This documentary short is an introduction to the issue of shadeism, the discrimination that exists between the lighter-skinned and darker-skinned members of the same community. This documentary short looks specifically at how it affects young women within the African, Caribbean, and South Asian diasporas.
Through the eyes and words of 5 young women and 1 little girl - all females of color -the film takes us into the thoughts and experiences of each. Overall, 'Shadeism' explores where shadeism comes from, how it directly affects us as women of colour, and ultimately, begins to explore how we can move forward through dialogue and discussion.
Shadeism from Shadeism on Vimeo.
For smoother viewing hit start and then stop allow the grey line to fill to the far right. Once done hit start again and the video will play smoothly.
The brainwashing of white supremacy now has men in India bleaching their skin too.The soon to be released documentary Dark Girls explores the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color that are experienced particularly by dark-skinned women, outside of and within African-American culture.
Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.
But Dark Girls seems to take a different approach. Instead of vilifying the perpetrators of bias, the preview shows women being allowed to tell their own painful stories in a way that sends an undeniable message about how nonsensical, painful and historically fraught our stubborn views of skin color and beauty can be.
People of color globally can put an end to this sickness of supposed white skin and straight hair superiority by confronting this issue head on among ourselves. You can start by making a small donation as I did, toward the completion of this powerful movie by Clicking Here.
Why Are Most Of The Black Reporters On TV Light Skin?
The issue of colorism was adressed in Lemon's recent book Transparent.
This is how Don Lemon responded during the interview with TheRoot.
The Root: One topic you discuss in the opening chapter of your book is colorism (bias according to skin color). Do you see colorism in network news?
Don Lemon: Well, I do have eyes, and I do see that a lot of the anchors of color on television are light-skinned -- not all of them -- but a number of them are.
TR: There has been some chatter over the years about your employer, CNN, possibly having its own brown-paper-bag test for anchors' complexions.
DL: You will have to ask the people who hire the anchors that because I don't know that. When I look around the entire television landscape, I do see -- I don't know if it's lighting, I don't know if it's makeup -- there are many anchors of a lighter hue. I don't know where that comes from. I think that is part of our society. [But] there are some beautiful brown-skinned brothers and sisters on television.
Does CNN have a brown-paper-bag test? I think that's a good question for any person to ask. If that's something that you notice as a viewer, by all means pose that question to the powers that be.
Click Here to read about Shadeism in the fashion industry.
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