Can we combat racism if we won’t face colorism?

With the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the Black community has joined hands to raise awareness to injustices inflicted upon us in our everyday lives. It seems as though people are no longer afraid to speak about their run-ins with prejudice. We have created a different means of pride than what we are taught in school. It seems that we are stronger than ever.

But we aren’t as strong as we could be. Just because we are oppressed does not mean we are incapable of our own ignorance.

If we aspire for equality, then why are we unable to promote that within our own race?

Colorism, the discrimination of darker skinned individuals within an ethnic group, is deeper than a mere “preference”. The fact that the fetishism of light skinned individuals exists is deemed as the reason the issue has grown so immensely. Being born and raised in a small Southern town, I came in contact with institutionalized racism many times. For example, there was an incident where I was out with my older and younger sister, who are both fairly lighter skinned people.

A woman approached and complimented their “beautiful, golden skin”, and then proceeded to look at me in disgust. There were also other times when fellow classmates would see my light mother and comment, “Your mom is so pretty and light… why do you look so different from her?”

Whether it was a mother who raised a biracial child and told them their light skin made them “lucky”, or a Black man who only sought after lighter women to ensure a “good looking” child, the institutionalized racism within my hometown remained in a seemingly endless cycle.

Interestingly, in my hometown, it appeared as though different races of women loved dark skinned Black men, but when it came to the dark women, they were viewed as… too dark. I believe this originated in the slavery days when the Black man’s survival stemmed from his masculinity, obedience, and ability to carry out tasks, while women had better chances of living well if they were simply biracial or light skinned. The woman’s color defined her status, while the man’s will defined his fate.

This ignorance has carried over since then, to the point where we will easily feature Idris Elba, Morris Chestnut, or Denzel Washington as consistently dynamic actors, but cast Zoe Saldana in blackface because dark actresses such as Lupita Nyong’o, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer are too busy being casted in exclusively slave, “mammy”, or sassy best friend roles. If in the light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement we still can’t seem to move past more than just Zendaya, Amandla Stenberg, and Yara Shahidi garnering respect for being Black (light skinned), ambitious and beautiful, then we are just wasting our time.

While I believe that anyone shouldn’t be hindered from representing anything based on their appearance, if we can’t integrate the same equality inside the movement that we want outside the movement, then what’s the point?

If we want this movement to work, we have to make some changes. The media underestimates its own power. Even though we see Black news outlets making statements about the Black movement, it doesn’t mean they are spreading what we all want to see with the cause. In fact, they’re enabling Non Black news outlets to report about the Black movement the white way. The irony? These other outlets have always only used light and biracial women to represent the whole Black race.

Isn’t this why we set up our own means of media in the first place? If not us, then the media needs to show the Black community what true equality is, instead of white-washed equality. As for us, we need to stop prolonging colorism to fulfill the void within our own self-esteems.

What do I mean?

Stop comparing your dark skin to someone else’s medium dark skin to see which is lighter. Stop associating specific facial expressions to being a “light skin face”. Stop saying that dark skin is so dark that it can’t be seen at night. Lastly, stop listing your skin color as an attribute for your dating life. If you’re going to emit the same strain of ignorance that originated in the slave days, then don’t shout “Black Lives Matter” when you’re met with the extensive prejudice we’re faced with in America. Because to you, the only Black lives that matter are the ones that white washed media says matter.

It shouldn’t matter what color you are. If you are proud of your heritage and want to advocate for its advancement, then by all means raise your voice. I view this movement as a wonderful opportunity to promote equality. However, I refuse to follow a movement that fails to acknowledge our own prejudices towards each other. We need to realize that this isn’t a competition. It shouldn’t be a relief to be light and a burden to be dark. We must raise each other up and work unitedly, or else we will never make progress. We must be able to prove to each other all Black lives matter before we allow ourselves to proudly chant it.