(The Root) — Dark Girls, a film by documentarians D. Channsin Berry and Bill Duke, debuted Sunday night on OWN, Oprah Winfrey's cable television station. The film is an exploration of colorism among African Americans, delving into the history of skin tone since the days of slavery. The film includes anecdotes from top black academics and personal stories of pain and discrimination from dark-skinned women as they experienced it.
The film’s premiere on OWN sparked a conversation about colorism across social media that is still going on. Though many were deeply moved by the documentary, some felt that it failed to offer any solutions to the problems posed and that it focused too much on men, which is surprising, given the film's title. Check out a bit of the conversation below, marked with the #darkgirls tag.
And even when dark girls are praised for being beautiful..it's always "pretty for a dark girl" that's not any better. What does that mean?
— Style and Grace (@AjaAskew) June 24, 2013
Black people will claim to hate White people and racism, but turn around and prefer Black people who skin closer to White people. #DarkGirls
— Anti_Intellect (@Anti_Intellect) June 24, 2013
Tracy Clayton is a writer, humorist and blogger from Louisville, Ky.