WEBVTT - Colorism and Racism w/ D. Channsin Berry 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:06.760 Positively gam is sponsored by Vasiline. See how they are 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:15.400 working towards equitable skin care for all at vasiline dot com. 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:19.480 Some way, dark women have really been made to feel 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:28.200 unworthy and unloved, unprotected, and the women we are supposed 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.720 to be the nurturers, I think we have damn near 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.479 destroyed the two things to give us life, the planet 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.599 and women. And until women are healed, we will not 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:47.960 be healed. As man. What's up, everybody? I'm Gammy and 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.600 this is positively gam. Every week I have raw, in 0:00:51.680 --> 0:00:56.120 depth conversations with inspirational people pushing for change on everything 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:01.680 from aging, relationships, politics, wellness, to the current issues facing 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.880 the black community. Today, I'm talking with my good friend 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.679 d Chants and Barry on colorism. And Jan is a 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:15.040 producer and director known for his documentaries Dark Girls and 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.360 Dark Girls Too. Both films document colorism within the African 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.440 American community, a subject that many African Americans are still 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:28.399 affected by today. Let's start with a definition of what 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:31.400 colorism is. And the reason why I want to do 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:35.560 that is because I in this conversation and I think 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.319 it will happen. There's such a thin line to me 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:44.240 between colorism and racism. So tell me what your definition 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:50.800 of colorism is. I think it's discrimination within people of 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:56.520 color against themselves. You know, the different hues light skin, 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.560 the verse dark skin, dark skin versus light skin, but 0:01:59.640 --> 0:02:04.480 at all starts with the rape of the slave. Well, 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:07.440 the definition that that I have in front of me 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.520 is a discrimination within a racial group that favorites people 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.440 with lighter skin over those over darker skin. But I 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:20.280 think we do need to understand that that discrimination goes 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:24.640 both ways. What was it about colorism that made you 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.359 decide that you needed to make a film about it? 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.440 Growing up in Eastars, New Jersey, and to build Duke, 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.600 who was my partner on the first one, grew up 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:38.200 in Poughkeepsie, New York, and both of us being too 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.639 dark skinned little boys for me, I was told, and 0:02:42.720 --> 0:02:47.520 I was too dark, too ugly. That left some scars 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:50.600 I was. I was never the first choice or the 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:56.200 second choice for the girls. So it was painful. So 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.919 that did a little bit of a job on my psyche. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:04.239 And myself was was quite low until I became a 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.280 senior in high school. And maybe because what I was 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:12.480 what I saw myself becoming, and that was already a 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:17.040 personality since my father kind of shut me down in 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.919 terms of speaking and having an opinion. So I was 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.919 very shy and quiet, and I didn't have a voice. 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.040 So I thought that radio might be the thing for 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:31.400 me because I could speak and nobody could see me, 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:36.720 so I could hide. But fast forward, you know, when 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:40.920 Bill and I came together and decided to do Dark 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:45.440 Girls one, we totally understood what it meant to be 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:50.480 looked upon in a negative way because of your skin complexion, 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:56.200 your hum But somewhere in these seventies eighties, it became 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:00.320 okay to be dark. People like Richard Rowntree and Wesley 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:05.440 Snipes and Eddie Murphy who hit the big screen and 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:09.600 made it cool and sexy to be dark. Sydney Portier 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:13.200 made it cool and sexy to be dark. But that 0:04:13.280 --> 0:04:16.000 didn't happen with dark skinned living. That was gonna be 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.880 my question because because you're a man, but you focused 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:24.440 on the experience from a woman's perspective, and and that 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:26.800 was the catalyst for that, because you felt like men 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:31.120 were accepted the dark skinned men. Yeah, we became you 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:32.960 know in the vogues, so to speak. You know, we 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:35.720 were we were cool, we were sexy, we we wanted, 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:41.080 you know, we were wanted, but for the duck skin female. 0:04:42.600 --> 0:04:47.159 The tragedy kept going on, the trauma kept going on, 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:52.520 the drama kept going on, the name calling kept going on. 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.200 What was that movie that Spike Lee did? School Days? 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.400 And and think about all the different like the pencil test, 0:05:02.960 --> 0:05:07.080 the snow and blow like that was snow and blow 0:05:07.279 --> 0:05:11.520 was a new description to be like light, light enough 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:16.080 where you be compared to snow, and then if your 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.280 hair can blow in the wind. I think when I 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:25.320 saw Dark Girls, the first one, the thing that was 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:32.080 really so painful was when the little girl was picking 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.839 out who was the smart girl and who was the 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.239 dumb girl, and who was the pretty girl and who 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:44.040 was the ugly girl. She was so young, she couldn't 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:49.120 have been more than four or five years old, and 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:55.200 that was ingrained in her already, So you know, what, 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:59.800 what chance did she have? And where does that all 0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.800 come from? When I think about it, Adrian is so 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:11.120 sad that children are hit with this, and I think 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:13.480 a lot of it begins at home, and then the 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:18.080 other it begins with the media and what these children 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.640 and what people are seeing on magazine covers. When you 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:26.039 don't see yourself on a magazine cover, right, I think 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:29.039 we have to even go back further than that, chan 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:33.760 because it was all part of the plan, you know 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:40.000 what I mean. We we we have been totally decimated 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:44.239 as a culture, as a people. We were brought over here, 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:51.599 robbed and stripped of everything everything everything we are, history, 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:57.839 our language, our families, our religion. We had nothing, and 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:02.040 we were made to believe that. So you talk about colonization, 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:09.040 it's not just physical colonization, it was cultural colonization because 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.880 we were meant to and taught to believe that in 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:18.560 order to elevate ourselves we had to be like the colonizer. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.840 We were taught to accept their language, their their way 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:28.800 of dress, their belief systems, all of that. And in 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:33.560 all of that, we were just made to feel like nothing. Yeah. 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:40.400 Beat into submission, lynched into submission, raped into submission, which 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.080 is how we got all those different hues in the 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.400 in the first place. I took a trip to Ghana 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.800 to visit the slave castles and we shot there for 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:55.080 Dark Girls too, And that's probably one of the deepest 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:58.040 trips I've ever taken in my life, was to go 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:03.840 to a slave gem where they held women and be 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:08.760 able to feel spirit in that place. Adrian just wore 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:11.800 me out and to doctor Sheryl Grills, who was my 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:15.400 consultant at the time, Yes, I love her. We had 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:23.000 this amazing voyage into the past. We got to the 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:26.280 door of no return when we left the Woman's dungeon 0:08:27.280 --> 0:08:30.880 and I I fell out. I couldn't reach the door, 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:35.160 and my crew was around me and they were emotionally moved. 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.920 I was weeping uncontrollably, but they picked me up, Adrian 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.679 and brought me to the door of no return. There 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.000 was a sick they would Shell was doing the ceremony 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:51.240 over me. And it was the first time that I've 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.679 experienced my birth and my death at the same time. 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:58.320 And it happened to be four hundred years last year. 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:04.680 That marked the slave trade from there to the rest 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:09.120 of the world, and I was back where I started from. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.760 So it was really deep. So I had to bring 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.600 that to the film, and it changed the whole film 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.520 of Dark Girls too. And when going through the other 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:22.960 parts of the dungeon and hearing the stories of the 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.760 rape of the African women and knowing that they would 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:32.880 take the women from the dungeons into this court in 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.839 the middle court. They had a something that you would 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.240 lift up and at the bottom was the ocean. So 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.439 they would take the women who were chained and dunk 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:46.520 them in the ocean. In that little opening. Duncan cleaned 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:53.960 them off. These were Dutch, Portuguese, French and British traders. 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.959 And then the babies that were born under that we're 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.000 left there and to be raised by people there on 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:04.600 the shores and started a whole another community of light 0:10:04.640 --> 0:10:09.560 skin next people. And that's how it started. We started 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:14.160 to start because of rape. Colorism started because they're right, 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:17.280 and we haven't gotten over that since because we never 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:21.320 got professional help for it. So we have division. Yeah, 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:23.679 you know, like we all know the stories of the 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.840 you know, the house slaves and then and the field slaves. 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.120 We we we all know that. And again that was 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:37.000 their way to keep us separated and fighting against each other. 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:42.200 We talked about colorism on Red Table as well. And 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.200 the reason why I wanted to talk about it again 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:48.560 is just because I just feel like there's not enough 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.679 hours in the day. You can't have too many conversations 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.280 about this. The last thing that we want to do 0:10:55.600 --> 0:11:00.400 is to find things that once again separate us and 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:07.400 divide us as a culture. So that's certainly not what 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.760 we what we're trying to do here. Actually it's just 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:17.440 the opposite, because I feel like if we keep shoving 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:22.160 this to the back, because it all, it all reflects 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:26.560 on how we communicate and how we treat one another 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:33.880 within our own race, and we we can't keep denying 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:40.800 that colorism exists. And I know in my family particularly, 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:43.679 you know, and I've shared this before with my with 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:50.600 my grandmother, she was light and we had neighbors that 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:55.120 were very, very dark, and she did not want us 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:59.520 to play with those children, knowing what you knew now 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:04.160 about colorism and you being a lighter in complexion at 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.160 this age that we are, do you do you have 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:12.559 issues with being lighter in complexion? Has never come up? Absolutely, 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:17.320 I definitely did. I definitely did. Growing up. I felt 0:12:17.400 --> 0:12:22.959 like during that time there there were like you would 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.160 you would get beat up just for being light, scared 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:31.960 with long hair, you know. I remember getting teased about 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:37.640 having white people in my family because our you know, 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:41.040 our background is Portuguese. I guess that's where my nose 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.400 comes from. I have a huge nose to me, And yeah, 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:48.880 I remember getting teased about that and really really feeling 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.319 some kind of way about it, like really arguing like, 0:12:53.800 --> 0:12:56.320 you know, I'm not white, you know, it's it's no 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:59.880 white people in my family, all of that, and just 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:04.680 really really being upset about it. And I even when 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.480 I talked to Jada, Jada mentioned that, you know, back 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:11.600 in the day when when we used to everybody, would 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.680 we be talking about, well, I got Indian in me 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:20.160 a Cherokee and all of that, as if just being 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:25.760 black was not good enough, like everybody. First of all, 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:28.679 let's be clear, everybody is mixed with something. If you've 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.319 been in here more than how mixed with something? That's right, 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.400 you're mixed with something. Okay, don't give a damn how 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.600 dark you are, how you are with something, thank you, 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:41.800 you know, but we've been brain wash to believe that 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:47.800 we're not good enough and being mixed having another bloodline 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:55.720 validates your worthiness. Wow. That that's a sad state of 0:13:55.760 --> 0:14:07.160 affairs right there. You know what I always thought, how 0:14:07.200 --> 0:14:10.880 can I and how could black people be racists? No 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:15.680 one who looks like me ever stopped a white person 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:19.320 from getting a job. Now, listen, when I when I 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:21.840 talk about white and black, I'm not talking about all 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.480 white people, and I'm not talking about all black people. 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:27.720 So let's get that straight. People like me have never 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:31.960 stopped a person who is white from getting a job, 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:38.800 being denied housing, medical care. Just it just wasn't us. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.440 We we didn't do that to people. It was done 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:46.480 to us. So what does it make one feel like 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:53.240 after years, hundreds of years of being denied? What would 0:14:53.240 --> 0:14:59.720 you feel like? And isn't it interesting that as damn 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.120 as as we are as a people, there's such a 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:08.720 stigma on seeking professional help for that, and we're probably 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:12.600 the ones that needed the most because we are so 0:15:12.720 --> 0:15:17.600 psychologically and emotionally damaged. I agree with you. I think 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:21.160 that everybody on the planet is on this on spectrum 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.239 of some type of mental illness, but especially African Americans. 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:27.680 That's one of the the things I'm tackling in my 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.040 next documentary called The Covered Mind, Mental health and the 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:35.800 Black community. I'd like to focus on on depression and anxiety, 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.000 especially right now. I think all of us are on 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:43.240 the edge and we don't know what that means because 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.280 you don't know what's going to trigger you you losing 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:49.760 or going off that edge? You know, is that the 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:54.320 incident into the word, is that another murder? You know, 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.120 we just don't know, Adrian. I don't give a damn 0:15:57.240 --> 0:16:00.200 how much money you make don't make, or what kind 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.280 of car you drive, or kind of how you live 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.600 in Kine you live in a black man is a 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:09.440 stop sign of woman being killed. Absolutely, and that's been 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:12.880 proven over and over again. I got a lot of questions, 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:17.920 you know, like how do we get here? And why 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.440 do you hate me so much? I've never done anything 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:25.960 to you, and it's and it seems shallow, like just 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:31.240 the color of your skin, because you know what, that's 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:36.680 something behind behind, because of fear and guilt, because you 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.280 know what you've done. You know, all folks used to 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:45.400 say how you start, it's how you end. And I 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.640 think about that when I think about the history of America. 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:55.200 If America started with the dregs of society coming from 0:16:55.200 --> 0:17:01.320 Europe and the Native Americans were already here here, and 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.399 you could say you come in and you discovered America 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.119 when they were people already here before. That's the first lie, 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:12.280 isn't it. But then when you have those kinds of 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:15.840 people coming over with that kind of mentality who don't 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:17.600 fit in over there, but they're trying to start a 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:20.840 new life over here. But they're the poorest of the poor. 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.440 They're criminals some of them, and they're you know, not 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:32.840 well to do people. That's the base of America. And 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.879 then and then you so you've got stolen land, and 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:42.680 then you bring in stolen people from Africa and you 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:48.240 tell them and you teach them what you want them 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:52.240 to know and what you want them to do exactly. 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.199 And there you go. Let's let's talk about that for 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:59.080 a minute. Because Dr Grills, you you spoke about Dr 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.800 Sheryl Ells, who was one of your consultants on both films, 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:09.359 I believe, and one of her statements that I remembered 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:15.160 so much is an African proverb. Until the lion has 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:20.159 a historian, the hunter will always be the hero. And 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:24.439 that really, really really stuck with me because we have 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:30.840 got to take responsibility for our history, for teaching and 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.159 learning our own history. We can't expect them to. You 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:39.040 see what they've taught us. Black children don't know African history. 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:44.720 They know African American history, which starts with slavery, right, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.240 because our history doesn't start with slavery. No, that's what 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:53.359 I'm saying. African history does not start with slavery. That's 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:57.280 one of the things, one of the most important things 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.280 that I think our children are missing. So we have 0:19:00.520 --> 0:19:06.800 no sense of pride, no sense of self self worth. Well, Adrian, 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:10.680 when you have when you have people who have been 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:16.520 called been identified five or six different identities over the 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.560 last four years, you have a problem. When you when 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:24.760 you've been colored, black, Negro, African American, African American, and 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.600 Nigga and and most of those things. Most of these 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.439 identities were not given to you. We're given to you 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:33.760 by people who don't look like you. There's a problem. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:38.240 So we're always having people identify us, and we have 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:42.320 to take that power back to we identified. We say 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:45.200 what we are, we say what we want, we asked 0:19:45.240 --> 0:19:48.920 and demand the things that we want for us. There 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:52.400 needs to be a black and black agenda. Oh say 0:19:52.440 --> 0:19:56.240 it again, say it again, only louder. There needs to 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.920 be a black agenda, and we need to hold these 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:03.280 politicians from the ground up to the White House and 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.960 giving us and making that and demanding this happens. Because 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:10.400 we've never had one. We've had civil rights, but civil 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:12.480 rights for everybody, but we forgot to ask for black 0:20:12.560 --> 0:20:15.600 rights as far as I'm concerned, and this is the time. 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:18.919 This is a crossroads right now in America and in 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:23.040 the world, and if we don't get this right, there's 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:25.560 gonna be some serious issues. We need to have a 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:29.320 black agenda, find out, find out exactly what we want 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:34.639 and how we wanted and when we wanted. Gather ourselves, 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:38.240 gather our minds, gather our spirits, gather our souls, gather 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:43.880 our people, come to a decision about that, and then 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:48.080 push the ejenta forward. I know, I so agree with you. 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:53.919 How do we get there? Who? Who are the decision 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:59.840 makers that would bring that agenda forward? I mean, how 0:20:59.840 --> 0:21:03.440 do we even get to an agenda? How do we 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:06.199 How do we come up with what the agenda is? 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:09.720 Who are the people that are going to come together 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:13.320 to do that. We don't have any leaders like we 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:18.720 had in the fifties, sixties, in part of the seventies. 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:23.359 And the reason why is that nobody wants to die 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:35.399 for that. I want to get back because we we 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.719 are supposed to be talking about colorism, and so I 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:46.240 want to get back to the women because some way, 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:54.120 dark women have really been made to feel unworthy and unloved, unprotected, 0:21:55.240 --> 0:22:00.840 and the women we are supposed to be the nurturers. 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:07.560 We are the ones that are going to nurture and 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:14.000 raise the children in the community. How can we teach 0:22:14.680 --> 0:22:20.359 our children to love themselves and love one another if 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:25.239 we don't feel love for ourselves. I say this all 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:30.640 the time. I think we men have damn near destroyed 0:22:30.640 --> 0:22:35.200 the two things that give us life, the planet and women. 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:39.240 And until women are healed, we will not be healed 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:43.880 as man. You know, women have always been by our 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:46.480 sides as black as black men. They've always been here. 0:22:46.640 --> 0:22:49.399 They've never you guys, have never gone anywhere, because if 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.720 you had, we wouldn't be here. You have been our 0:22:52.720 --> 0:23:00.359 secret weapons. I don't want to deny the experience that 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:08.480 dark women have by generalizing and making it all women, 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:13.840 because I really, I really feel, really really strongly about 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:20.359 this and how colorism has affected us, and like even 0:23:20.520 --> 0:23:23.680 in you see it more in the Third world countries 0:23:24.080 --> 0:23:27.199 than you do here in the United States, but just 0:23:27.200 --> 0:23:31.720 just the use of like the bleaching creams in media 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:40.359 in Hollywood, strongly strongly in hip hop, where when you 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:45.760 look at the videos, all you see are the light 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:51.880 skinned women with long hair, you know, as the fly women, 0:23:52.119 --> 0:23:58.200 as the love interest as the lead. My grandson did 0:23:58.200 --> 0:24:05.080 a video recently and he used a young lady who 0:24:05.160 --> 0:24:09.320 had the afro as his lead. I was so excited. 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:14.439 I was so excited and proud about that it should 0:24:14.480 --> 0:24:17.720 not be that that should be the norm. But it 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:23.040 was not the norm, and it stood out that's a problem. 0:24:23.160 --> 0:24:27.440 If light skin and long hair blowing in the wind 0:24:27.720 --> 0:24:34.760 is the only thing that you identify as beautiful, we 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:42.199 are so brainwashed with the European standards of beauty and 0:24:42.320 --> 0:24:45.240 this then just start. I mean, like this has been 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:49.640 going on for years, and we do seem to right 0:24:49.840 --> 0:24:55.960 now be in a position where black is beautiful and 0:24:56.400 --> 0:25:01.040 natural hair and darker skin tone are coming to the 0:25:01.200 --> 0:25:06.520 forefront and being looked upon more positively. But the thing 0:25:06.720 --> 0:25:10.560 is that these moments and time just kind of come 0:25:10.600 --> 0:25:13.160 and go. It seems like they don't stick and stay, 0:25:13.200 --> 0:25:15.159 Like we went through that back in the sixties with 0:25:15.320 --> 0:25:17.840 black you know, James Brown, I'm black, and I'm proud, 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:21.119 but but it didn't stay. It didn't stick and stay, 0:25:21.520 --> 0:25:25.200 and and that's my concern about this. When I looked 0:25:25.200 --> 0:25:27.720 at dark girls too, when I watched that, I was 0:25:28.000 --> 0:25:30.439 blessed enough to be able to come to that and 0:25:30.600 --> 0:25:35.679 it was powerful. But it's saddened me that the scene 0:25:35.720 --> 0:25:41.360 with the girls from E c R. El Camino Real, 0:25:41.520 --> 0:25:44.480 which is right down the street from me, those young 0:25:44.560 --> 0:25:49.200 ladies were in their crying. That's the scene that still 0:25:49.240 --> 0:25:54.240 gets to me today. Absolutely pain for to watch, pain 0:25:54.320 --> 0:25:56.879 for to watch. We set the cameras up, the girls 0:25:56.880 --> 0:26:03.320 came in all shades between ages of fourteen and seventeen 0:26:03.400 --> 0:26:07.160 years of age. But what came out of that conversation 0:26:07.240 --> 0:26:11.399 with these young girls was life changing for me. Some 0:26:11.520 --> 0:26:13.960 of the emotions that were brought up by these young 0:26:14.000 --> 0:26:17.880 girls about colorism and being dark skinned, and being late 0:26:17.920 --> 0:26:22.920 skin and being not accepted and thinking of committing suicide, 0:26:23.080 --> 0:26:27.040 and it just broke my heart. I have a hard 0:26:27.080 --> 0:26:31.800 time watching that scene in the movie today, but it 0:26:31.920 --> 0:26:35.120 moved me. It moved me, and that the fact that 0:26:35.200 --> 0:26:39.360 these babies are still going through this today, it's unthinkable. 0:26:41.359 --> 0:26:47.320 And they were crying about their experience, particularly the dark 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:52.080 skinned girls were crying about the experiences that they were 0:26:52.160 --> 0:26:56.240 having with their classmates and and the way they were 0:26:56.280 --> 0:27:02.679 treated and discriminated against, not be popular just based on 0:27:03.160 --> 0:27:09.520 pair skin color. And how is it that companies are 0:27:09.600 --> 0:27:13.760 able to market these bleaching creams that are so detrimented, 0:27:13.840 --> 0:27:19.680 that are carcinogenic. Quite frankly, in these third world countries, 0:27:19.720 --> 0:27:21.879 how are they because they don't even offer that ship 0:27:21.920 --> 0:27:24.960 here they cut to the point where they offered in 0:27:25.240 --> 0:27:30.080 the Congo in other places, also also in India and 0:27:30.119 --> 0:27:34.280 also in China, right, because that that's another thing that 0:27:34.320 --> 0:27:37.800 we can't we cannot forget this is we're making it 0:27:37.920 --> 0:27:42.000 sound like it is just African American issue, a black issue. 0:27:42.119 --> 0:27:50.320 Colorism is a global issue. Globally around the world, Darker skin, 0:27:51.200 --> 0:27:57.199 darker hues are looked upon as negatively. So one of 0:27:57.240 --> 0:28:03.000 the questions I asked what I was in Ghana of 0:28:03.080 --> 0:28:06.400 one of the sisters who I interviewed, who had been 0:28:06.440 --> 0:28:09.960 bleaching her skin and her skin had turned dark blotches 0:28:10.000 --> 0:28:12.399 all over her body. I asked her she did she 0:28:12.440 --> 0:28:15.520 believe in God? She said, of course I do. And 0:28:15.560 --> 0:28:19.080 I said, well, if you believe in God, do you 0:28:19.160 --> 0:28:21.679 think God made a mistake when he when he made you? 0:28:22.320 --> 0:28:25.240 And she could completely silent and then she said no. 0:28:25.600 --> 0:28:27.040 So I said, well, so why are you trying to 0:28:27.119 --> 0:28:31.679 change God's beauty and gift? You have that melanie in 0:28:31.720 --> 0:28:35.000 your skin to protect you. My dear, You're beautiful, so 0:28:35.000 --> 0:28:38.200 why would you want to take that away. Let's talk 0:28:38.240 --> 0:28:42.400 a little bit about how we can heal as a community. 0:28:42.440 --> 0:28:45.280 And one of the things that we talked about that 0:28:45.440 --> 0:28:51.720 I feel extremely strong about is educating our children. What 0:28:52.120 --> 0:28:54.800 are some of the things that that stand out for 0:28:54.880 --> 0:29:00.120 you chan as as a way towards healing. Recognize and 0:29:00.240 --> 0:29:03.640 that you have an issue. It's the first thing talking 0:29:03.680 --> 0:29:08.520 about it with someone and then talking about it with 0:29:08.640 --> 0:29:12.880 someone who's a professional who can possibly helped you out 0:29:13.440 --> 0:29:17.720 to get through this situation. All kinds of frapies available, 0:29:18.160 --> 0:29:20.920 But you know, we've given so much away of ourselves 0:29:20.960 --> 0:29:24.160 aching for many, many, many many years. What do you 0:29:24.200 --> 0:29:30.760 mean by that? Sometimes it feels like that black people 0:29:30.840 --> 0:29:35.400 create and white people conquer. Yeah, we create and they take, 0:29:36.680 --> 0:29:40.760 they monetize. Yeah, And we could say that with jazz, 0:29:41.400 --> 0:29:43.240 we could say that with fashion, We can say that 0:29:43.320 --> 0:29:45.800 with a whole bunch of things that we that black 0:29:45.840 --> 0:29:51.200