by Ramona X
When someone always brings something up, you know it’s a sore spot. Like your friend who is sensitive about other people mentioning their ivy league degrees. Yeah, you know she’s always bringing it up for a reason. On another somewhat related note, I don’t trust rappers who make a point of making a song about the beauty of dark women (ahem, ahem Mos Def). The point is if it’s not an issue, why talk about it all the time? Although differences in shade is a sensitive subject in the Black community, the way to get over it is to be conscious of keeping an open mind to all people. Right?
While the following celebrities may be coping with their hangups by talking about their sensitivity to colorism, we think they’re trying to communicate something different.
Spike Lee
He’s made movies about it (School Daze, Jungle Fever), talks about it all the time and guess what, his dating patterns have manifested his issues with it. Spike, get over it. We don’t know if Spike was teased as a kid or he was trying to compensate for his love of light-skinned women with his image of being a sophisticated, pro-black auteur.
Kanye West
How many metaphors and similes we gotta hear involving skin color, huh Yaye? Ever since he rapped about two MJs, one light and one dark, we have to hear about endless references to Kelly Rowlands and light skinned chicks, dark skinned chicks, white girls, and on and on. To his credit, we do know that Kanye is a better beatmaker than he is a lyricist which is why he has to resort to recycling words and references all the time.
Lil Kim
Botched face Kim had the nerve to call out the casting of the lovely Naturi Naughton to play her in the Notorious movie – apparently, Lil Kim thought she was too dark to play her. Really Kim? If anything, Naughton actually upgraded you. But we’re sure Kim would’ve only been satisfied if the most fair-skinned, skinny nosed actress in Hollywood played her.
Ludacris
Hey Luda, we get it, you’re light skinned. How many times you gotta refer to yourself in light of your skin color? Like here, here and here. And seriously, what guy does that?
Foxy Brown
Although Foxy has been out of the scene for a minute, I can hear her laments oh so clearly. Brown liked to put a lot of the blame on folks discriminating against her because of her shade but as well all know, if you’re operating from a defeatist stance, you’ll be attracting situations and experiences that confirm your perspective. Foxy claims her complex came from the fact that she was the only dark-skinned one in her family. It’s interesting how so many invoke the same situation.
“It was hard at first, because I never felt like I was the prettiest girl when I was growing up. I was the only dark one in my family and I always got complimented, like, ‘Oh, she’s a pretty little dark-skinned girl.’ When I finally got on, it was amazing how many barriers got broken down. I’ve had little girls that had the same complex come up to me and say how much I’ve touched their lives.”
Rihanna
“It (prejudice) made me angry. It made me want to fight in my younger years. Having lighter skin wasn’t a problem in my household, but it was when I went to school – which really confused me at first. For the first six years of school, I would go home traumatized.” -Rihanna
Did you know that Rihanna was light-skinned? We didn’t, til she told us. I mean, from the outset, the brown skinned cutie made it clear that she has some Irish blood in her as she lamented about being bullied in school. Poor Rih Rih, it must’ve been rough.
Sammy Sosa, Vybz Kartel, MJ
We had to put these folks in one category since their issues are so obvious. They don’t talk about the color issue so much but the proof is in the pudding.
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