Next week during the International Black Film Festival the documentary Dark Girls will be premiered. This film is focused on divulging the discrimination that dark-skinned black women experience within society. The women who are featured in this film discuss incidences of how being dark-skinned have affected their life's being adolescents, having relationships, and just being a part of the community. One woman who was interviewed said that when she was younger, she asked her mother to pour bleach into her bath so she “could escape the feelings that [she] had about not being as beautiful, and loveable”. The prejudice that these women have faced within society show that not only is racism a progressing issue, but also the shade of the race within a culture creates segregation. Another scene showed in the preview of the documentary was a little girl who was part of an experiment showing that young children are aware of racial differences. The clip showed a researcher with pictures of dolls who had skin tones ranging from light to dark asking a little black girl a series of questions. When the researcher asked the black girl who the pretty and smart doll was, the girl would point to the doll with the fairest skin. The researcher asked why, and the girl responded because she is white. When the researcher asked who the ugly and dumb doll was, the girl pointed to the doll with the darkest tone saying it was because she is black. The documentary is raising awareness how racism is not only still prevalent, but also has developed into discriminating against the ethnic group within the race.
From watching the 9 minute preview of the documentary, I thought it showed how extensive racism is within society. It is important to address and stand up against these issues if the world wants to gradually alleviate the racial tension among and within different races. The issue of shadism has been spreading throughout other countries such as India were skin lightening products are very popular. One way India promotes these skin creams is by having a Facebook app that allows the user to whiten their skin for their profile picture. I find these products to be a disgrace because this is giving the message that it is only acceptable to light skinned within society. It is vital to recognize this discrimination because there should be no race or skin color that is better than any other. Our society needs to be accepting of the different cultures if this type of racism will ever cease.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/04/racism-skin-colour-shades-prejudice
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