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Light, Bright and Damned Near White on TVOne

Started by baratunde aka jack turner · 1 year ago

Light, Bright and Damned Near White is a documentary investigating colorism which is discrimination based on skin color within an ethnic group. In my many-shaded family, we always called it color-struck. Let’s put it this way. My great-grandmother who was described as black as an iron skillet chided her pregnant cafe-au-lait-skinned granddaughter ... Continue reading »

14 comments

  • Kristasphere

    1 year ago

    I'm thrilled you posted this first of all. I'm a light bright with curly hair to boot. First thing that jumps out at me is only women are interviewed in the YouTube clip. I've asked guys whether this same colorism exists with them, and they all say emphatically yes.


    I think the "hair factor" that is often tighly coupled with one's s skin tone makes it a bigger issue for women. We're taught that long flowing shiny hair is the beauty standard, therefore if you don't have it you are ugly.



    Love to hear others' perspective on this. Can't wait for the show.
    reply
  • rikyrah

    1 year ago

    I have no proof; only suspicion.


    I believe a good chunk of the hostility towards Michelle Obama is because she fails the PaperBag Test.
    reply
  • Andrew W.

    1 year ago

    Years ago, there was a great episode of Frank's Place -- an underappreciated show on so many levels -- in which Frank (Tim Reid) was invited to join an upscale, African-American social club in New Orleans. It would have opened a lot of doors to him, but he ultimately declined when he realized that all the existing members were very light-skinned, and he was being recruited specifically because he was darker-skinned -- in his view, as a token. Frank explained his decision by saying (paraphrasing here), "all my life I've been the only Black kid -- in my Scout troop, the private school my mom sent me to, in my college classes, in my faculty department -- and I'm not about to be the only Black in an all-Black social club."


    That show was just too smart to be a commercial success.
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  • rikyrah

    1 year ago

    reply
  • rikyrah

    1 year ago

    andrew,


    I SO WANT Frank's Place to come out on DVD. I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
    reply
  • Elephants&Flowers

    1 year ago

    I know that the election is critical right now. But, when we get past this, I say that we start a campaign to get Frank's Place released on DVD. It was one of the smartest sitcomes of all time.
    reply
  • TruthSeeker

    1 year ago

    Michelle is almost as tall as her husband, muscular and Amazonian looking. Smart, educated and refreshingly DARK! She walks like she means it, she is strong - and bends effortlessly to sweep her younger daughter onto her hip. She has no lines on her face but for 2 vertical ones between her brows that say 'worry', 'anger'... or chronic sinus pressure.


    There is no room for 'daintiness' in the black woman. No one entertains our vulnerability and here, Michelle doesn't disappoint. We are not the shrinking violets of society. Nobody wants to hear about our aches, our tiredness.



    I know all the ugly stuff weighs on the Obama's. I sense a reticence in them lately. They are less bold. Barack is lost without his family on the road with him, and it shows in his stump speeches where sometimes he seems wilted. I hope Michelle and the girls will travel with him for the summer.
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  • Kristasphere

    1 year ago

    @andrew w. I remember that episode well. The club was called the "Capital C" club for Creole, not colored I think. Agree it needs to to come out on DVD like yesterday!


    @rikyrah: Hadn't thought about Michelle's color being a factor till you said that. Lemme process that for a second because I suspect you're right.



    I'll ask again...why only sisters in the YouTube clip do you think?
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  • heartsandflowers

    1 year ago

    I was personally glad she was not on the lighter end of the spectrum because how many browner sisters get the royal treatment in society today? She's not that dark compared to the entire spectrum in the phenotype anyway.
    reply
  • Anonymous

    1 year ago

    As one of those who I guess is 'bright" its an issue to some, but, not just within the black community. Latino's are vicious with darker skinned relatives, along with Indians, who, as of last week in the UK told two black women they were too black to be cheerleaders since Indians in India don't like dark skin or some poppycock like that, which I had to laugh at, they don't like dark skin India, amazing. My folks had had latia housekeeper, who was darker than them, and, she told them that she was called that vile n-word by her own parents, so, the sickness over skin color is all over the place, even in a world where those with white skin is shrinking, and, they are already in the minorty.


    But, I do disagree that it makes your life easier, sure, at the end of the day, to the average white person, you are still black, well, in my case, I've been thought of as Arab, so, black works better!
    reply
  • Phia

    1 year ago

    I think it's interesting to hear light-skinned women say they don't have it easier. Only because my mother (who is very light and of mixed ancestry) warned me at an early age that I would have a tougher time than she (especially in the workplace) because of my dark skin. And she was right. My skin color affected me in grade school, and played a major role once I was old enough to date. My younger sister (about the same complexion as my mom) has never had this problem. I'm happily married, but I had a dark skinned brother tell me at a club once that he was surprised at my friendly demeanor because "Dark skinned sisters are typically unapproachable"! Oh well...And YES, I noted Michelle Obama's darker skin tone, and I cheer her on every time I see her with that unmistakable style and GRACE.
    reply
  • don't we have better things to

    1 year ago

    Light skin people with curly hair feel discriminated against.


    Get the hell out of here.



    Do you really think if Obama was even light brown he would have a chance at the presidency. Was PBS Pinchback brown? Blanche Bruce? Edward Brooke? Thurgood Marshall? Rosa Parks? Douglas Wilder? David Dinkins? Adam Clayton Powell? Patricia Roberts Harris? WEB DuBois?



    And that's just the political arena.



    Let's not inject beauty standards and mating practices into the mix.



    I wonder why dark skinned black women are the least likely group to be married.



    Face it if you are a dark skinned black woman like myself you start out the gate with 4 strikes (nappy headed, dark, black, female) against you. Five if you are overweight.



    Don't come in my face talkin' about the pain you feel. You don't know pain.
    reply
  • The Christian Progressive Libe

    1 year ago

    I barely pass the paper sack test. My mother was the same color as Michelle Obama, and just as beautiful. Light-skinned brothas were always trying to step to her, and my father was the lightest guy she ever dated.


    She taught me that color was not the issue; it might get me in the door, but if I didn't have the knowledge skills or abilities to stay inside the door, I'd get tossed out. My father kept us away from his mother (my paternal grandmother) because she was color struck and distanced herself from 20 of her thirty grandchildren, because their mothers were Michelle's color or darker.



    The one daughter-in-law with light-skin? She left my uncle in a VA hospital after he came back from a tour in 'Nam with shell-shock and PTSD. Dogged out my uncle, but that made no difference to my grandmother.



    I wish we could get past the color issue, but as long as we have self-hating, low-self esteem Black people amongst our midst, color is going to always be an issue. Why else would Harold Ford claim his grandmother was white in order to court the redneck vote in Tennessee when he ran for the Senate? Or why he's now married to a Snowflake with moneyed connections?



    Self-hating on a grand scale. Most of the most beautiful women I've seen were mahogany colored sistas.



    If you notice, while Halle and Vanessa are still good-looking, they are beginning to show their age and it's not pretty. Meanwhile, Ruby Dee and Cicely Tyson, not to mention Maya Angelou, are ageing gracefully and no Botox required.



    And the only high-yella sista still luminously beautiful at age 91 is my girl, Lena Horne. She's still beautiful because she wasn't into self-hating and always was down with the darker hue in her community. Capice?
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  • Nichelle

    1 year ago

    There is no room for 'daintiness' in the black woman. No one entertains our vulnerability and here, Michelle doesn't disappoint. We are not the shrinking violets of society. Nobody wants to hear about our aches, our tiredness.


    This bears repeating.



    And while I agree with The Christian Progressive Liberal on beautiful mahogany colored sisters, I have to disagree with Halle and Vanessa being "still good-looking" but "beginning to show their age and it's not pretty". I think they both look great - aging and all.



    But the colorism issue is quite real and I have no patience for people that pretend otherwise.
    reply
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