from 1619 to 1865 we were essentially chatt in this country in the United States we were nothing more than animals or beasts that's 246 years imagine that okay so here visual 246 years in the condition of enslavement where forget Beauty we weren't even human beings then we got emancipation without a plan we 1865 to 1964 we were really in a position of post enslavement people without real rights and then hits the Civil Rights Movement 1965 to the present well if we look at that this amount of time in this amount of time out but of that time out really only that much time out because for most of that time from 1619 to 1965 we had no basic rights in this country forget Beauty we weren't even considered people in the eyes of the law nor in the eyes of our our neighbors in the country and in the world and so beauty is just a small piece of a much bigger animal and until we understand that much bigger animal will never understand the issue of colorism [Music] we know during the time that they were enslaved there were others who had been either from birth from rape from slave owners who had produced children who were somehow different in complexion than others these children they were stratified within that Society uh dependent upon their complexion there were sometimes more than 64 distinctions in terms of color shade hair gradiation and those kinds of stuff by name and the culture the society would actually learn these subtle distinctions and apply them such that people then will allocate status based on that the racism that we have as a people amongst ourselves is a direct backlash of slavery the house [ __ ] versus the field [ __ ] The Paper Bag rule if you're darker than a paper bag well I know growing up in Hall I've heard others mention things regarding the paper bag test or being a member of snow and blow if your skin is white as snow and it blew in the wind that gave you some level of credibility or desirability the paper bag test when I first heard about it my mother told me about it if you were lighter than the brown paper bag then you was considered beautiful um smart you passed that test if you were darker than that you would consider dark and unattractive and I think it has to do with the history of colonization I think that's the the first piece of it the way in which these different nations have been colonized over the years largely by but not exclusively um by European armies who not only in terms of a physical colonization of invading these countries but also a cultural Invasion into these countries and Shifting the perspective of people and creating a sense of beauty a sense of identity a sense of superiority and of course in the history of colonization people are taught that the colonizer is the superior and you know if the superior looks a certain way and you want to become more elevated in yourself you aspire to this these Mass kinds of tragedies and traumas whether it's a group of people suffering starvation or a holocaust slavery affect us on an energetic level when you look deeper and deeper into the atom and smaller and smaller particles all you end up with is energy and vibration and the interaction of energy waves in the vibration of the cells and the DNA is this energy frequency of the trauma and what a tremendous negative energy wave slavery was what we've been talking about and what we spend time with is to attempt to shift that internalized colorism if you will the sense that being dark skinned is good and we've had moments and the black of the berry the sweet of the juice Say It Loud I'm Black I'm proud but they've been short dur moments because we consistently exist in a broader worldwide white supremist framework where color and one's approximation of whiteness is valued around the world my mother she got pregnant married at 15 um she was a woman who was beautiful smart all those never tapped into her ability and that was my first example of of black Womanhood grew up in a predominantly white community so constantly being called [ __ ] black [ __ ] black ugly [ __ ] those words together um never seeing any examples on television or in film of anyone associated with beauty or softness or kindness of femininity that look like me and then going to the welfare Camp that's where I went to to the welfare the camp for you know lowincome kids that's where you saw all the black kids and then they were doing the same thing to me black ugly [ __ ] and so at that point where do you get it from where do you pull it from I think that uh these you know conceptions about you know color come from within our race I feel like certain people who may have lighter skin try to boost their self-esteem and to boost their you know their selfworth up by putting others down because they know that darker skin I guess isn't considered beautiful and so they can that kind of puts them up on that petal St like saying hey I'm I'm more beautiful than you because my skin is fair you know what's weird I get a lot of compliments about my complexion from white people they love my skin and it's it's sad to say but as a younger person coming up white people really made me appreciate my skin color black people made me question it friend of mine had recently had a baby and I was very happy for her and so you know it was my first time seeing a baby and the baby was beautiful and she said girl I'm so glad she didn't come out dark and when she said it it felt like a dagger like someone took a dagger and stuck it in my heart because I was used to expecting hearing things like that from other races but this was someone that I considered to be my sister so many of us are trained even as children we come up and show so many images to try to make it um a truth you know so so when you get married everybody's wearing and white you know when you go to the funeral everybody's wearing black you know and day is perfect and fabulous and wonderful and night is Sinister and negative so we can uh address it to ourselves so we can connect it to ourselves so we can justify hating this beautiful wonderful color that we have I think the problems within the black community has to do more with our lack of unity than about actual racism we don't really see each other as being part of the community partly because we don't have a language we don't have something tangible aside from our skin color which as you can see like you know with u mixed children sometimes that's not even present I see a lot of times within the black community and I when I say black I mean anybody of color African American African immigrant um Caribbean American you have color to me you're black and in a black community is like no I'm not black I'm Caribbean or I'm not black I'm Haitian you know to put in very crash terms if the clue plan was running through here they're not going to be like o don't hang her because she's Haitian no you're black we're all together I think skin color amongst the black community is a huge issue in our time and you still hear a lot of commentary you still hear preferences and now with like the age of like the internet and blogs now you really get to see what people are really thinking because they can hide behind computers and people can make their comments and it's really shocking and disgusting at the same time to see a lot of the comments that are made by black people about other black people just recently one of my cousins one of my younger cousins he's a senior in high school uh posted on Facebook on his status I love white girls just period and nobody can do anything about it and I commented on his status and said you know that's fine just make sure you don't discriminate and then one of his friends posted it's not you know their fault that white skin just looks better on on females it wasn't so much like I felt like it was an insult to me exactly I mean I just felt like it was sad that my someone who I knew a young guy who was part of my family and his friends and then other people in my family as well feel that way like really feel that way and it was just really upset me [Music] she'll be the smart child and why is she the smart child cuz she is white okay show me the dumb child and why is she the dumb child because she play well show me the ugly child and why is she the ugly child cuz she BL show me the good-look child and why is she the good-looking child cuz she likes sking it's really I think important that we begin to understand how early in our life that begins to affect how we see our identity um I have a four-year-old who at two years of age was really beginning to demonstrate to me how the images that she saw whether it's on the Disney Channel or whether it's in a u animation how different she is from the images that are portrayed raising my daughter it is very different from raising my sons um especially since um I'm not going to know or I don't really know her uh battle um and the reason that I know that she has a battle now is because it has become evident she does not like to be called black she doesn't even coate like that she's um we're just lighter brown than she is to be honest with you I just never um I never thought about it until I had her because I can see it I can see the difference I can see when she is um at a party or we're at a center or we're at she's exposed to the playground or she takes dance class I can see the difference I can see how they um they treat her differently um she may not feel it um she may not understand it but I know I know it's there the impact that it has on those very very young children spiritually is that they actually start to devalue themselves in such a way where the spirit begins to shrink the things I used to do because I hated my color was I used to wish that I can wake up one day lighter or wash my face and think that it will change or start get lighter I thought it was dirt and I tried to clean it off but it wouldn't come off I took my color after my father and I used to hate him because of it I think I remember most saying that you know if I if I had a little girl I just I didn't want her to be dark I didn't want it to be dark like me it's not anything inherent in the human psyche to judge people based upon their skin color there's nothing in our DNA that suggests one shade of color is Superior or inferior to another but it's all politically and sociologically determined phenomena and and attitude so it you have to be taught to discriminate based upon skin color I remember being called um Tar baby monkey gorilla Milla gorilla for sale your skin is dirty he comes Blackie um he comes Tar baby I was probably in about second grade and there was a boy and he used to tease me all the time just relentlessly for no reason and my teacher Mr lutchman I asked him why are you always bothering hie he said I don't like hie cuz she's too black and ugly I can remember being in the bathtub asking my mom to put bleach in the water so that my skin would be lighter and so that I could escape the feelings that I had about not being as beautiful as acceptable as lovable I remember one in particular they used to say you stayed in the oven too long I just remember just like looking down at myself and I didn't think I was different but obviously I was if so many other people were saying that and I just thought okay then I guess I am black and I guess I'm ugly and yeah it still has a little twinder hurt when I remember it when you think about it what could be more superficial than somebody's skin color it's not their mind it's not their heart it's not how decent they are or how hardworking they are and I think what happens is a person feels inferior insecure and in that they want to find a way to feel better about themselves by putting somebody else down or looking down on somebody else being in school there was just such a separation um among girls who were lighter skinned and girls who were darker skinned we we were the girls who would catch them in the bathroom and fight them for no reason you know just because she happened to be born light skinned with pretty hair or pretty eyes I guess I guess she would say that would be jealousy and um it was really bad because in junior high school you know the neat the N for Halloween some people I knew wasn't me threw balls of it in their hair just to take it out so we were separated and it caused a lot of friction amongst children which now an adult just seems stupid to me you know our families aren't perfect our friends are not perfect at some point we have to acknowledge they are who they are and they bring some good and they bring some challenges and so how do you discern when they're bringing good and embrace that and then realize when they're bringing some stuff that's really not so healthy and say you know what I'm good you can keep that okay you can keep that my mother and her friend we were driving somewhere she's talking to her friend and she's bragging on me she's said my daughter is beautiful she's got great eyelashes she's got the cheekbone she's got great lips and then she's going on and she adds if she could you imagine if she had any lightness in her skin at all she'd be gorgeous and just that last little part just all that Pride that I had about her you know having her brag on me just dissipated just dissipated and I think that that moment is when I really became aware these are psychological forces that impede one's feeling the love that you have for yourself and for others again and it comes from your parents if they don't treat you with love if you're not made to feel loved unconditionally I love you just because you exist not because of what you look like or how well you do academically athletically just because you exist but if you haven't made to feel that love of self you will be inhibited in terms of interacting with others I used to have a record store in uh Detroit Michigan and um um my grandmother um my grandmother actually would hire lighter skinned blacks because she felt like darker and I hate to admit this but she felt like darker skinned blacks made Ste CDs and albums from her but you actually uh ran the record store so was it your policy also to hire lighter skinn people um rather than darkest SK people oh absolutely absolutely um I didn't know what I was doing you know it was ingrained to me I learned it from her so I mean it wasn't like it was my fault but yeah absolutely I did um hire more of the light skinned Brothers than the dark because honestly the darker skinned brothers did come in and steal from [Music] us I you know dark women I I don't really like dark women like they look funny beside me so you know I rather not date a dark skinn women you rather a lightskinned girl yeah lightskinn pretty girl long hair don't care it's frightening that they have this kind of negative critical attitude towards black females who aren't of light complexion or straight it's it's it's the essence of the slave mentality and they nobody's in their home teaching them about this and even athletes and movie stars who have the chance to say things they're silent often in terms of this issue so it's not clear how these young men's Consciousness will be raised it's it's frightening but it's important that black women don't become victims of thinking that if they don't look a certain way that they are inferior or less than so you can't depend on a black man liberating you from that I I [Music] hard I like it whatever I like like all different colors I like light skin well she dark SK she got to have a nice body to me that's just my personal she got he may have he may like light sken he may like light skinn women he may light I may like dark women dark women are beautiful honestly you know I don't know what kind of composition came together to make that happen but I guess the amount of Metaline in in your skin you know if you have a lot you look good you have a little bit you look good but I mean I love dark skinn woman you know I can't lie I cannot lie I feel like you know when you hug a dark skinn woman it feels better like the the way your skin feels against them it feels better light-skinned women you have to give more of yourself and be somebody else sometimes with with lightskinned women you know you got to like perm your hair or something or cherry curl it to get them with a light skin female let's say I'm going use a test for example given a test with a multiple choice there's not really a wrong answer but I prefer light-skinned women always did most of the women from the south where I from are light skin I'm from sweep Port Louisiana but with me like I say it's the person cuz you could you know be beautiful or whatever light skin but then if your character is not right then I think and look at you different now just because of your character and it I assume they would do the same with me and I remember going to school like in kindergarten and my aunt who was kind of like you know helping babysitting said okay when you go to school go there and find your girlfriend that's light skinn long hair and clean underwear that was her advice to the 5-year-old me going off to kindergarten and I thought it was funny and I thought it was you know whatever I was like okay I I could see the light skin I could understand I could see the the long hair my whole thing was not the light skinn part but like but how am I supposed to know that she's got clean underwear I feel like because you know I was dark skinned myself and you know for two dark skinned very dark skin people to get together you know it's it's kind of a in in in society it's almost a taboo sort of experience is taboo you know um two dark skinned people coming together well then the child is going to be dark skinned that's what the assumption is so you know I I don't know what it was I think it was just my my rage against the norm you know um dark skinned guy supposed to be with a lightskinned girl I I just never believed in any of that I remember my uncle saying if you caught me with my arms around a white woman I'm holding for the police ideal for me man is dark skinned I'm a dark skinned brother my daddy's dark skinned my mom's dark skinned and I want my kids to kind of look like me so I want my kids to be dark skinned and I want my woman to be dark skinned matter of fact a woman is dark skinned honestly a woman to me is a woman first and foremost for sure but uh if I'm going to sit there and be with him day in day out and all that I kind of want to have a little resemblance of my myself skin complexion and the whole whatnot you know so I went to Africa once to synagog and uh they allowed me to come in and host the first Miss Black USA pageant ever held in Africa it's like three years ago I never been to Africa and I got there and I saw myself I saw me walking all over the place except I mean black I mean real black blue black double black I ain't never seen black so black it made ink look light it was black kind of black you know but fabulous I was I was blown Away by the beauty of this black skin so I'm sometime confused when I hear women who have really dark skin who tell their stories about how their hearts were broken when they were told they were ugly cuz they were black because for me it's about whether you accept it or not if I had a choice between a dark skinned girl or a lightskinned girl I would choose lightskinned girl because I feel like a lightskinn girl is in between you know what I mean like if a dark if a girl is dark then she's dark and then you have a white girl if a girl is white she's white but if you have a lightskinned girl that's in between I rather have one that's in between some people may be subconsciously who who just like don't want to mess with dark skinned women maybe they feel like when they see a dark skinned woman they just like there's nothing to her almost like maybe it's like oh she must be from Compton or maybe she got an attitude or like certain stigmas that already are pegged with black women already in inside of their own mind that maybe they don't even see when they when they're when they're doing it I dat all kind of women you know going through that I see how certain women carel more to me more dark colored women they do have a low self-esteem to a certain extent than lightskinned women because white lightskinned women feel like they more closer to White so they feel they they got they special have you uh n yeah yeah yeah uhh it what happen she wasn't a nice person I think um it ain't too many dark skinned girls that are nice why why do you think dark skn girls are not nice like when you um when you're a dark skinned girl I feel like you you go through certain things of like skin girl or white girl would so it's for and those things are bad like you might like get clown or something like that and you might let that anger out on the wrong person no matter who it is because that's something somebody said it did to you because of your skin a young black kid coming up in America is looking at maybe Tia and Tamara the the twins that's super light or high yellow and he's like man that's from him little coming up saying that white is clean white is pure then when he gets older and of a man then he starts to realize even White Men start to realize that dark ain't really what what is the dirt The Bad The Dark Knight The Alley that dark in a lot of cases is kind of good kind of sweet kind of tender the darker the fruit gets the more ripe the more sweet it is you know what I'm saying so the black of the berry the sweeter the juice that's where the whole term comes from you are married to an African-American woman yes I'm married to African-American woman I remember distinctly a conversation I had with my father when I was in elementary school where I went up to him one day of course I didn't understand everything that has to deal with racism or race relations at that point in my life but I did realize that I was attracted to in more than a social way women of all ethnicities and I remember distinctly going to my father and saying dad would you mind if I did marry a black woman one day and his response to me was as long as she looks good I don't care what color she is um if you ask me if it was like a conscious choice to pick a darker skinned Woman versus like a lighter skinned woman for me not really it wasn't an effort to go find the deepest darkest chocolate sister out there and get the fullon for real deal you know straight from the motherland and I didn't think that that defined Blackness to me you know you you're not more ethnic if you're darker it's just that's have to be who Joanie was um but when you look at her there was nothing about that color of her skin that defined her and that's not for everybody's experience but for her would defin that way so that's what I think was attract to me was was that strength brown skin dark skin what you whatever you want to call it complexion would more I would more be attracted to that because I don't know it's like a it's like a natural color substance you know something of their jeans more pure you know it's pure yeah just feels and looks purified you know I'm a vegetarian you yeah and I'm a veggie so another reason why I can't see myself with a with a with a light-skinned woman is cuz I want dark babies I want my my babies to look like pharaohs you know or like queens and they they not going don't to look like that if they like skin you know just me my opinion you know I'm being real ignorant right now I think sometimes we are afraid to really talk about the stuff that we really need to talk about I think what would make the relationship better with black men and women if they would just take the time to have honest Communications and I think sometimes we just we just don't [Music] don't forget about when I get old and rank them I ain't old and rankled yet but when I get old and wrankle now don't uh throw me away in the corner now I got that Skillet still got it no way I me too big a part of my team thank you you know what I asked God when I I was in like I think I was like 11th grade I asked God you know cuz I consider myself back in the days you know I didn't have no good feeling about my looks and stuff like that you know I thought I would never ever found a husband that really appreciate me for without abusing me you know I thought it was too dark for you know anybody with CU mostly back in the day you know the lightskinn girl had all the jump you know you you know they had all the jump and uh like all the boys was going to them you know and and I played basketball I ran track I was a major at but still they was interested me I guess it was my turn my thought in my mind that I thought that nobody want me as when I got a teenager you know I thought you know well I ain't going to try to you know talk to this boy I ain't going to let no boy talk to me you know and I just got on the mean side a boy say something to me I'm ready to fight if they tell you not they walk by and touch you behind and I had one and uh and I was just fighting they just really thought I was a real mean girl you know but I had all this built inside of me and then when I I went to the doctor he said why why you got your graduation rain on your uh your wedding finger I said I never get married then he said why is you saying that I said I ain't going to never get married you know I wouldn't answer him but I wanted to tell him who want me you know when I was younger I remember being in junior high and I had a friend I don't know if we both liked the boy or he was just a friend but his father told him I remember we was in the car I was in the backseat his father was like you shouldn't talk to the mud the mud duck and so in my mind I always think like if I could just be like just one tabia shade lighter then I would probably get more guys who would be more interested I never getet I went to pic several years ago I was four of us it was two of us that were dark and two of us that were fair skinned and when I got over there I had the men all at my feet I got a proposal I got GI I'm like what is going on and they would tell me you have such beautiful skin is that your hair did you dye is that your natural color black folks look at me like she just black why are they tripping so and and you know it's really questionable to me why is it that they think that I'm so beautiful and my own people don't see any beauty in me at all my experience with black men has been I'm exotic beautiful they're fascinated by me behind closed doors but when it came to Dating coming to the front door taking me out in public doesn't happen I definitely feel that black men treat me differently because of my skin color um and that was something that I became privy of in college I joined sorority and I'd go to a lot of social events and I noticed for most of the black guys in my age group like 18s early 20s I was invisible but some of my friends who a lot of them were um light-skinned or mixed they would just make a beeline to them just just you know knock you down so after a while I'm like well I'm invisible to the people here I don't exist because I I wasn't fair skinned the darker you are it's more of a sexual approach it's more of a relationship without much meaning sort of approach than it is I could get married to that woman and have a few kids I'm very um shapely so I get a lot of men who look at that as being strong or someone they just want to be intimate with but I'm not willing to allow myself to be toyed with in that way because of the stereotype um she's shapely she's dark okay be great to have sex with her something like that or she's strong or she can have my babies or strong as opposed to go out on a date it's it's this weird correlation with a darker man wanting a lighter skinned woman and a lighter skinned man wanting a darker skinned woman more and more I start to see this as a pattern amongst black relationships it's very rare that you see two black people who are of the same skin tone together I have a problem when black men say specifically they would never date with will never date a black woman I have aoll When anybody says they will never date one particular group because that's just being close-minded it's especially hurtful when a black man says that to me because a either you you probably came from a black woman B I am a black woman C if you have a daughter she will be a black woman so you really need to analyze your statement when you say I would never date a black woman why wouldn't you date a black woman and a lot of times they're usually reflective on that person's shortcomings than it is on shortcomings of black women as a H I have a relative who married a white man 25 years ago and she used to wear hair like mine straight and everything and I noticed that she started wearing the natural she didn't wear the makeup he liked her natural beauty which when I see he like you need to straighten your hair but he loved her the way she was white men seem to Revere the black woman whereas a black man seems to have I guess it's more of a maternal reverance instead of like a goddess reverance I would say my experience with white men um I just have to just you know put on a cute outfit do my hair and let's just go out I don't have to worry about what it cost I don't have to worry about I don't have to worry about anything just show up you know there's not a control issue it's just like you know you're a princess for the day but in my heart of hearts I want to marry a black man and I want to stay married to a black man and I know that there are black men out there that can offer that very same thing but I just think they're like in prison because of their own personal struggles you know I have girlfriends who's uh who have dumped their men because they have always had this sort of insecurity about uh him cheating on her or or leaving her for you know a lighter skinned woman um I'm so over that like truly the day when that the the shades of color don't matter that'll be the day [Applause] what has happened over time across Generations is an internalization of the degradation of what it means to be black in the world this is not just a US phenomenon go to Ghana today go to senagal today go to The Gambia today go to South Africa today and you will see Billboards promoting skin bleaching cream even in the face of knowing that it causes cancer our sisters are trying to lighten themselves in response to an internalized racism that is global some other places people must understand that some other places when you are dark skinned you are put over here into the Lesser class in your country my country where's your country Republic see I'm telling you man it's like that a lot of places lot of it's not it's not like racism like like they put it here on TV like no big issue over there it's undercover which is wor and and it's not even it's just how it is right if I go to visit a girl to her mother's house and she's light skinned and I'm dark both Dominican a mother be like you going to [ __ ] up my race my family bringing this dark skinned boy over here got to find somebody comple light eyes green eyes right so what I'm trying to say is it's it's so much worse in some places you know what I mean in the States you know some people might have an issue like a man you dark ass you black ass whatever but it's like okay that's fine but I'm going still go and make 100 G's this year and and that's not going to stop me but some places it will stop me I'm korean-american I grew up um in Hollywood but I did visit Korea when I was in the fourth grade and that was the first time where I noticed that I was actually different um it's not like La where it's you kind of fit in being tan or a little darker in Korea I guess at the time when I was in the fourth grade it was really popular to look as white as a ghost so I really stood out um there was a time we went to the mall with my mom and my brother and this random lady um didn't know my mom just came up to her at the mall and asked her if her husband was black so I asked my mom why she asked that and she said oh you know she's crazy and people here just want to be as white as ghosts but I think it was at that time where I realized okay well there is a difference from me and all the the Koreans living in Korea because I was so much darker like I really stood out in Thailand I was in Thailand uh and the dark skinned people in Thailand are never on TV you there's a lot of dark skin people there but you'll never see them on TV and you walk into a store and cuz I remember going into the store trying to find lotion and you cannot find a single bottle of lotion that does not have lightning cream in it or like facial moisturizer that doesn't have lightning cream cuz everyone's trying to become lighter I actually have people in my family that bleach their skin and and tell you the truth when you stop it does not look good it does not look good one of the most popular products in the third world is skin whitening cream which gives us a little bit of an idea of how people's perceptions of themselves I mean we're talking here about regions of the world where the overwhelming majority are not white but here we see a huge kind of market for skin lightening cream so I I I think that gives us an indication of where people's thinking is around this kind of issue skin you can skin your face but then your neck and your arms is is a different complexion you want to be two tone now I'm I'm confused that could be a sty day setting hey when you skin bleach skin bleach everything or just stay who you are you are who you are yeah uh this is a salicylic acid P it's a higher pH peel than let's say or glycolic and it's self-neutralizing okay I have been asked as a dermatologist I would say at least once or twice a year someone calls and asks for the medicine that they believe Brighton Michael Jackson and I know what that medicine most likely is and in his case may have been used appropriately if he indeed had bito but that really is the only appropriate use for a medicine that irreversibly brightens the skin oh I'm definitely not will you my skin absolutely not what it is is that I'm looking at trying to lighten the darkened area under my eyes but absolutely not bleaching my skin I I love my color I I love my complexion I think there's two different types of people that use it there are those that want want to lighten their blemish um which is something that I would do it's like when you get a pimple or if you get sun damage um just like little spots to even out your skin tone and then there are those that put it on religiously or take pills even to make themselves lighter have a lighter complexion I think they're insecure about who they are and they just they see it as white being pretty what we see in a contemporary cultural framework is the exportation of American images into these countries and so all of the things that we talk about in relation to the way the black white binary with African-Americans in this country we see playing out in other countries as well the most popular movies in these countries are Hollywood films the most popular images are images coming out of the West the depictions of African-Americans that exist here also exist there so people who may not even and have a great deal of interchange with you know African communities and so on see them through the Western lenss that comes out of this country in the particular area where I'm from East Africa the notion of if a woman is treated differently for her skin tone dark or light it depends it's traditionally uh Ethiopia is a feudal society starts with kings and queens it's one of the only uncolonized places in Africa so their history doesn't start with a paradigm of white first so there are regions where chocolate is the most highest standard of beauty then there is the feudal system where you have kings and queens the woman's not going to be dark because a lot of time the dark thing is like someone who's maybe an agriculturalist person or something a little bit in the sun too much you wouldn't for the royalty type of thing quote unquote for lack of better word wouldn't be dark you'd be lighter [Music] it's funny because I was raised um with my grandmother always telling us to make sure we um marry light to progress the race and even till today um you know I have an aunt that tells my cousin not to sit in the sun cuz she'll get too dark growing up in Panama I did experience the difference between dark skin and light skin and uh being in a family where there's every shade thankfully the the the messages were positive in my family but I grew up very aware of the variety of ideas about dark skin not being favorable quotes like you need to improve the race don't marry black and if you Marry lightskin That kind of foolishness if a young child is constantly taught that Europe is the Pinnacle of civilization that all great ideas came out of England came out of France came out of Germany and they're a young say Egyptian child in the Nile Delta they're not going to look within their own community and within themselves to see greatness they're going to look outside of their community and aspire to that and I think this plays out in the way in which we perceive of ourselves physically as well I think think this is my opinion the reason why women in Africa try to bleach their skin cuz they as what they perpetrate on on TV cuz over there most of the stuff that they watch it's not really what you would call African TVs and stuff like that it's pretty much western western culture and all of that stuff that is televised over there so most of the women wants to have cuz what they see on TV over there are lighter skinned women with nice hair and all of that stuff so some of them want want to be like that so that's why they some of them bleach their skin cuz they think the lighter their skin is the chances they have to actually one day be on TV or get noticed by people so they think bleaching skin or lighter skin is much much better than dark skin you know it's it's really interesting now how for so long we as black women uh would go out of our way to try to emulate the beauty ideals of white women you know straightening our hair and for some even bleaching their skin but now it's really interesting to me how more and more uh women of other cultures especially white women are growing to embrace the things that for so long have been unique to us hi Cindy hi all right so we are going to start with you um turning around I'm going to do your back first okay um that way you can get comfortable in the tent and with the whole procedure and by the time I have you spin around you'll have been in there for a couple of minutes so you'll feel nice and comfortable there is just something about being tan and having tan skin that makes muscle definition look better and it makes me feel healthier it makes me feel better it definitely um any imperfections that that I might feel that I have are covered by by a tan um it just makes me feel good makes me feel more confident and um just it's pretty it's pretty I really believe everybody want to be black except black folks I used to do comedy on Venice Beach I did it out there for nine years and when I would do comedy I would do a piece called the racism piece and I would stand a white person next to me and I would say well look at white people you know uh they call us colored but but but we always our color whatever color we are if we come out we Brown we always Brown we end up brown white people when they born they're pink when they when they mad they're red when they cold they blue when they die they gray them the color people you know but but we are our people we have all these beautiful shades of brownness and chocolate and and and and and black and and and beige and and every color is lovely and beautiful so our beauty is really our state of mind [Music] there are these sorts of senses that these images are carefully chosen to communicate certain ideas where I have a problem with the media is when they try to have it both ways that is to say we don't have any real impact on the dialogue because you know we're just giving people what they want yet they pay people hundreds and thousands of dollars to figure out how to make people Millions upon millions of dollars and it's not voodoo it's not you know some weird you know it's not hoodoo you know if we want you know I mean it's vodun there is a method and there is a A literacy a Cultural Literacy that allows people to make a message that is going to have the odds of being more successful than another I was once on CNN debating the the whole controversy about being Beyonce's L'Oreal ad and whether or not they had lightened her skin when a picture of her in motion was placed against a picture of her in print everybody said oh there's no way that they didn't lighten her skin you know and I remember saying something like uh I hope this doesn't revoke my black card but you know I just don't want to believe that that is still happening this day and [Music] age well I think the beauty industry in setting very specific very high standards for how a person is supposed to look in order to be beautiful is feeding off of the insecurity that people have I believe that the more self-respect and self-esteem a person has the more they won't buy into the sales pitch that you're not okay the way you are my favorite African proverb is until the lion has a historian the hunter will always be a hero unless we are able to understand and articulate the issue from multiple points of view including from the point of view of those who are the recipients or on the receiving end of this oppressive degrading image that has been created over generations for black people we're only going to continue to perpetuate the stereotypes being that I've been on tons of video shoots I look at the magazines and I see all the rap videos and all the media that surrounds rap I've always found it a bit hypocritical that a lot of the rappers make this big deal about having a lot of black pride but then they'll flip around and we'll have a predominance of light-skinned women or women who are not black in their videos especially as the primary love interest I think it's very hypocritical because what's the message you're sending to the black girls in particular is that oh we aspire to be with non-black women I can remember being a young girl wanting to be a model I didn't see dark skin girls on covers of magazines when I was in high school my nickname was Grace Jones and people used to say that to me as an insult because she was dark skinned but I didn't get it at first because I love Grace Jones I thought she is the most beautiful oh just the color of her skin and I just loved everything about her and eventually I was able to turn that around but it wasn't easy it doesn't happen overnight the other part of it is that you know there's this issue called structural racism we've been so F whenever you hear the word racism people immediately think of individual racism but the bigger elephant in the room now is the structural racism the kinds of policies and practices that we have in place that perpetuate colorism whether that's the things that you see in the media and advertising and in the magazine and who gets selected to be the models and in the movies who plays the lead character and who plays the servant role and who plays The Jezebel role and on and on and on you know Society is perpetuating it Society has a responsibility to do something about it to self-correct hi Barack Hussein Obama will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States preserve protect and defend the Constitution of the United States so help you God so help me God congratulations Mr President I'm so proud of the example that President Barack Obama has set I know that uh as women we were all holding our breaths when he first stepped onto the political scene like H it's kind of cute and he's smart Harvard degree lot lawyer okay Barack but then we were like watch he got one of those light brights or you know watch his wife watch watch his wife be lightskinn long hair or something and when we saw Michelle we were like you go go Michelle go Barack you know um there was a certain relief that I think we all felt I am so happy that there's and I don't want to say real sister but there is a black woman who is dark skinned you know in the White House I love that and she's not cleaning she's not cooking she's the first lady and I love that and I feel like because of her presence and uh her position that people are more accepting of us now I love Mr Obama in the office so much because the first time you see black people on a regular basis a family on television usually when you see black people on TV we on our way to jail or uh we're rapping or we're in sports you don't get to see us in a positive light continously now the world is forced to look at our whole black family all the time and they're finding out that we just regular folk we ordinary we have the same pains and and and and sorrows and joys everybody else you know but but because of these type of teachings black is considered a negative thing a dark thing a wrong thing I think the first responsibility is to acknowledge that there is power in those IM that there is power in advertising magazine covers that there is power in that and that there is thought to that that there are people who dedicated their lives to understanding how people will have an emotional intellectual response to an image to a sound to a voice that is what they've studied and that is what they're getting paid six fig salaries to do when not seven figures and that to then pretend that all that knowledge means nothing that they are Servants of the people and only reflecting back what people want is utterly [Music] ridiculous I live a very valuable life and I feel really really really good that I forgiven my parents that I'm not not still waving my finger saying it's all your fault that I put that to rest and I realize that my life right now is my responsibility if you want to change a person the first thing you must do is to change their awareness of themselves so it starts with Consciousness we have to understand our history in real terms not a watered down Roots version but a sanova version of our history and our Holocaust and the pain and the trauma and the Damage that that caused in addition to that we have to also understand our resiliency as a people the values that have helped us survive against the odds the principles of community and collectivity that have helped us to maintain our Humanity in the face of massive inhumanity my aunt Dorothy living down south she as a child you when I was a child she recognized that I was struggling with my skin tone and she came up to me and she's like girl you know the darker the berry the sweeter the juice you embrace your skin tone you are beautiful so when she told me that my blackness was beautiful that changed completely my perception of myself one of the things that I do with her brothers is I make sure that they encourage her and treat her like a princess in the house to let her you know let your sister know you know she's beautiful and she's smart and you know and and I know that as a parent um I'm going to have to give her the things that she needs and her brothers will have to give her that male Assurance so that she doesn't go outside the home looking for love in all the wrong places it wasn't for my mother and my father being very strong people and I always remember what they told me they would say uh you know you're not better than anybody else at the same time nobody's better than you are it made me a little bit stronger I've been through a lot um of people uh trying to ridicule me laughing at me because I'm darker but I don't allow anybody to Define who I am if the mothers are teaching their daughters to love who they are and where they came from and that they're beautiful being as black as they are whether they're as dark as purple or whatever color is because there's different shades of darkness and all of them can be can be beautiful when you think of the overall physical body every single cell has its own unique purpose and function and so if in this example a dark skinned woman were the eyes and a light-skinned woman was the eardrum why would the eyes work so hard to be the eardrum and would it make sense for the eardrum to try to become the eyes it's just important to be who you are and when you begin to acknowledge that and begin to acknowledge that the experiences you've had have brought you to a particular point in your life where you have so much to give and so much to contribute you have so much to learn then you can start really accepting and being certain in just own who you are and I think it's also important for each of these little ones for these children that are coming into the world to understand that and to know that and to be taught that from birth when I think that I actually had those thoughts that I actually uttered those words it's you know it's shameful but somehow you know I got over that and uh and she's beautiful she's gorgeous and uh she's a little chocolate baby and I I love her to death this can be healed there is hope in fact it's important that each of us heal the wounds that we carry so that the music inside of us can be heard by us and by everyone else imagine that you have this newborn beautiful baby girl in your arms and you're holding her you're looking at her you're full of love you're cherishing her how do you hold on to that and help her carry that throughout her life but here's the thing that little girl that you're holding that's you you ultimately are the keeper of your own soul you are The Keeper of the spirit that is you and so if you don't treat you right if you don't love and cherish you how do we expect anyone else to do the same loving yourself is not racism loving yourself is race pride and in in shows I try to point out that I can love me without hating you you know because a lot of times my show have a lot of wife folks in and I don't have to hate white people to love me I I my program don't work like that I love me because it's intrinsic and because we are taught not from books but by the spirit that love begins at home you got to love who you are the essence of who you are they tell you when you're on an airplane if you got a child with you and there's trouble and the oxygen bags come down you put the oxygen on you first you a over rling with the kid you gonna both pass out and die you love yourself first and I always consider love like if you drop a drop into water the ripples that go out is everybody else and you're that drop so the love starts with you and goes go outward so you have to love what you are the essence of what you are you have to look beyond the color you have to look into what do we want to accomplish what are our dreams and aspirations what are our children going to become what kind of world are we going to have that should determine how we proceed with the perpetuation of our cultures I would say what Indie said you are not your hair you are not your skin you are the soul that lives within she said that so eloquently and I believe it immensely there is so much power and so much magic in you there's so much Destiny there's so much charm in Charisma there's so much sexiness in you you just have to be that and live that and know that and and see it and trust it when people call me beautiful now I take it as a confident I truly understand what they looking at it's like when the minister said a black is not just a color but a Ence of who you are and who you will become so I take my color for like gold more than go I wouldn't change it for anything in the world now and I feel so happy that God Made Me my way what therapy taught me was to be self-aware and to take responsibility for what I know this is my load my baggage and I am still unloading it but it's much lighter my mommy and daddy say I'm beautiful rice dark girls dark dark dark girls rise [Music]