September 16, 2003 @ 12:27 pm

It's Harder When You're Darker

Tasha M. Martinez

Turn on the TV and flip to your favorite music video station.

I think of Spike Lee's School Daze. Will there every be a sequel where the dark-skinned women are the sought after ones? The idolized? That movie touched upon the idea of racism within the race, which is still very much an issue between blacks, especially in entertainment today. I can see why so many little dark-skinned girls feel left out and uncelebrated. Because in entertainment, we are not the celebrated women. At a self-esteem developmental age, young girls start wishing they were something they are not, instead of loving who they are for what they are. Regardless of what anyone says, beauty IS only skin deep, and I know this. Beauty is not just one thing. God made us all beautiful and we are beautiful because we are different. Tell each side of the story. Show each shade of beauty. The other day, I was watching VH1's Driven on Beyonce'. Ok, it's a known fact. She is a beautiful, talented, young black woman. Something her younger sister Solange said in the documentary caught my attention. She basically said that Beyonce' has always been "hated on." She then added that you take a lot of slack for being a black girl with light skin and long hair. I feel it is the contrary. That may indeed be the case for little seven-year-old girls playing together and not liking each other. But I feel that dark-skinned black woman take slack for NOT being light-skinned with long hair. It's not the other way around. Why would you take slack? You are what the entertainment industry sees as a beautiful black woman. Hearing Tupac say, "The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice," I'm sure made a lot of women feel good. But B2K wants to go on trips "with chicks that look like Alicia Keys." This is what my three little sisters hear and see today in 2003. Now don't get me wrong, I come from a family who instilled great self-confidence in me, and I have a mother who always taught me to love and respect myself because I am beautiful inside and out. She taught me to be proud of who I am, so I know that it starts at home for everyone. No one likes feeling left out though, especially when in most cases, those doing the berry picking are pots calling the kettle black. Basically, I feel it stinks the way dark-skinned women are portrayed, or are not portrayedÂ…more like betrayed. Is it that people have forgotten where they came from? Who they came from? If I started seeing chocolate beauties in music video's now I'd think something was wrong because it is so out of the ordinary. I just feel like every form of media plays a major role in shaping our children's lives. Imagine for just one moment that your pre-teen daughter comes to you feeling down because everyone on TV and in magazines that is classified as beautiful is the total opposite of her. This Essay Was Submitted By A VIBE Online User

Article tags: It's, Harder, You're, Darker 

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