Source: Brian Stukes / Getty
Whew, child. Nothing takes away from a video of an adorable kid dancing like a colorism debate.
That was quite evident after rapper Christopher “Ludacris” Bridges shared a video of his youngest daughter, Cadence, with Gabonese wife Eudoxie, dancing to Afropop music (“Yaji” by Yemi Alade). After trying to bust a move in her car seat, Cadence asks to get out and dance, and proceeds to do so in a parking lot.
Out of all the cute captions the 41-year-old could have used to post the video, he went with “When you’re raising a Half-African light skinned Baby 😂😂.”
It didn’t go well.
While plenty of people just enjoyed the Instagram video for what it was and commented on her dance moves, a lot more people called out the rapper for the confusing caption and went back and forth about why it was and wasn’t problematic.
“Lmao I always thought you were an ignorant weirdo,” one wrote. “Caption proves.”
“What does her complexion have to do with anything?” another person said. “#colorism at it’s finest and of course it’s always our own black men perpetuating it”
“Smh @ludacris know that the African DNA has a wide spectrum of tonality, heck there’s even the one without the melanin in it too (albinism),” said another. “Not all Africans are dark skinned.”
“They be so proud to have light skin babies,” wrote another. “They cant help themselves…smh my poor people”
“The captions took away from the video,” said another follower. “What time [sic] foolery is this, half African half light skin.. as if light skin is its own separate race. F–k outta here @ludacris”
Many were upset, but some argued that in the same ways that some people proudly say, “melanin poppin'” when they refer to people of a darker complexion, or call their own children their little “chocolate drop,” it shouldn’t be seen as a negative if lighter complexions are openly embraced as well. Others also said that you should be able to label your child in whatever way you see fit and said that people were being super sensitive.
But many stuck by the belief that the caption just didn’t make sense, particularly the emphasis on Cadence being light-skinned and what that had to do with her dancing her little heart out. Despite the pushback, the caption is still there, video still up.
Criticism wasn’t just heavy on Instagram though. Hit the flip to see what people had to say on Twitter about Luda’s confusing comment about his baby girl.
