WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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- It's something that I
don't usually talk about

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because I'm afraid that I'm
making people uncomfortable.

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It's something that affects me

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in almost every aspect of life.

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(gentle pleasant music)

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(whooshing)

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(hinges creak)

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- There's something about having
dark skin on a woman's body

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that shapes the way she
moves through the world.

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There's something about having
darker skin on a male body

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that shapes the way in which
he moves through the world.

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It has real life stakes.

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- From what I've seen growing up,

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dark skin equates to being poor,

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- dirty,

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- rat shit,

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- they tend to be the bad
guys in Tyler Perry movies,

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- straight from the border,

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- that doesn't even make any sense.

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I'm not deemed as beautiful,
therefore I am not beautiful,

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and those two are not
really mutually exclusive.

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- Could it be that something
as early as colonization

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or slavery is primarily responsible

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for our beauty standards today?

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We're talking about who works in the field

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and who works in the house.

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We're also talking about rape,
the rape of slaves to produce

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people who were known as
mulattoes, or mixed race.

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These standards of beauty travel.

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Eurocentric standards of beauty travel.

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- In the Dominican
society and our culture,

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they have a phrase that's like,
(speaks in foreign language)

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advancing the Dominican population

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and making sure we're going
into how they say the better.

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If you're lighter,
you're bettering the race

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and you're bettering the island,

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versus if you're just being you.

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- I would get called the blackness.

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One joke that really
stuck with me was like,

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oh, Edgar's so black that
when he leaves a car,

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the check engine light turns on.

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That was a reference to my
skin being as dark as oil.

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I felt ugly being of a darker skin tone,

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so I tried to gel my hair,

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or I started listening
to skater punk music.

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So I tried, culturally, to lighten myself,

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if that makes sense.

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- I went on a trip to Korea with my mom.

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Some woman walked up to
my mom, and she asked,

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"Why is your daughter so dark?"

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In Korea, you have to be pale,

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and I almost felt like a foreigner

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and not so much Korean anymore.

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- When we turn off the lights, they say,

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"Oh, Selorm, where did you go?"

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Or, "Oh, you're really pretty
for a dark-skinned girl."

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Are you saying that my
race and just the fact

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that I am black, is that
not attractive in general?

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- I remember one time that I wanted to be

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an angel in a parade.

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At that time, they were like
kind of racist, you know.

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They didn't like black
people to be angels,

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and my mommy got kind of freak out.

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She was going like, "Please don't,

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"you cannot be an angel because
they gonna laugh at you."

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I said, "But mommy, I am an angel."

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And finally, I was an angel.

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And I was the only black
angel walking in the street.

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And my mommy was so proud
about it, and I was proud too.

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- My mom started buying me a
cream called Fair & Lovely.

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I was in third grade when I started using

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(laughs) bleaching creams.

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And the whole general idea was,

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if I'm lighter, I'll have a better life.

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I'll find somebody that's
gonna love me. (laughs)

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There'd still be light and dark patches

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on my body and my face. (sighs)

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It was painful, it would hurt,

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and I started breaking out in bad rashes,

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and no one said anything.

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I had to stop it myself.

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- How do we fix this?

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We think critically about colorism.

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We think about where it began,

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and where it begins and ends with us.

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- I think change starts with
providing more diversity.

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You know, providing more examples

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of people that look like you.

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- If you look at telenovelas,
they usually cast

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the dark-skinned person as the villain,

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and if you never met a Latino before,

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you're gonna somewhat think that.

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- So in Japanese media,
I honestly don't think

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I've ever seen a darker-skinned female.

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I think it would be nice to see a change.

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- It needs to start
within our own culture,

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where we can't have Will Smith

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filling in every slot for black people.

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Giving dark-skinned people roles

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that are not only supporting
roles but leading roles.

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- I mean a legit, badass,
007 Latino James Bond,

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that'd be pretty dope, I'm just sayin'.

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- If I could give a
message to someone like me,

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- who's kind of looking at
himself and feeling insecure,

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- just know, baby, you beautiful.

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- Believe in yourself.

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- Just be you.

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- You are perfect just the way you are.

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That's something that
no one has ever told me.

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- And your skin color is a gift.

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It's never been a blemish or a problem.

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- When you grow up and
you look in the mirror,

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and you're proud of who you
are, it will make sense,

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and all the other voices will go away.

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And all that's gonna be left is you.

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(gentle pleasant music)

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(whooshing)

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(hinges creak)