Transcription (I appologise for any errors); caution contains N word.

Each paragraph is a woman speaking except where noted.

Rise dark girls
music
I can remember being in the bathtub asking my mum to put bleach in the water so that my skin would be lighter and so that I could escape the feelings I had about not being as beautiful, as acceptable, as loveable.

if we're all just hanging arround and a dark-skinned will pass by "oh well, she's pretty for a dark skinned girl" and like what's that supposed to mean?

I used to wish that I could wake up one day lighter or wash my face and think that it will change. I thought it was dirt, and I tried to clean it off but it wouldn't come off

just doing something small as standing infront of the class to do show and tell i wouldn't look up I wouldn't make eye contact I would hold my toy really tight because I knew my toy loved me even if they didn't

here come's blackie. he come's tar baby. I remember one in particular they used to say "you stayed in the oven too long" that was really hurtful

they would do it every single day without let-up, on the playground, in the classroom in the cafeteriere, just constantly you got it so i didn't really have high self esteem

it was so damaging, it made us feel like we weren't wanted that we were less than

my mother and her friend were driving somewhere and she's bragging "my daughter's beautiful, she's got great eyelashes, the cheakbones, great lips... she was going on and she adds could you imagine if she had any lightness in her skin at all she'd be gorgeous" and just that last little part, all that pride that I had about having her brag on me just disipated. And I think that that moment is when I really became aware.

Teacher + child
She'll be the smart child, and why is she the smart child? because she is white. Ok show me the dumb child, and why is she the dumb child? because she black. Show me the ugly child, and why is she ugly? because she black. Show be the good looking child. and why is she good looking? because she light skinned

I think I remember most saying that y'know if I had a little girl I'd just I didn't want her to be dark. I remember saying that. I didn't want her to be dark like me.

When you're around so many people that you trust y'know, simply because you're looking at another black person you're thinking oh they're black I'm black they're not going to have anything derogatory to say about me but when you live so many years with people have certain judgements relative to your skin tone you start to believe it

A friend of mine had recently had a baby. It was my first time seeing the baby and the baby was beautiful. and she said "girl, I'm so glad she didn't come out dark". and when hse said it it felt like a dagger, like someone took a dagger and stuck it in my heart, because I was used to expecting hearing things like that from other races but this was someone I considered to be my sister.

Skin colour amongst the black community is a huge issue in our time

this is not a phemenon it's just a reality in the black culture

I believe we didn't like ourselves. I'm sure it started with slavery but we kept the vicious cycle going.

a man- y'know dark skinned, I don't really like dark skinned women, they look funny beside me, I'd rather not date a dark skinned woman. Q - you'd rather light skinned girl M - yeah, light skinned pretty girl, long hair don't care

My experience with black men has been I'm exotic, beautiful, they're fascinated by me. Behind closed doors. But when it came to dating, coming to the front door, taking me out in public. Doesn't happen.

The darker you are, it's more of a sexual approach, a relationship without much meaning approach than it is an I could get married to that women and have a few kids.

All my lighter friends always had those boyfriends, they were always seen together. But if someone wanted to date me it was, um, I'll meet you after school. It was more of a hidden thing. Nobody ever wanted to just be with you

There are places I've gone that they're just a lot of whites and they'd tell me "you have such beautiful skin" is that your hair, did you dye, is that your natural colour. It's really questionable to me, why is it that they think I'm so beautiful and my own people don't see any beauty in me at all.

I was once on CNN debating the whole controversy about Beyonce's L'Oriel ad. When a picture of her just in motion was placed against a picture of her in print, everyone said "oh there's no way that they didn't lighten her skin". I don't want to believe that that is still happening

men, quote from chameleon - you got that good hair too/ you like what/ I like girls with that light complection look/ you're a moron/ I can't help it/ being a moron/ yeah that too

several years ago I had decided I wanted to ,uh, wear a 'fro. I remember one young lady said to me " if I had hair that looked like that she would have to cover it" well you take the perm out of your hair that's exactly what it looks like. And she said she had never seen her natural hair because from she was small her mom always had her put something in it.

it doesn't look clean, I feel like; it looks like nasty almost if you just roll out of bed and your hairs like nappy it's the most disgusting unclean thing

I've had issues with having longer hair since a small child um and it did come from black kids

being in school there was just such a separation among girls who were lighter skinned and girls who were darker skinned

It was really bad because in jr. high. the Nair some people I knew drew walls of it in their hair just to take it out. So we were separated and it caused a lot of friction amongst children which now as an adult just seesms stupid to me

The racism that we have as a people amongst ourselves is a direct backlash of slavery. the house niggers vs the field niggers. the paper bag rule that if you're darker than a paper bag y'know. and the whole thing is like that we as a people were so disenfranchised that we adopted some of that, a lot of that.

I think the problems within the black community has to do more with our lack of unity. We don't really see each other as being part of the community. Partly because we don't have a language. We don't have something tangible apart from our skin colour to say I'm part of you you're part of me. in the black community it's like "I'm not black I'm caribean" or "I'm not black I'm Haitian". You're black

Rise dark girls. Rise.

Powerful video.

Kanazawa’s article was stupid and badly researched. I'm not to worried about his use of 'objective' as a term though, as he was stating that 'subjectively' black women considered themselves attractive. They are the subjects of their own attractiveness consideration.

In that case, the opposites standpoint is the 'objective' one. Considered as an object of view by an outside (though clearly NOT 'neutral') observer, did that person consider the person attractive. Its shorthand for 'outside person' vs inside person.

folks use that kind of talk all the time: the whole "porn/advertizing/tv/culture objectifies women" thing is using that understanding of objective.

But his article was awful. He didn't even link to any studies to back up his claim that black women have higher testosterone levels. Specious.

Here's a link to a post written by Andrea (AJ) Plaid and reader comments about the "Dark Girl" film clip [the actual film isn't scheduled to be aired until Fall or Winter 2011].

http://www.racialicious.com/2011/05/31/dark-girls-a-review-of-a-preview-culturelicious/\\

And here's an excerpt from that post about possible concerns about the "Dark Girl" film:

"As Arielle said in [a facebook] thread, “While I don’t want to shake the finger at something “positive,” if the director still is in the editing process…It’s important to also show dark girls who were empowered and managed to build strong self-esteem despite the overwhelming negative opinions of our community and society at large.” I responded, “ But what you’re saying makes me wonder if 1) the doc makers (Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry) even interviewed anyone with an “empowered” perspective or 2) when this clip was edited for the ‘ad campaign’ the thought was ‘let’s use the trope of the ‘unloveable, pitiable dusky Negress’ to get the buzz going and, eventually, to get people to watch it.”...

-snip-

Colorism isnt something that Black people created, but something originating from non-Black people that Black people bought in to and perpetuate. But I don't think it's intrinsically wrong to prefer a particular skin color over another. On one level it might be light preferring the color green over the color pink. However, preferences for skin color are usually very problematic as those preferences have long been and still continue to be part of the plethera of messages and actions in this nation and in other nations that devalue Black people and value White people [and hence give more value to people who look like White people].

That said, it should be noted that "colorism" among Black people can also favor dark skinned Black people over light skinned Black people. Colorism may also be different for males than for females. For example, some African Americans have believed and still believe that light skinned Black males aren't as strong and masculine as dark skinned Black males.

For the record, I'm a woman who some Black people have referred to [and I have self referred to] as having "regular" brown skin, which I believe usually means African Americans who have a skin color that is lighter than what is called "dark skinned" and/but that isn't as light as the range of complexions that many Black people refer to as being "light skinned". Plus my skin color isn't exactly what Black people generally refer to as being "redbone", though I've been called that. My mother is dark skinned, and my father and my faternal twin sister were lighter than me. My ex-husband is darker than me and my children range in skin colors from relatively light to relatively dark. Our extended families have/had people with a wide range of skin colors [which btw is one of the good things that was depicted by "The Cosby Show"].

The issues of colorism in my family [both childhood and present day] largely come from outside my family. As such [as can be seen by my comments] colorism among Black people is something that I'm quite interested in and something that I work to raise consciousness about with the intent that it will be eradicated or greatly lessened.

the fact that a so-called "psychologist" even thought of this issue (black women considered unattractive) and even had the nerve to write it, is a very serious indication of major problems we have in our society regarding race, colorism, and beauty.

btw @ Naath: thank you for writing the transcript for us Deaf and Hard of Hearing folks. I had seen the video making rounds on Facebook but no one had bothered to transcript it.

I feel like I'm tired of seeing blackness as pathology. I'm tired of the way in which anti-black racism (and sexism) are not part of the conversation around black women, beauty and skin colour. In the end it comes over as a pathology of the black community itself, completely divorced from anti-black racism. Also, it is taken for granted that being beautiful is important for women. I feel like it falls short of where this conversation needs to go...if at all we need to be having this conversation again...for the hundredth time. What does this all mean in the context of the rise of neo-liberalism and the increasing requirement of an "entrepreneurship of the self"---the self marketed as product---what does that mean for black women?

I used to show A Question of Color http://newsreel.org/video/A-QUESTION-OF-COLOR in my class before it got to be a little too dated. You can also get a good class discussion on the social construction of race going by bringing up the Willie Lynch letter. As bad as Kanazawa's article was, it's a perfect piece to use as a "teachable moment."

While it's not controversial to conclude that societal attitudes can shape our values, I don't think we'd all just be valueless vessels living in harmony if only the media didn't portray blacks negatively and whites positively. Just because our beliefs are inseparable from social constructions and origins, we shouldn't then foolishly conclude that they're nothing more than that.

A very problematic aspect of this video for me is that it doesn't make the leap of addressing WHY the internalized belief that they are unattractive is so utterly damaging for these women. From what I can see in the trailer, the film takes for granted the fact that a woman's self worth is inextricably tied to the degree to which she is "attractive" and desirable.

In other words, the issue being exposed and explored in the film is how damaging it is for dark-skinned women to be deemed "undesirable" and "ugly." The issue left ignored is why it is damaging for ALL women to be implicitly and explicitly told that their value as human beings lies in their desirability. The fact that society values and devalues women based on attractiveness provides the context from which the destructiveness of deeming dark-skinned women "ugly" emerges.

I couldn't help but notice that both of the producers are men...

I wish I could use material like this and the video linked by Mary in my classroom I feel I cannot as a white person. My starting place would be such ignorance.

But I hear this classification of skin happening all the time and it makes me hurt for my kids that are dismissed as too dark. I feel that they don't even consider the feelings of others as they classify; I love that this video shows the long-term effects of community hate language transformed into internal hate language.

I want my students to be more aware, more outraged, closer knit. But as a cis hetero Caucasian female I feel that I am to be silent because anything else is co-opting or lecturing or whitesplaining...

Del Tha Funkee Homosapien. In the song he bashes light-skinned girls in professing his love of dark-skinned girls but if you stick with it he explains that it's only women who think they are superior because of their skin. At the end his friend says some terrible things about dark-skinned girls but Del defends them. I love that guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U93d1LAcApI

You are all beautiful !!!

Oh, for God's sake. There has and always will be different standards of beauty within different cultures and countries. I grew up red headed with freckles. Oh boy, the teasing I took! So what? I got over it. Got married to a terrific guy who liked the way I looked. If others didn't, I considered it their problem, not mine.

As a reader above said, good luck with this Utopian world social engineers are trying to create. Stop whining, people. Make the most of what you have. Nobody in the world is guaranteed the right to not have their feelings hurt.

Like it or not, there are differences under the skin. Shape of brow, shape of cheekbones, width of jaw. By those objective standards most black women look more 'masculine' than white women do. The researchers have defined those characteristics objectively and they can be quantified in physical measurements that do not include skin color.

The research isn't new. Face merging software will show you the basics of it, how merging many female faces tends toward a feminine ideal that is hyper-feminine while merging many male faces tends toward hyper-masculine... virtually a neanderthal.

Not liking the results of objective research does not make it less objective. Do not dismiss this as being due to skin color when the results can be shown objectively from methods that don't involve skin tone at all.

Well Jam, research by whom? White bread scientists? Every study ever made has built in bias... as tetchy as 'averages'. What is feminine to a white man may be different to whatever other cultures mores might be... as Annette said.

Although lets face facts, being a redhead might be slightly problematic for a white girl, but it is NOT what so many black or other dark skinned peoples have to live with day in and day out... and even within then own culture. Prejudice is alive and well... it's simply gone into a somewhat muffled closet, with superficial extenuating excuses in the light of day.

It is inappropriate to judge one cultures idealizations with another or what's worse, having a black culture judge within their own race to a white standard... which is what I think has happened over the last 100 yrs, and I find that very sad. I am horrified by how much harm has been done to these women through no fault of their own.

Whoever you are and of whatever race, whether female or male... be proud of yourselves as individuals; for your accomplishments, your true strengths, even your particular quirks.... and to hell with what others think. This is a battle that at some point everyone of whatever color has to confront to become aware of their proper place in their own hearts beyond the 'norm'... be better than that... you can be, choose it.

Don't allow the world to define you or confine you with their ignorance.

BLACK WOMEN YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL! YOU ARE ALL OF THAT! YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT NO ONE ELSE HAS! DON'T GET RID OF IT JUST TO FIT IN A SOCIETY THAT ARE LACK THERE OF! I have to admit, if I had read those topics this last week, that would have torn me up inside! Now that I know my Afrakan black history, I am PROUD to be Black. People know your history! There is a lot that was not told about you! Once you find the truth you can be free! This nonsense is a strategy to keep you from finding the truth. It all becomes meaningless once you find out who you really are. Release that mental shackle and be free!

This is so horrible, not just because these women are made to feel so crappy about themselves, but also because their whole worth seems to be determined by their appearance (eg, the little girl associating "dark" with "ugly" and  "ugly" with "stupid"). It's like this multiplication of sexism times racism.
BTW, does anyone remember the incredibly hostile reaction - as I recall it, publicly expressed by several prominent men of color - to Whoopi Goldberg's appearance when she first became well known?

I realize that because I am an extremely (Scottish/Irish burn in 5 minutes skin) WHITE woman, that many may feel I have no right to post; I accept that and I apologize for any who feel that way.  I have had my -own- struggles with many things (disability, gender bias, and many other things), but of course, "dark skin color" is not something I have had to deal with.

I want to simply say, I think -all- women of all colors are beautiful, and I personally have always felt women with very dark skin are beautiful.  It pains me so greatly to know that some of the intense pain I have gone through, while different, is also -pain-, nevertheless, that girls/women have gone through simply because of how the color of their skin is.

All women...I think the human person-ness is beautiful.  We are all beautifully dynamic beings, in every way, inside and out. 

And, I just wanted to say that.  I send love to anyone who has suffered because of the color of their skin.  I have certainly had disparaging remarks about mine, but certainly -never- to the same extent, and because of the same background issues that hurt to the very core.

Our pain may be very different, but we can recognize and empathize with pain in each other, and support each other.  I send my most caring thoughts to you, who've struggled with this very difficult issue.

We can be hypocrites when it comes to bigotry. We don't like it when other races do it to us but we do it to ourselves because of a shade of skin.

I Am White Male.53 Years Old.From Miami,Living In Tuscaloosa,Al.I Am Really Single.