Source: BuzzFeed
Because we’re Black, when we speak about issues of colorism, it’s usually limited to our community. But in actuality, the preference for lighter skin and the demonization of darker skin tones is a global phenomena. Blame it on European colonization across the entire world. People across the globe, from Africa to Asia, to the Caribbean have dealt with this issue in their community.
It was with the intent to bring awareness to this issue, that BuzzFeed interviewed darker skinned people from various cultural backgrounds about their experiences with darker skinned tones.
There was also a professor from USC speaking about the prevalence and pervasiveness of European beauty standards.
The video started with these individuals sharing the characteristics often associated with darker skin. Words like “poor,” “dirty,” “ratchet,” “straight from the border.”
Edgar, a Haitian man, said that he felt so ugly being darker complected that he tried to gel his hair and listen to skater punk music to “culturally lighten himself.”
Hannah, a Korean woman, said that when she took a trip with her mom to Korea, a woman asked her mother why she was so dark. She said the question made her feel less Korean.
The most heartbreaking story, perhaps, came from Tanha, from Bengali. She shared her experience about her mother instructing her to use bleaching creams from the time she was in the third grade. She said that it was painful, she broke out in rashes and she, the child, was the one who had to stop her use of the cream.
But the video wasn’t just about being downtrodden. These same people also offered solutions to the colorism issue.
See what they had to say in the video below.
