Dark Girls (Documentary)

[Kurtis]

u saying people in the third world dnt feel self concious fam

 

with their raggedy selves

 

i have no stats so i cant speak on it

 

but its a big issue in the first world

 

that side is silent so im kinda guessin its not as big an issue

 

apart India prob with their lightskin worshipping selves

[Benicio del Toney]

lol

 

Yung Bawse how can a skin tone look masculine, I know you've seen pretty darkskin girls.

 

You probably seen darkskin girls who look masculine but that ain't the same thing.

[Benicio del Toney]

The issue isn't hard to understand tbh.

 

If people are bombarded daily with a particular perception of beauty many who don't believe they fall into this category will try to attain it.

 

No different from Kelly Rowland and Amerie getting nose jobs.

[Grafter]

I think dark skin looks masculine and thats why IMO lighter skin females are more attractive and darker skin looks better on males (no homo).. I reckon most people feel this way but some dark dons refuse to even acknowledge it because they're soo caught up on pride/keeping everything black

But lets not get into this again

 

so you are saying you don't look masculine?

 

oiiiiiiiii

self hate is bad mmmk

[stacksbranning]

Sadly that is true . Inb4 someone compares it to white girls tanning

[JLovely]

I think dark skin looks masculine and thats why IMO lighter skin females are more attractive and darker skin looks better on males (no homo).. I reckon most people feel this way but some dark dons refuse to even acknowledge it because they're soo caught up on pride/keeping everything black

But lets not get into this again

so you are saying you don't look masculine?

oiiiiiiiii

self hate is bad mmmk

[Grafter]

obviously there is an ideal of beauty that is perpetrated throughout the media and it affects women from all backgrounds

its not just skin tone its everything. women can't keep up with this illusion and so it just keeps going

you got women starving themselves out here, putting fakery in their bodies

[Mame Biram Diouf]

If people are bombarded daily with a particular perception of beauty many who don't believe they fall into this category will try to attain it.

 

Sad but true

 

Parents can only do so much

 

Society's problem

[Mame Biram Diouf]

he didnt say skintone looks masculine. hes alluding to tht scientific study they did 

 

Come on your better than that

[Guest 90210]

im sure at some point in our kiddy lives we wanted to be white (those who are black). im sure.

[Grafter]

he didnt say skintone looks masculine. hes alluding to tht scientific study they did 

 

Come on your better than that

 

why is he trying give him more credit then he is due

he said nothing about no study, he gave his own opinion on skintone

[Mame Biram Diouf]

Says White scientists I am guessing who are the ones that define what passes as Masculine features

 

So some you would be happy to say your mums, nans or aunty's have ''masculine features'' rather than ''black'' features?

[Grafter]

Says White scientists I am guessing who are the ones that define what passes as Masculine features

 

So some you would be happy to say your mums, nans or aunty's have ''masculine features'' rather than ''african'' features?

 

get me

there was science saying that black people were less intelligent

sub human even

science

[Michel Kane]

The highly anticipated documentary, Dark Girls, made its debut on OWN Network last night. In the days leading up to the world television premiere, as more and more promo materials were released, people began to reach out to me; and on yesterday, no less than a few dozen folks emailed, messaged, Facebook’ed, and tweeted me – “Dark Girls is on! Are you watching?” I had already seen the film during its national tour last year, but I needed to watch it again, not because it was just that good, but because I wanted to see folks’ response to the film in real-time. My Facebook and Twitter timelines confirmed what I have long known to be true – we have been trained for war.

What I witnessed on social media last night was no different from what I’ve experienced time and time again. Whether in-person or on-line, conversations about skin color often transform into scenes that look like they were taken straight out of School Daze. While many dark-skinned womenappreciate the acknowledgement of a pain that feels impossible to heal, others resent what feels like new picking at old sores, while many others reject the repetition of personal reflections that seemingly suggest that all dark-skinned women have issues. Some light-skinned women feel overlooked, their experiences seldom recognized as if their lightness somehow protects them from any pain. But if any of them dare say so, they are quickly and effectively dismissed if not silenced. Brown-skinned sisters who aren’t so light but aren’t that dark are somehow made to reflect on their own skin color as much lighter or much darker than it actually is, just so they can be a part of the conversation. Either that or they watch from the sidelines and remind us every now and again that we continue to push them to the sidelines. And where are the men? Either shaking their heads or being blamed for having us caught out there like so. And like clockwork, there are always more than a handful of brothers willing to offer their unsolicited opinions about their “preference.” In the end, we all head back to our corners exasperated and exhausted.

As I watched Dark Girls and the social media warfare that ensued, I couldn’t help but to question the film’s purpose. I mean, I know what Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry have said – that they wanted to facilitate dialogue and help to move us towards healing. I get that, I support that, and I have the very same intentions for my own work. I wholeheartedly agree that a potential for our healing lies in open and honest conversation. However, we have to be purposeful about that conversation. Part of the reason why we aren’t able to have different conversations about skin color is because we aren’t talking about skin color any differently than we have been since forever. We can’t seem to talk about our color without our complex.

For nearly two hours, I watched dark-skinned women, faces tear-stained and emotions raw, testify about all the many and painful ways that colorism has damaged their beings. Unfortunately what I didn’t see were any of the myriad ways that the conversation could have and should have been nuanced. Yes, I am a dark-skinned woman, who was once a dark-skinned little girl who grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana and therefore knows all too well how colorism can break you if you let it. But I didn’t let it. And what Dark Girls was missing was that voice. The voice of the confident, assured, self-affirming, self-loving, “I wish you would tell me I’m not the ish” sister, who although she can relate to the pain refuses to stay stuck in it and has somehow figured out how to find beauty in her reflection. We needed that voice, not to distract from or to negate the experiences of pain, but rather to balance them with the capacity for triumph, if the purpose of the dialogue is in fact our healing. If we truly want to heal, we have to stop talking at each other and start talking with each other. And to do that, we need all voices at the table – dark, light, and every shade in-between – without the “vs.” While not with equal measure, colorism does impact us all. I’m not sure that those of us on the darker-end of the spectrum really need to maintain a monopoly on the pain. I think there’s room for other voices and other experiences. We needed the voice of the light-skinned sister to tell us what it’s like to walk into a room and have women who know nothing about her throw daggers with their eyes, or the light-skinned sister who stays in the sun and has either loc’ed her hair or cut it very close because she’s down for her people and doesn’t want anything about her presence to cause the browner-skinned women she considers her sisters to question their value. We needed that balance, if in fact the purpose of the dialogue is healing.

We also needed to hear more from men about their own experiences with colorism, not just their opinions about women’s experiences. In our dialogues and debates, we act as if colorism doesn’t affect men too. Again, not with same measure, but impactful still. There’s a reason why dark-skinned men have no problem opening their mouths to report that they “prefer” light-skinned women and perhaps that reason has something to do with how what they see in the mirror makes them feel. Instead of continuing to ask men about their personal “preferences,” why not hold them to task and ask them to make sense of that in light of their own complexions? (pun absolutely intended) For every dark-skinned man who wants only a light-skinned woman, there is a light-skinned man who only wants a dark-skinned woman. Like his darker skinned brethren, he also doesn’t want his children to go through what he went through. Either that, or he wants a woman who will validate and authenticate his Blackness and therefore his manhood. And on the subject of White men – yes, there are White men who appreciate our complexions, but there are also White men who exoticize us in ways no different from their forefathers did. So no gold stars for the White men who adore their chocolate lovers. Dark-skinned, light-skinned, or White, as I always say, there is a fine line between preference and pathology.

I find it interesting that the two dark-skinned male directors were inspired to make the film because of their observations of “the unfortunate pain” of others and not their own. I’ll admit that I take issue with Dark Girls for the same reason I was incensed by Chris Rock’s Good Hair: aside from the fact that it is Black men leading the conversation about Black women on issues that also affect Black men, most problematic is the absence of any substantial contextualization within global White supremacy. To Dark Girls’ credit, there was some focus on enslavement and the trauma it caused, as well as some discussion of the global impact of the media in creating particular images of beauty, and I do believe one of the experts interviewed actually said the word “global White supremacy.” (Good Hair offered no such context which ultimately served to pathologize Black women – as if our issues with our hair came out of nowhere. We are some peculiar creatures aren’t we?) Still, in focusing on personal story after personal story, that much-needed context was somehow lost and the issues were over-personalized. We needed to walk away from the conversation assured that we are not “crazy” and that we did not do this to ourselves. What we needed was a conversation centered more on the history and continued legacy of global White supremacy because …

“if you do not understand White Supremacy – what it is, and how it works – everything else that you understand, will only confuse you.”(Neely Fuller, Jr.)

Our relationships to colorism and to each other made me hesitant to offer any critique of Dark Girls out of concern that they would be seen as just another line of arsenal in our ongoing wars.

For as much as I have to say about the film, while watching with my social media crew last night, I tried very hard not to say anything at all. I knew that the film would be very powerful for many women and that many of them would finally feel affirmed by the fact that the conversation was being had in such a public manner and that it was endorsed by Oprah no less! But I also know that if we don’t start having new and nuanced conversations about skin color and colorism, we will continue to be at war.

[Grafter]

thats a good article and i will not watch the doc

[Benicio del Toney]

The scientist was Japanese I believe.

 

That is what they call pseudo science.

[Michel Kane]

thats a good article and i will not watch the doc

Lasted 16 minutes & had to turn that shit off, just felt like a long venting session as opposed to something truly exploratory & in search of solutions.

[JLovely]

Who wrote it

[Benicio del Toney]

Few lines killed me though.

 

"I don't like darkskin girls, they don't look right next to me" lool

 

"When I went to Africa, I saw real black people, I mean blue black, double black" lol

[Yung bawse]

You know darker skin makes your muscles appear more defined right? Thats general knowledge and a reason why a ripped up darkskin male will look better than a ripped up pale white male and why people put the tan stuff on before competitions.. Therefore black females (especially athletes) like tennis williams sisters have a masculine look about their bodies, also a lot of darker black females have a 'hard face' with strong cheek bones etc black people and white people have differences in their bones.. Dont get me wrong iv seen some beautiful black women and the reason a nice black woman is something special is because shes such an exception from an average black woman (anytime iv said black iv ment darkskin)

[Michel Kane]

Who wrote it

Yaba Blay.

Clutch Magazine.

[kurious]

I notice iv been getting a lot more friendly smiles when I'm with my son cuz people assume he's mixed race. The whites are all welcoming me to the lightside n all that. Guna ship him to aff or countryside in yard in the future so he can re-melanate my bloodline back to brownings. Fuck black women all crying because their black they need to fix up with that bullshit, all scared to go out on beautiful days like this. Weak arse self esteem.

[Benicio del Toney]

I thought the redskin woman with the darkskin child approached that wrongly though.

 

Saying certain shit infront of the child I didn't think was appropriate.

 

No wonder the child has issues.

[SLEAZE BALL]

Hence me saying people need to teach their kids better

[dom dom bullets]

You know darker skin makes your muscles appear more defined right? Thats general knowledge and a reason why a ripped up darkskin male will look better than a ripped up pale white male and why people put the tan stuff on before competitions.. Therefore black females (especially athletes) like tennis williams sisters have a masculine look about their bodies, also a lot of darker black females have a 'hard face' with strong cheek bones etc black people and white people have differences in their bones.. Dont get me wrong iv seen some beautiful black women and the reason a nice black woman is something special is because shes such an exception from an average black woman (anytime iv said black iv ment darkskin)

 

I believe that's to do with having more muscle mass not the dark skin making them look stronger

 

I notice iv been getting a lot more friendly smiles when I'm with my son cuz people assume he's mixed race. The whites are all welcoming me to the lightside n all that. Guna ship him to aff or countryside in yard in the future so he can re-melanate my bloodline back to brownings. f*ck black women all crying because their black they need to fix up with that bullshit, all scared to go out on beautiful days like this. Weak arse self esteem.

 

Do you not think the smiles are more to do with you having a baby rather than what race people think he is?