skinned girl with you know people who are darker than me and gorgeous and gorgeous and i know that they experience it as well it doesn't mean that you don't like yourself inside but if you're constantly kind of getting a second after look in your environment i think it does take a toll on you after a while like i've had some people tell me that my hair looked like this because i'm like skin some people associate like bad hair with being dark skin or having a really really coarse like forcey hair would be in dark skin and like that's not true like it is light skinned women with some real rough naps like that's that's not true it's the same effect when we started wearing bushes and your parents were okay until you had to go get a job first thing they told you to do is what cut your hair because they're not going to take you with your hair that that looking like that you know if you had dread now uh cover them up or take them off and you're saying women that's my identity you see so do i give up my identity to have a job and how happy will i be not there all about proximity to whiteness and that goes as far as skin color and it goes as far as facial features you know what i mean like you wide nose big lips you know things like that dark complexion um strong just like strong features that are gorgeous and then you get into hair where you've got like you know maybe like i would call mixed it's really not mixed but that's that's me right society i call it mixed people hair where it's like 3c 4a it's like curly but it's not like kinky you know and i feel like the closer you get to each extreme it's like you're the way that society sees you as beautiful goes goes in those same directions i've never had blonde hair because i was always scared that someone was gonna say that i looked ghetto growing up wigs will do wonders for your morale that's what i must say okay i was like i want to change my hair color i always want to keep my hair black i'm going to keep my hair black i'll keep my hair black it wasn't i necessarily wanted to keep my hair black it was that i understood the negative connotation that came with someone who was dark having lighter hair or changing their hair color making it pink or red or blue when you're dark and you've got cornrows you look you're netting right you're sealy and you're netting when you're dark skinned but when you're light skinned you bad and bushy it depends on what you see you might see you know as black in the black community we'll see somebody with straight hair and we're like oh like you know they're put together like we automatically think oh they got their hair done straight they have it they have they're all neat they're put together you know they're they're the bougie black people you know what i'm saying so with me having my hair you know straight or like anything like that oh she's fine you know she's trying she can fit in perfectly but as soon as i start wearing a fro it's like i don't i don't fit into a standard that you've created you know and so i think that's why i wear it more than i used to because i'm like whose standard did you create you didn't create any standard god created the standard first of all and second of all you stole a standard so um we're not going to talk about that but uh yes so i rock my throat now i rock it whenever i want to and i still do straight hair but it's because i want to wear that style for that day my sisters well one had the curly hair that was semi-straight you know down her back beautiful hair the other one had the very thick hair again down her back you know but it was so thick but it was like wow look at that girl's hair and then you had carrie and mine it was like what happened you know what i'm saying and i can't honestly say mine was in between the two of them because honey if you didn't put a brush in a comb and a hot comb on a good day my hair would go oh really not today so you know that when you don't have a crown i feel on your head that you can be proud of that starts but you know the thing about passing for those who did pass and leader was saying this for her family once you pass the decision to pass means you giving up your whole entire family you know that you you can never go back because you all understand that right because if you're passing you just can't have your black mother show up you just cannot explain four black women in your kitchen all of a sudden well you know i experienced this early when i you know i was shifted from one parent to the other and i came to live in milwaukee with my mother who was uh rooming with a lady and uh my mother has another daughter so i have a half sister who was light-skinned and younger than i and they were allowed to stay inside the house and i was forced to sleep outside in the hallway because i was the brown-skinned person and you know and my you know my mother did it just because otherwise we'd have no place to sleep but the place was uh owned by a white uh uh not white but i thought she was white miss miller who also passed and just didn't want the brown-skinned child in her house it's just really racism passed on to ourselves that's what it really is in a in a very strong way but then the flip side of that is within a black community black girls is also lighter skin and i felt like kind of stuck together because it was relatable and we could make little jokes of like oh like you know we can wear this that in the third i feel like lighter skin girls would do things like you know i can wear a bright red lipstick because i'm lighter skinned but i had dark-skinned friends who would be like she doing that because she likes skin or girl i can't do that and it kind of felt like there was a little bit of a divide there because you know i have dark-skinned friends some of the people that are very close to me are dark-skinned but there have been girls who you know literally told me they didn't like me because i was light-skinned these are black girls or like girls that would be like she thinks she's cute because she likes skin and people started associating beauty with light skin but then the flip side of that too is that usually two light-skinned women they don't always get along because then it comes a thing of well she's not prettier than me i remember even in college like with one of my close friends i i never realized how light i am like when i look at me and other like brown skinned people or light brown people i really think in my head that we're the same complexion but they will quickly point out like no like you're you're a lighter like that's not a thing and it's just i don't know i just feel like it didn't affect me yet everybody around me was affected started in middle school you know the girls would pick at me all like you know you think you better than us or this and that or they thought that i was stuck up and i was better than um just because i you know they maybe thought had that perception that i was light-skinned i was a light-skinned girl so that was the mindset that i had so um with that perception that they had that's when the picketing and bullying would come in but like i said as growing up i never associated that to colorism so i went to uh pwi first then i went to an hbcu the hbcu is where the transition happened when i was at the pwi i was still you know i went to know a white school for high school from kindergarten to high school then i went to a pwi so in my head i was like i want a light-skinned guy cause i was thinking about my kids i was like i want a light-skinned kid and i don't understand why i thought that that was just i just i don't know and so not even a light-skinned kid i the whole issue of like hair i was like i want my kid to have like good the good hair um and so i you know always lean towards lighter skin guys and i have no clue i think it was just a subconscious thing because i went to a predominantly white school but i went to church in an all black area so all my friends from church were black i realized later in life probably around because i have two undergrad degrees and then a graduate degree so probably around when i was at the hbcu i realized that black people terrified me and i was like whoa like there was this really weird feeling to where you know how if you walk into a room there are certain people you feel uncomfortable around just automatically and because i had been in an all-white school i wasn't comfortable around my own people so i equated like darker skin and all that with you know people who i was afraid of um and it was until i went to an hbcu that i started to realize like but i'm afraid of my own people like i feel more comfortable around white people you know and that's a scary thought you know growing up in a predominantly like white town and being around that negative energy i thought i was ugly i didn't like my skin i used to tell my parents like i wish i was like lighter and it's so crazy because i just had this kind of conversation with my sister because she experienced it too growing up in bail new jersey and she is darker than me and she got called some crazy ass stuff too and i was telling her that oh i've experienced like something similar she's like why did you because like you're a lighter why did you go through that and i was like because i hung out with like the lights but like even in like the modeling industry because i work um for alo which is a yoga clothing company and i was in the store yesterday and i was looking at one of the pictures like the models modeling the clothing and everything and yo i didn't see like i didn't see one dark girl on there and they were it was just light-skinned girls and white girls and like it's been like that for years and like any type of the entertainment industry the fashion industry or whatever but it wasn't even just a skin tone like even like the green light eyes and even like working for alo i'm the only black person there it's all white women i'm also i'm the only male like associate i mean there's other guys who work in stock but as far as like the floor i'm the only black male there and black person there so it could be sometimes intimidating um and i always feel like i have to work harder than everyone else there they hold me to like a pedestal but just being in that store yesterday i was like y'all really don't be showcasing like darker skin tones which is so crazy to me i definitely feel it's comfortability comfortability because for me i went to the culture of being around you know black people and outside of in church i i you know grew accustomed to it for like going to a football game or something like that the culture is totally different why people are very like i guess like i don't even know because they don't really have a culture um they are to themselves kind of and just like like that and like i equated you know joking and janking and i think it was my own personal thing because i didn't i knew i couldn't i couldn't be that type of person like all people at my church they were good at jenkins like they could they could make a joke about somebody they could talk about you and y'all were just playing and i felt like i didn't fit in with that i felt like i couldn't do it i didn't i didn't feel adequate enough um like the dancing like i grew up dancing but like stands and stuff like hbcus i don't think i could do that you know like so like all that kind of stuff was like i didn't feel like i could fit into that culture and now it's like totally different it's kind of crazy um but like if i would have grew up in that culture then i would have i would have not known any difference you know being the lightest out of all of us um i mean of course my mom's light skin my brother's light skin my grandmother on my mother's side is dark skin grandfather on my mother's side is light skin it's like you know no i'm not mixed um i get it all the time because especially um with the color eyes that i have in the color hair that i have i have a golden brown hair and hazel eyes that's the first thing that they they do think and sometimes that kind of irritates me um because it's like to to be this fair skinned this light skin it's like you automatically automatically go to oh they must be mixed they're a light-skinned version of blacks they must be mixed no there are light-skinned blacks throughout history why do you always have to go through go to that option of being mixed in order for me to be associated as black so it's like sometimes you know when you look at a lot of the activists that are out there they are dark skinned blacks and it's just like okay well people automatically perceive me as mixed am i black enough to be like i'm black and i'm proud so that's something that i've kind of had to get over on because i have i have to realize that my ancestors were black yes i'm black and i'm proud i'm not mixed i do have some right ancestry and media clearly i mean hits the tone but i i am a i'm a black person we all come from a black woman so um just me having to realize that allows me to say look i'm not too light-skinned to say that i'm black and i'm proud coming up colorism is a baby it's like a baby of racism and white supremacy you know dark skinned people who have self-hate who hate the fact that they're dark need to begin to do some self-healing and reflection i think we need to really as people of color reassess the importance of just being who we are now if you're on the lighter end of the spectrum or you consider yourself to be light-skinned have you ever sat and thought about how different your life may be or the different perceptions you may have if you were a darker complexion and if you're watching this and you are a darker color what experiences do you believe you've had that may have been influenced by colorism i recently had a makeup artist say to me oh well you know your skin can take anything it's so tough i have very sensitive skin you know it's just misunderstood yes and so that definitely then plays itself in so many different ways yeah he's mistaking melanin for steel yeah it does not it is not yes the more dark-skinned women that are present and working the better you know and i think it's about there being a change in the demographic behind the camera as well absolutely and that's how then things will truly change i used to manage pools lifeguard all of that and i was managing and it was these two dark skinned girls they were from africa they were visiting somebody and they was at the pool playing around and they kept like staring at me and i'm like why is these little kids staring at me like what they want and then i hear them talking and they was like see if we start bleaching we can look like that and i overheard it and i was like girl no like you are beautiful the way you are like like your skin looks great like you don't have to change your skin to be beautiful and i never forget it was like i guess i don't know if the white lady had adopted them or would but she came over and she was like thank you because they really been trying to get me to buy them bleaching cream and i wouldn't do it because i don't feel like that's right but i also didn't know what to do because i don't want them feeling unhappy and i was like that's crazy because those little girls were probably anywhere between 10 and 12. so it's not like these were like super teenagers and things like that and i think it's sad that people feel like the lighter you are the better you are because that's obviously not the case like your skin is just your skin you can't help that so you know i feel like it shouldn't be something that we focus so much on but unfortunately we do and i think you know like i said i benefit from the privilege of being a lighter skinned person but i feel like it's definitely harder for darker skinned uh people because they don't benefit from that privilege and they always got the short end of the stick like i mean there's so many bad nicknames and things like that the dark skinned people don't have to face that lightning people just never would have to and that's the sad part the media is a gatekeeper for image in america for sure and probably the world because the world has a similar view like no matter where you go in the world dark-skinned people are at the bottom of society and that can't be just something that's taught in the home i hold and agree i hold this firm truth that if you're fair skin you have more better opportunities i am educated i have three degrees i can speak through a room i can give a speech i can do all of that but if you put me next in an audition in a commercial anything well not right now because being black with the afro is in um but if you put me next to someone who is a fairer skin they're gonna if i even if i perform a way better than them they have a more of an opportunity because they're they're appealing to this uh standard that has been ingrained in white america since the dawn of time um that a fair skin equates with money equates with status equates with um being the good black person so all of that like i'm too i'm too black to make you comfortable you know what i'm saying if i don't speak if i'm just sitting here and someone sees me and i have not said a word they're gonna be like uncomfortable because they think that i am about to because i have fro because i have a darker skin they're gonna think that i'm about to like power to the people them to death you know what i'm saying um and it's not until i speak that white people become comfortable with me and i feel like a lot of black women feel this way like they have to smile all the time yeah that's okay thank you yes thank you i'm not aggressive i'm not aggressive i'm not aggressive like that's exhausting it's exhausting and as soon as the smile fades the energy in the room shifts is everything okay what's wrong and it's like i just you just he can't have a moment sometimes and it shouldn't have to be that way and when you go no i'm fine it's like oh she got an attitude if you're not smiling you have an attitude and so i feel like the once again the further away you are from whiteness no matter what black people is more extreme but regardless of what ethnicity you are the further the darker you are the more you have to over compensate for other people feeling intimidated uncomfortable when i used to have different hair a different hairstyle or whatever like that um you know they they felt comfortable but i can see now that it's more like they they feel a little timid and then when they speak to me they're like oh she's one of the good ones you know oh she's she's fine joe she's good you know um but you know what i'm saying like there was once and i don't think it was because i was dark skinned but i remember talking to this girl when i was in college and she told me that she didn't want to talk to me because i was black i was too black but i think it was just because i was black not because i was dark skinned but that was the only time that i felt like i've dealt with anything because the guy that she didn't like that i knew who was my friend was literally my cover so i was like you just don't like black guys you like one black guy but yeah that that and it hasn't happened to me that way for females someone had literally told me i know you have a pretty vagina because you're a lighter skin tone yeah yeah and then like me and me and a couple of my friends this was maybe when i was in i was still in high school when this happened but man like a couple of my friends talked about it afterwards and one of my guy friends who at that time it made me uncomfortable and i wish i would have spoken up but one of my guy friends even said you know i can't i can't date someone darker skin because of that because they always their their their vagina will be a different color than their skin skin tone and now as i've gotten older and i've dealt with guys sexually none of them have ever said anything about my vagina what it looks like because every vagina is the same if you taking care of your vagina it don't matter if it's yellow purple blue gold it is healthy and it smell good it's okay so i think that that was that was a that was definitely a crazy one to me that guys are like oh you know if if it's if you're if you're darker skinned then your vagina isn't right well it it creates this little this unfair i want to say unfair life for dark-skinned black women like all together like the whole life is completely different the experiences are different because of something they can't control like being dark skinned anytime we do see a black skinned woman or we have in the past it seemed like they were just always degrading in some kind of way and um if we still like women in that movie on social media or whatever they'll just seem like they're better they'll just always make it seem like if it is a black skin woman and any type of movies or social media they always seem downgraded um other than um other than like young women for instance like jasmine sullivan been in the industry for that long like why is she just now um like thriving and i have not seen her on like a billboard and she was just posting how like oh i've been in this industry for now long but like i'm so ecstatic to be on the billboard in times square and i'm like she's like hella talented she's beautiful but she's a dark girl and a thicker girl and it's just so sad that she has to work harder than other girls in the industry because of her skin and her weight so social media plays a huge part in colorism and i don't even think they noticed but they do in media when you look at like i've noticed all the time especially since the news has been like crazy with everything going on i've noticed all these like news anchors these news women these like these people who are out speaking in the public and even like movies you notice that women are a fair skin fair skin this hair that's acceptable and i think issa rae kind of really broke that mold a little bit because of her show because of her blackness she kind of allowed an area for um people to find beauty and stuff other than fair-skinned women i think that for me i've always seen myself as beautiful like nobody really ever had to tell me um i saw myself as beautiful but i did see where opportunity is afforded more for someone with a fair skin for sure now as we go forward in our daily lives and this special is long over the question i want to leave everyone with is what steps do you think we can take in efforts to end colorism i think the first thing is to educate i think if we as artists start to develop plays and films and movies where the colors are blended whether it's a film or or a story about black life i feel you need to see all colors in there you know uh bill duke he did a a film called dark girls and it talks poignantly about how dark girls are abused and misunderstood and so forth and then there's another one and i'm not sure who did it and it was about light-skinned girls and i'm saying wow so you see even to this day you're dividing us when the person that can come and develop something where we're all flowers and we bloom at different times and we're different colors and shapes and maybe i wiggle this way and you will that way why should it matter i think we need to really as as people of color reassess the importance of just being who we are not by the color that we see because we're doing the same thing we're saying other people are doing to us it's just uh as we say migrated into this we are already victims of racism and servitude when will we ever be free if we don't allow each other the freedom to be different colors to be different people i do know that it starts with mindset and perception and it's going to take a lot to shift the mindset because it's literally been centuries in the making and not just here in this country but in several other countries for me i think the worst racism is the hidden because you can't see it coming and before you know it it's right there smacking you in the face and i think that we as people of color we've adapted to that and that's not a good trait to have to like smile in each other's faces and you know embrace each other but when we walk away there's 50 11 daggers you know we need to open up to each other we need to stop judging you know i always have this saying stop uh uh prophesizing theorizing and criticizing and come on in and join you know this pot that we're making it's okay to put your seasoning in that pot and that you should not feel some kind of way it should be okay that my hair is not like my sister's hair and it'd still be good they stay it's okay that my nose happens to be rounder than somebody else's nose that happens to be more cute that we all have beauty in our ways because if you search high and low you will find black women with keen features you will find black women with wide noses you will find black women uh and men with blue eyes great and they're theirs we're not talking about no contact lenses why because the melting pot started many centuries ago we just haven't grown i think it's time for us to grow now let's share our stories and make beautiful art so that the art can embrace the world colorism is a baby it's like a baby of racism and white supremacy is people being lighter skinned and assimilating into whiteness to be accepted as not necessarily maybe not white but maybe those privileges privileges that whiteness gives people so in a in a world where there is no privilege where we're all treated human there would be no reason for people to prefer light-skinned people or to want to be light-skinned or to wear my hair a certain way because i can't do this i can't wear this people won't see me as a human because now i'm now i'm a black girl or now i'm a black guy because my hair is this way and not just a human or person that can play this role like i have my hair braided so now i'm a thug so now you don't see me as a business owner or somebody who can play anything because you have very one one lane view of what you think black people can be and i don't think it would happen overnight either though it would be something that would have to be something that we actively work at like we would have to actively work to make sure that there is equal representation of all shades of black people in all types and not just the light skin long hair types or mixed types you need to know that there are black girls and black people out here who are dark skinned who have nappy hair which isn't dead it's not a bad thing might have nappies hair and i love that um i they would just have to make sure actively make sure that we are seeing that representation on a grand scale all the time like pushing all the time and not just one time one one one show every five years where we get to see that happen it's like okay now what happens to the other people that are growing up and seeing that show that went off tv now now what are we saying or that show hasn't gone off tv y'all still playing you know what i'm saying it has going on tv y'all still playing it and it's the same just have these very outdated stereotypes about black women and black people in general systematically you know we got to have more books that have a diverse range of colors literature that shows that all shades of colors can be anything it can do anything erase stereotypes i think one of the biggest ones especially for the black community is like sometimes we really shouldn't joke about these things because we're laughing through the pain and although it's funny like there's jokes that are like yo like i kind of just have to laugh after we're done laughing we need to understand that the joke comes from truth and we need to begin to address it until we end that then there's no reason why colors over there because there's everybody is gunning to be accepted by whiteness whether they think so or not most people are most black people are because that means now we're being viewed as human because white people are just viewed as human they're not viewed as white people by white people they're you just like me but when you're black oh now you're black well now you did so now you that they put all these labels and they treat us differently because of you and media is doing its job i would say it's changing in ways that it needs to but i feel like it's also going to be like the parent kind of really double backing and stuff because you can get sidetracked and you can get lost in it and i would say and just start you know blurting it out and not even know what you're saying is like being somebody that's uh has a negative look on it so i would say overall just like really paying attention to the media that's out there and really seeing like you know what what the show is actually doing too on there so like just like martin show ha ha he he you know this character is funny and stuff or whatever you know he's joking on her and stuff but then really kind of be like you know when is this character gonna prevail on a different level you know it's funny and stuff but when is it it was always kind of back and forth and i know that's how like the sitcoms and stuff back then were made or whatever but i would say really kind of uh pay attention to that with disney channel and stuff let's say for the kids just really looking to see what they're watching and stuff and and holding disney disney and all the media companies like responsible and stuff and not just letting it slide breaking those stigmas and just really giving you know our dark skin men and women the appreciation they deserve and stopping it which there are probably a bunch of many little steps that we have to take um from like a systematic step point but i think like the biggest things just like racism is like the people who benefit from colorism they need to recognize that colorism exists because there are people who benefit from it and there's people who don't who don't believe in colorism but if you name it call it out and condemn it you know just like you do a racism and then just slowly it dwindles out and people how their actions are actually wrong because some people actually don't know or don't even recognize what they're doing but those who do know and receive no repercussions for them act for their actions will continue to do it and then the second part of that is stop teaching it in the home so you know the people who are not receiving repercussions they keep spitting you know hate speech and and their kids mirror it they don't even have to teach it to their kids their kids just hear it and and then that's how the psycho continues and the last point of it is like you know dark skinned people who have self-hate who hate the fact that they're dark need to begin to heal do some self-healing and reflection and really understand that they are beautiful even currently without society nearing that back to them so that we also aren't feeling that hate to our kids because there are dark skinned people who teach their kids that they're dark skinned too and they're not worth anything and if they so happen to have a light-skinned child they treat that child better so just like racism and prejudice it can come from the side that's benefiting and the side that's being hurt so both ends have to address their problems i remember i was playing tennis in high school i played so the women's tennis team will play from like august well we had summer like workouts from june and then the season we're in like october so we're outside four or five hours a day it's the south i'm hot i'm sweaty and i remember this other dark-skinned girl from another team was laughing at her girlfriend talking about that girl looks blue black like she's blurble and i was like i actually had never heard that before until then but i was actually in the middle of a match so i couldn't even address it but i was like what a fellow dark skinned person is making fun of a dark another dark-skinned person for being dark i don't care if i look like charcoal you don't say that to nobody okay and that's what i'm talking about with self-hate because i feel like it was two things baby didn't think she was pretty so she wanted to hate on me and baby couldn't play tennis so she also someone to hate on me but like those type of name calling we should not within the community be calling each other names based on our skin tones because of the hate that we get from other people it's like we should not be putting that hate on each other for us to allow that seed to grow within our society to where if i go down this you know i've grown up in a black community been around black people all my life but for me to feel like i might not be black enough because my fellow classmate or my fellow friend who's also black but of a dark skinned tone you know looks at me and thinks that i'm you know stuck up or um think that i'm better than them when it's that's not the case it's kind of hurtful and also to the fact that we sometimes we like to put this label on as you know field slate house late the lighter you already was going into the house we were still slave you know we might have different um a different environment no we wasn't in the field we was in the house that's still a battle on its own you know we were still a slave the paperback test why are we still comparing ourselves to the paperback within this black society i don't i don't like that we're all black we're all of black ancestry so we just we just really do need to um see ourselves as one as as one species as a union because because there's no point of us claiming black unity when we're not united amongst ourselves and just on something real small and minor as our skin tone a big thank you to everyone involved in this special project and to you for watching until the end if you'd like to share your own experience of colorism leave a comment below and let's keep the conversation going until next time [Music] to see never before seen footage from tonight's conversation subscribe to the youtube channel so you'll never miss my next upload [Music] you

Channel: De'Ron World

Views: 6,155

Keywords: #BLACKHISTORYMONTH, #DERONWORLD, #SHAREBLACKSTORIES

Id: fSKsECE2Q9w

Length: 47min 52sec (2872 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 15 2021