The dark/light debate

A recent Tyra episode caught my attention. It was about black women who bleach their skin using various methods so that they can appear lighter skinned because that is seen as more appealing. Lil Kim is one of the most famous faces to fall victim to skin bleaching (which by the way is incredibly unsafe and it makes women look lighter in a weird, almost grey way).

Then there are the made-up terms to label women: “yellowbone” and “redbone”. These are the categories that some women are forced into in the black community based on how light they are.
I’ll define them for those of you who are confused:

A ‘yellowbone’ is a very light skinned black woman… Famous examples: Beyonce & Lauren London.

A ‘redbone’ is a bi racial woman (half black and half something else- Asian, White… etc) Famous examples: Alicia Keys & Amerie.

As far as I’ve heard though, there isn’t a set term for dark-skinned or medium skinned black women.

This brings me to my point: why is it that in almost any country where there is a black community, people always admire the lighter skinned women? Music videos are always parading the light skinned women ‘at the front’ and black celebrity men always have light skinned women on their arms. E.g. Kanye West and Amber Rose or Lil Wayne and... well… any of his baby-mommas. In this post light skinned refers to both “yellow and redbones”.

Very often when I’m on twitter for long periods of time, I see men and women proudly use these terms and mostly (if not always) if someone is ‘yellowbone’ or ‘redbone’, they’re said to be the most beautiful girls around. Even if you look at the black women in Hollywood movies (particularly ‘cross-over’ stars that are in white movies) they are always light-skinned and often have sharper features: Zoe Saldana, Thandie Newton, Halle Berry and even Queen Latifah (although she’s broken the weight barrier).

So many times around Joburg, I’ve seen VERY average-looking ‘yellowbones’ and ‘redbones’ who are touted as the “phlyest things” around town simply because of their ‘light skinnededness’.

Even if you look at ‘the hottest’ famous women (Rihanna, Halle Berry, Beyonce, Cassie… etc) they are all light skinned. And when they do photo shoots for products or magazines, there are always complaints from a select few, that the woman/ model has been photo-shopped to appear even lighter, so that they appeal more to the wider market. Why is it that dark-skinned = unmarketable and “unpretty”? Yes there are some gorgeous light-skinned girls and this post isn’t in anyway trying to undermine them or say that they’re all ugly but I’m just trying to understand why they are celebrated so vehemently when other black girls are over-looked because they have more pigment.

Women like Kelly Rowland and Gabrielle Union are not nearly as famous or seen to be as beautiful as their light skinned counterparts when in some cases, they are actually better-looking. And of course the same is not true for men because some of the most popular (in fame and looks) men are dark: Idris Elba, Reggie Bush, Kanye and Kobe Bryant.

Before it was a problem of models being unattainably skinny, now many fashion houses and magazines are making an effort to promote ‘plus-size’ and healthier models. Now though, it’s sad days for dark-skinned children right now, as I can only see this phenomenon getting worse. How are they supposed to feel when they don’t see women who look like them being celebrated for being beautiful?

Food for thought