Dark Girls is a documentary exploring the deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black Americ

“Dark Girls: Real Women

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.

As I sipped my tea and settled down in front of my laptop, I mindlessly scrolled through Netflix (don’t pretend you’ve never done it), which was chock-full of thrillers and romantic comedies I knew would simply fill the time but not offer much more.  Suddenly, I stumbled upon the following cover:

a documentary titled “Dark Girls: Real Woman, Real Stories.”  Now, this cover caught my attention not only because of the title, as, frankly, I myself am a “dark girl,” but also because of the cover art — the face of a woman that was divided into various skin colors.  Dark Girls was a fascinating, comprehensive documentary on colorism, past and present, in the United States and around the world.

Colorism is defined as prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.  It is a very disappointing phenomena which originates far back into history, but is still rampant today on both national and global levels.  I believe colorism predominantly originates not from individual racism, but from structural racism — society’s propagation of associating fair skin with pulchritude, intelligence, and superiority, and equating dark skin with ugliness, dumbness, and unworthiness.

You may be thinking, “Wow, those are some pretty polarized words — it’s not that big of a deal.”  Although I would disagree, I wouldn’t blame you if this thought crossed your mind.  In present day, colorism has become covert in various ways, stealthily permeating our culture and psyches.  For example, in India people are still encouraged to have light complexions.  During my visits there I would see armies of “Fair & Lovely” tubes and jars, a popular brand of skin-lightening beauty products, line the shelves of store’s beauty departments.  The following is one of Fair & Lovely’s advertisements an culture.