Artwork by Anika Chatradhi
About this Episode
In this episode, we offer candid conversation about the lingering scourge of colorism among melanated people, both here in the United States and across the globe. This esoteric scale of beauty extends much further into areas of economic and social mobility, self-worth and community acceptance. Our guests ask you, the audience, to deeply consider how we–as individuals and on the institutional level–must take responsibility for ending this defeatist practice and do the hard work of healing the generational trauma that colorism causes.
In this Episode
Rain Pryor
“I can only speak for myself as a biracial woman. I’m not necessarily African-American looking, but I’m not white looking. Hollywood and the media kept telling me my beauty wasn’t OK, and if I changed it…made my nose slimmer and this or that, then I would be accepted and beautiful.”
Dr. Sarah L. Webb
“On the interpersonal level, I think not just having conversations about colorism, but the harder conversation about how I have contributed to colorism or how I have betrayed you personally as my friend, my daughter, my parent and acknowledging that before you ask for forgiveness.”
Yvonne Latty
“My mother is Dominican and on the lighter end of things. My dad was from Jamaica and he was biracial, but his mother was dark-skinned. I’m actually the darkest one in my immediate family. I definitely feel othered as an Afro-Latina and invisible in a lot of Latino spaces as well.”
Toni Blackman
“As a dark-skinned African-American woman, I’ve traveled to 48 countries teaching and performing, and there are places where people just want to touch your skin and your hair. And no matter how comfortable you are in your dark skin, there will be someone who will remind you that you are dark.”
Rema Webb
“Why do you even have to say non-traditional casting? There’s a current Broadway production where the men are all darker-skinned. But then when you look around at the women, they’re all light or looking if they’re mixed. Did it just work out this way? This colorism thing is very real.”
