a girl like me

[verbicide]

You guys may have already read about this. Sarah forwarded it to me awhile ago, but I just sat down and watched the film. So sad. Skin color is a huge issue in Desi (Indian/Pakistani) culture, too. It's so deeply ingrained that even when you know it's stupid, you still sorta believe it.

"But this is a new doll test, conducted by Kiri Davis, a 17-year-old student from New York, for A Girl Like Me, her short film about black girls and standards of beauty."

A couple of articles about it:
http://www.btimes.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=10180&sID=3
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/leonard_pitts/15545216.htm

The film the article talks about:
http://www.mediathatmattersfest.org/6/index.php?id=2

Comments

[archaica.livejournal.com]

That is very sad indeed. I get the feeling the racism has never really abated in severity, just metamorphosed, and kids still pick up on it to the same degree they ever did.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Absolutely agree.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

I was really disturbed to hear a little while ago that skin lightening is becoming a fad in (east?) Asian countries.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I think it's been one for awhile, actually. I think the only thing stopping my cousins is the fear that their skin would be white and blotchy.

[greyaenigma.livejournal.com]

Finally watched the whole film -- that's pretty heartbreaking.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I know :(

[margotheangel.livejournal.com]

That's terrible! Also very interesting, because I guess I wasn't exposed to this sort of thing as a child. I wonder how one would go about fixing the nation's mentality - it's not even as easy as the "thin model" problem, because you can't really legislate skin color.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

And it's so...pervasive. It's not like those kids were necessarily the victims of outright hate and racism. It's a combination of so much in the media being white or light-skinned --models, etc.

Just sad.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of a friend of mine from college who had olive skin & black hair (she was of Lebanese descent) but who commented at one point that she thought of herself as caucasian and blond--like the people she grew up around.

Oddly enough, I grew up with more or less the opposite impression: I know I'm fair-skinned, but (I guess because of family politics) I always felt ... "darker," more like my dad's side.

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. I have to admit that I frequently forget that I'm not white. And then I'm caught off guard like, 'Oh. Right. I'm different.' I only think of it when I'm in a room where someone clearly has identified me as Not White (like, asking me about what country I'm from, etc.)

[brabble.livejournal.com]

You know, I forget that you're "not white" all the time. Until, as you say, we go to Cafe Apassionato or whatever and that weird lady is all about what country you're from. And then I'm just bemused that she would even ask that, because really what business is it of hers?

I just have better/more pressing things to Be Aware Of than my friend's skin color, I suppose. :b

[brabble.livejournal.com]

That said, I also forget that *I* am white, but that's probably because I live in Seattle, Land Of White People. I'm aware of it when I'm in the deep South, but then there's both a racial and a cultural divide.

So hm.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that my friend from college was fortunate enough to have grown up in an environment where no one identified her as "Not White," so she didn't feel that way. On the other hand, I got the impression that she also absorbed the idea that "White" was a proxy for "normal."

That's all a bit subtler than what I grew up with: many of my maternal relatives considered fair skin a necessary but not a sufficient criterion for being "White."