The thing that's been bugging me lately is how in so many movies and TV shows is how the female partner of a black man always has lighter skin than him.

When I try to make a dark skinned character in a videogame and it's like this is a white person with paint.

I am dark skinned person from India and oh boy the toxicity here is unbearable

Colorism is everywhere,even in Africa. I'm Kenyan,I know.

"Kids in middle school are f*ing monsters" always true.

Whenever I bring up colorism as an issue, nobody listens to me. But when a lighter skin women brings up the issue, they flock to her. That alone is prime example of it. I’m offended but it’s to be expected.

My boyfriend is half black, half Japanese with very dark skin and a white-sounding name. We live in the south... When he gets called for interviews they usually have him sit and wait. After about an hour or so, someone mentions how the guy they were waiting for it really late. He gets to say “Actually, I’m right here...” It sucks. Especially since he usually gets there early.

Being a dark skinned girl and having everybody including my parents and other family members (who are all light skinned) make fun of me as a child basically destroyed my self esteem.

Colorism is so rampant in India. Our media actively pushes the message that having fair skin is a major requisite for attractiveness. At 21, I've finally managed to deprogram myself from this cultural setting. Now I find dark skinned people just as, if not more attractive than light skinned people.

Its weird this conversation isn’t really talked about but asian cultures,like India and Bangladesh,are extremely colour biased. I’m pretty dark in comparison to like most middle class people in Bangladesh. I got harassed continuously for like 4 years because of my skin colour,I’ve been called the n-word and even my family asked me to use skin lightening products. My aunt is pretty good example of how colourism is prevelant in Asia. So when she was trying to find a spouse for her son,she legit said this-“That girl is too dark skinned”. This kind of behaviour is prevalent worldwide.

"Fortunately, i like how i look. I think i'm pretty sexy" gonna ask Santa for some of that confidence. Good on you!

Cries silently in dark skinned Asian

"Everybody wanna-be black, but nobody wanna be black" Paul Mooney lolz...

I like the conclusion, “attack the system not the individuals”

I'm Filipino and pretty brown, and I remember an ex girlfriend freaking out because I found her childhood photos, from when she would still play out in the sun. From the way she reacted, you'd think I discovered her secret Dorian Grey portrait or the doctor's invoice for the plastic surgery to remove her humpback. She seriously thought I'd dump her because she was darker as a kid than she was when we started dating. That's how terrible skin-whitening is marketed in the Philippines.

Ever since I've been in middle school, I have developed a fear of middle schoolers. Specifically middle school boys with edgy (aka racist, sexist, homophobic or really just offensive) humor.

"YOU CAN BE PRIVILEGED AND DISADVANTAGED AT THE SAME TIME... A LOT OF Y'ALL ACT LIKE Y'ALL DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT." - T1J Legit the best thing I've heard all year, never let someone devalue your struggle by saying 'someone else has it worse'.

I'm a light-skinned Arab woman, and it always makes my skin crawl when people say I'm pretty BECAUSE OF my white skin. It inherently implies that my darker-skinned family are flawed because they look less European than I do. I love my skin, and I love their's too. But when I'm complimented on being white, I love my skin less because it's being used to undervalue their's.

This is so fucked up that I just want to cry, that people get treated like they're less than, and in some cases poison themselves with mercury containing skin whitening creams, just because of the colour and tone of their skin. I have always been mesmerised by the beauty of different skin colours. I really wish that we all could start appreciating the beauty in ourselves and in all others. Below I share some of my experiences with colourism, I realise that it is something that's way less severe than the issues of colourism faces by people that are not white. In Sweden, if you're white, you're considered more attractive if you are tanned. And it goes way beyond attractiveness, even into the realms of being socially accepted. I've been picked on throughout most of my life for being too pale (due to my ginger complexion), and was outright bullied for it up until high school. We were four girls that used to walk to school together, I distinctly remember this time when one of them was very insistant on walking next to me. It later turned out that it was because she looked more tanned when her skin was in contrast with mine. At uni one of my friends said "you're not pale, you're see-through". When I was younger and wore more make up, there used to be no foundation in my skin tone, I'd always have to go with something that was too dark or too yellow. I finally found a foundation powder at the body shop in high school that was perfect with my skin, only to have it discontinued shortly after "because no one is that pale". Again, this is not to compare my challenges, with the racism and marginalisation that people of colour face. Just my own experience of colourism.

Nothing is more beautiful than luputa’s smile.

“You can be privileged and disadvantaged at the same time.” One more time, I don’t think they heard you in the back.

I remember that when I was like thirteen I cried myself to sleep because I wasn't as light-skinned as some classmates. I come from a christian family and back then I would go so far as to pray for my skin to get white. I never felt good with how I looked until I saw Yasmin (that Bratz doll), whose skin color was pretty much the same as mine and was still presented as stylish and beautiful, which is why I always scoff when people say kids don't care about representation.

Dark skin girls are gorgeous

My sister is lighter than me. So I'm used to hear people saying :"oh... it's funny, why is she lighter than you??". 😑

i didn’t know till i was probably about 14 that when white women said they wanted a man “tall dark and handsome” they didn’t want a black man but instead a white man with darker features

"those with power, no matter how little, are regularly driven to maintain that power whether consciously or not" is really well put

As a middle schooler I can confirm that middle schoolers are infact monsters

I can't believe how accurately u highlighted that "light skinned actors are celebrated in South India although there people are dark skinned".

Chocolate girl here. Great video. Colorism has plagued the African diaspora since, basically forever and it seems no one wants to talk about it. So when I see any acknowledgement from the African American community, especially a dark skint male it makes me feel like it's a step in the right direction. Oh, and those video game CAC options where tragic back in the day.

Don't forget that "sleep with" and "marriage material" are two different kinds of attractiveness. That graph could use some more squares.

Growing up watching the Martin Lawrence show, I was always confused when Martin would insult Pam's looks because it was clear (to me anyway) that she is a beautiful woman.

I'm " light" skinned black brazilian and I dated a hatian ...he told me he like white girls more😂😂I was like ok than don't let me hold you back

because of colorism and sexism mixing in disney sitcoms i used to watch as a little kid (like, REALLY little), 4-6 y/o me thought that all black women had lighter skin than black men. so, yikes on me AND disney.

I’m a (white) makeup artist, and finding foundations and products for clients past “medium deep” is almost impossible. I pretty much always end up mixing foundations and have spent a good chunk of change on powders and primers that don’t look ashy. It’s legitimately crazy how far the arms of colorism reaches.

As a light skinned brown girl I hated it when my family (near and extended) compared me with my cousins and told me that it will be easy for me to find husband since I was 13.

"I like how I look, I think I'm pretty sexy"

As a Black Man that loves Black Superheroes I Noticed every time they create a Black Female Superhero it doesn't take long to lighten them up like Storm or Vixen

Hair options in games bother me way more than it should. Basically character creation usually boils down to me saying "fuck it I'm going with anime hair"

Actually there is colorism in Asia too. Being like really fair is associated with being rich and beautiful while being darker is associated with the exact opposite. There are a lot of products to whiten the skin tone as a result. It is sad that a lot of people all around the world cares about such simple things that should not be a deal like skin color and tone.

As a mixed person who sees this in his whole family while not being accepted by said family... I needed this a lot. Thank you.

"you can be priveleged AND disadvantaged at the same time." PREACH

The weird thing is that, in America, the newest standard of beauty is no longer to be pale and clearly white but rather to have “watered down” black features. They want you to have plump lips, but not big ones. Curly hair, but not kinky. Tan skin, but not dark. They want white people who look like they’re mixed with somethin. That’s a huge thing that makes me wary of some of the super popular black women today.. Amandla and Zendaya are constantly praised for being strong beautiful black women, and they ARE black, but the thing is that they don’t have the “bad” black features, they only have the “good” ones. People need to find FULLY black people with noticeably African features beautiful, not just mixed black people who have the ideals. EDIT: I can’t believe people are still arguing over this, on god. For y’all to say that mixed black people aren’t black... I know half black half Latino people that look fully black, are they not black now? What about African Americans, most of which are at least 10% white, are they black? Or are they only allowed to claim to be mixed because you have this racist “only purebreds are really black uwu” idea??? What are y’all gonna do in like 50 years where most of the planet is mixed race and nobody is fully anything anymore? What ACTUALLY offends you about a woman such as Beyoncé claiming to be black when she is majority black? Do you deadass look at Beyoncé and say that she’s not black? How many tapeworms are in your brain bro????? EDIT 2 because y’all can’t stop being racist: I don’t care how much you hate mixed people and want to force them to adopt “mixed” or “biracial” as a race. I don’t care that you don’t want them to be able to embrace half of their DNA, or either half of it simply because you have this batshit insane idea that only Purebred Blacks are allowed to claim to be Black. I do think that you should consider why you think it makes sense for you, a presumably Black person, to discriminate and strip mixed Blacks of their racial and cultural identities as if Blacks haven’t had that done to them enough. Remember that the reason you speak English is because racists stripped your ancestors of their African languages. The reason you don’t know what subsaharan African country your ancestors are from is because racists made them forget. The reason you don’t have traditional clothing is because racists wouldn’t let your ancestors wear it. The reason so many African Americans are lighter than Blacks in Africa is because white men raped our great great great great great great grandmas. The children born from that racism were still Black, and if they didn’t identify as such it was purely for their own safety. You can continue trying to rationalize your desire to demonize biracial Blacks for simply calling themselves Black, but none of your seemingly endless excuses actually help your case. You just seem like a racist asshole. TDLR for the edits: If you’re half black + half something else, you are allowed to claim both races and your race doesn’t suddenly become “biracial” or “mixed”. Zendaya is black and white, she has two races. She is not just “mixed”. Calling her Black does not mean that she is only Black, it means that one of her races is Black; unless the question is more specific and you’re expected to give all the details, you don’t have to state Everything. It’s not lying by omission to just not answer a question that wasn’t even asked and truly didn’t even need to be answered

I dated this guy once and we started talking about our "type". He said "I don't like black girls" and when I asked him why he said "I just don't find them attractive". And I said "how can you say ALL black women are unattractive? Literally millions upon millions of women are black in this world, and you say you have never thought a black woman was beautiful?" and he was like "yeah pretty much". I tried to get him to explain why he had these beauty standards, but he couldn't elaborate. I was honestly shocked. I have huge doubts that it was only about attraction, I'd say that's pretty racist.

"We all black" sounds exactly like "all lives matter" to me. Anyone who thinks that the black community will be unified by ignoring the social hierarchies that exist within the community are exactly the same as the people who say that racism will go away if we ignore the inequities caused by racism.

I can’t stand the colorism that persists in so many cultures. I have always heard “You’re pretty for a dark skinned girl/woman” as if my skin color was an automatic disadvantage in even being considered attractive. Really?! Same with my hair. I will inform an individual real quick. If they have the nerve to say something ridiculous and biased to me, then they’ve earned the opportunity to be schooled. Hopefully the next time they will consider the impact of their words and thoughts.

Honestly never understood why or how someone could look at deep skin tones and not find them beautiful. The way saturated, primary, and even neon colors can contrast with dark skin is absolutely gorgeous imo.

I remember when my aunt kept praising the girl next to me for having really pale skin, and I almost cried. I was never told that my tan skin was uGLy, but never received positive attention either :(

As the white daughter of a black mother, I gotta say thank you, as now I'm a bit more conscious about all these topics. Will research more and try help as I can. Loves 🤙🏻

Sings: 'White plus papaya, my skin so white.' YIKES

They tell WoC they're too dark, and need to lighten, and white women that they're too pale and need to tan. If they tell everyone that there's something wrong with them, they can sell everyone a product to fix it. They can never just let a woman get away with thinking the features she was born with are okay Edit: I was only commenting on sexism and how beauty standards are set up so that no woman can meet them. I was not trying to imply that a pale white woman faces the same discrimination as a dark skinned black woman. While all women face sexism, white women have the privilege of no racism layered on top of it.

I remember being in highschool and a dark skin football player said he wished he was light like me.. my heart broke and I wanted to tell him so badly how beautiful he was but I was to scared.

as a "non dark skin indian guy " i knew this . its on our culture , cinema , and everything .

The KZfaq algorithm finally came through and recommended me a video of substance

You had me at “chocolate boi” This milk boi subscribed

This was one of the most articulate and detailed description of colourism I have watched on KZfaq. I think you do a really really good job in helping to provide insight into this topic for people who are not familiar with it .

One of the weirdest things I’ve experienced growing up is that only other dark skinned women would comment how beautiful my dark skin was. I’ve never heard anyone else make that comment, and I used to get offended when family members would say that I was as dark as my dad. Like I didn’t want to be that dark. I’ve grown to love my skin tone but it took a long time lol

"You can be privileged and disadvantaged at the same time." THANK YOU!

I had a conversation on this , black men don’t like talking about colorism because they are the ones perpetuating it 💁🏾‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️

ive never seen someone explain colorism this well (and cover all the aspects of it). thank you!

some rappers talking about light skinned girls meanwhile pop smoke "I like dark skins, love the melanine" rip 💫💫

When it comes to white people tanning, there's a link to that with wealth. If you go on vacation to somewhere warm and sunny you come back with a tan. I knew a girl who used bronzer as foundation after spring break because she expected all her friends to be tan from their vacations and didn't want to be left out. If you have harsh tan lines, you were probably working a job outside, but if you have the bikini lines, then you were just out in the sun to relax

My Mexican family and community is very colorist, but it's treated as a joke.

These videos are so educational, I feel like even my parents would be able to learn something from them, thank you so much!

Thank you for making this! I hope everyone in the world gets to see this

I get so irritated when I hear rappers use "light skin" exclusively to explain an attractive woman. So we're just going to keep this going huh? Okay

Great video. I'm a white guy myself who theoretically knew about this for most my post-childhood life, but it was only after dating and marrying a dark skinned black woman that I became aware of just how absurdly pervasive it is to this day. As a lot of other people have already pointed out, even when video games, toys, etc throw black representation a bone they often overlook facial features, hair types, etc.

These kind of conversations are so important to have. Conversations like these are really needed. Especially in climates like the one we live in rn. Thank you for discussing & enlightening. You inspire me :) .

THANK YOU for recording these, I love your channel.

The preference for tan white people might be in part a reversal of the aristocratic associations with whiteness. Working people often spend their time indoors, while the leisure class has the time and money to tan and take care of their bodies. This, and the sexualisation of darker-skinned groups, such as latina's or black men/women, and thus also of white people with the same attributes.

I lived in Thailand for a bit on a research project and I could never find any sunscreen or even face or body wash or deodorant that wasn’t “skin whitening”. My friends were all very conscious of wanting to look lighter. It’s really sad how prevalent this is

In school, I'm light skinned and most people, especially black people don't believe I'm fully black but I am. And it hurts when they acknowledge mixed dark skinned people as fully black but not me and I'm fully black. My parents are Brown, my grandparents are brown, but my great grandparents are light skinned. And those genes were passed to me and my sister. Like in my school, nobody cared about your race that much, if you didn't line up with what race you are supposed to look like, you were an outcast.

I've been having a lot of conversions with my dad about racial in/justice. We didn't grow up together, so these convos are showing me that he is open to learning. I just sent this to him. Thank you for this content. It's making a difference. I don't even know how to express my hope that other people treat you right today and everyday. Be well and take care.

Couldn’t agree more! Thank goodness makeup is improving today, but most companies make shades like ✋🏻✋🏻✋✋✋✋✋✋✋✋✋✋✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏽✋🏽✋🏾✋🏾✋🏿

I’m mixed from my dad’s side but I have light brown skin. I remember one time when I was 10, I went to my friends pool party, I didn’t wear sun screen at all and I spent so much time in the sun. So when I got picked up by my dad I was worried he’d get mad at me for not wearing sunscreen. But instead he yelled at me because my skin had gotten so dark. And I mean really REALLY dark. I was heartbroken by his words but I tried to play it off because I didn’t want to show how embarrassed I was. He made a huge scene in front of my friends mother. To this day I’m still a bit brain washed from the whole incident. I try to avoid being in the sun. I feel like a goddamn vampire.

I really appreciated listening to this. I also love that you mentioned the colorism issue in Asia. I thought that colorism/racism was mainly an American issue until I moved to ASia an realized that I was so sooo wrong.

Firstly, I laughed at the yo mama joke, sorry. And secondly, Polynesians need to learn more about this as well, even when babies are born the first thing some aunties and uncles would say is “wow, they’re so dark” but in a disappointing tone. I never really recognized this until later in my life and it’s horrible, growing up hearing this and thinking that dark skinned Tongans were not beautiful. Even my mom said she tried her best to look as light skin as she could growing up 🤦🏽‍♀️

The more I deal with these phenomena, the more I appreciate my parents. My mother is a dark skinned woman and my father was a dark skinned man. Both were considered to be super attractive. Growing up they both made sure I had plenty of black dolls -no white baby dolls, only white barbies. I grew up with comments from both celebrating the beauty of the diversity of color, especially of black women. Therefore, I never succumbed to colorism. I never felt less than for being a dark-skinned Black woman. It starts in the home, y’all.

South East Asian here. In our case, we didn't even need colonizers to brainwash us into thinking whiter = better! Also the fact that your face remains deadpan whenever you make jokes kills me more than the jokes themselves hdjfhsmdjsl

I super appreciate your videos. You make these topics extremely accessible and provide much-needed comic relief of tension with your wit. I hope Subscribee grows up to be a great champion.

This was really good, I am glad I found you. Keep on keepin on.

What I don't understand is why is it that people think that it's a compliment when they tell you that you're cute to be a dark skinned girl. FYI, it's not a dam compliment nd it's offensive af🤦🏾‍♀️

India is a case study in colorism.

They should make a skin darkener and the slogan would be “Every time you use it you lose a little bit of privilege”

You are such a great teacher @t1j You are so inspiring

I remember when I was a child I saw a movie where a “dark skinned” boy used all his money to buy soap to try to “clean” his dark skin away and wondered “why would he do that? I’m darker than him and I LOVE my dark skin.” Now as a 20 year old I wonder where that love went.

Okay that "My skin's so White" song....wtf😂😂😂😂

Solid video! Thanks for making it! I honestly wasn't very aware this was an issue and now I am, so I'd say that alone made this video worth watching. Sometimes we don't even know where we have blind spots to things like this Keep up the good work. I only recently found your channel but I like the types of topics you cover

I'm from Scadinavia and people often call me pale or very light skinned(not as a compliment), I think it's because most people here are naturally light and want a more "tanned" look. When it's summer everybody religiously goes outside to tan in front of the sun for hours to get a darker skin tone, of course I've done it too but then I came to the realization that.... it's incredibly boring. And not to mention bad for your skin :/ People calling me pale even made me self conscious which is insane when you think about it, haha. It's so stupid how we care about how dark or light your skin is. I've learned not to care about that anymore, it's such a fucking waste of time. Nice vid, cheers.

I'm very glad in recent years there has been more dark-skinned representation in Hollywood. Not enough, but it's something.

Even if all people of the world mixed to the point of homogany, there would still be colorism.

So glad you mentioned the white fixation with tanning too...that doesn't get a lot of airtime..very insightful video, thanks for addressing it. 🙏

I was looking for the Skid Ad button when I saw the "Skin So White" ad from the Philippines and thought, that was ironic. Then I realized it was part of the video! I haven't been watching local TV to see if ads like these are still prevalent, but there's been some campaigns to bring awareness about colorism, so at least there's that. Great video!

This song about papaya is just asking to become a meme

It always frustrated me in RPGs when I couldn't make a black character - I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for someone who is black to just make a character that looks kind of like them.

thank you so much for this video! it was very educational and informative, even if i kinda knew most things, you put all the information percise and clear together like a neat little package, if i ever need to explain the concept of colorism to someone, i'll send them this video! honestly tho this is exactly the type of video that would've really got me thinking and change my perspective back when i thought racism didn't exist anymore (embarrassing times)

I learned so much watching you. Thank you 🙏🏻

Colorisim exist in latin american countries. Sadly some scars of colonialism doesn’t heal yet

In Europe historically the upper class, who didn't need to work outdoors valued their untanned skin. Marble-like transparent skin showing blue veins was fashionable - hence "blue bloods". This changed, when manual labour moved from predominantly agriculture to working in factories indoor. Outdoor activities and hence a tan became synonymous with leisure time and sports activities in sunlight and therefore more attractive.

Thank you so much for making this video!! It's incredibly educational, as a non-American in the States

Ok you got my sub, not just for the dope content, but also for the Abe ( Of Abe's Oddysee/ Exodus) Reference.