The camera Knows exactly what it is doing.
It helps to soften the lighting as she makes an entrance into the room. Her hair frames her face so beautifully. The song tempo slows down, and the male lead breaks out into a smile, and all of a sudden, the viewers know that she is the one who everybody needs to fall for.
Then comes another woman.
She is darker in complexion. She has a loud voice, and has hair that is bigger, more colorful, or in a ridiculous style that the show wants its viewers to think is funny. Even before introducing herself, she has been introduced through laughter.
For ages now, dark-skinned women have had to see themselves replicated in the media either as angry, aggressive, unattractive, lonely or impossible to love. They are meant to be tough, but not soft. They can talk about relationships and give advice about love, but they can’t have love stories of their own. If they are bold, they are loud. If they speak up for themselves, they are bitter. And when they crave love, they are desperate.
The truth is never said directly but it gets across all the same – that dark-skinned women are just too much of everything and yet somehow always not enough.
When the Joke Has a Skin Tone
In Martin’s opinion, Gina is considered beautiful, feminine, and marriageable. Martin shows his love to her openly even when their relationship gets complicated. But Pam is viewed differently. Even though she is confident, fashion-forward, competent, and beautiful, Martin keeps criticizing her looks.
He says she looks like an animal. He uses the word “masculine” when talking about her. He makes fun of her saying that a man attracted to her is inconceivable. Pam fights back, usually with the same insults, but her actions get interpreted in such a way that she seems to be aggressive. The audience enjoys the quarrel but often fails to see its deeper sense.
Pam has a reason to be angry.
However, Gina gets her romance, and Pam gets her punch line. Gina is given permission to embody beauty, while Pam has to defend hers. These women’s roles prove that colorism can remain masked even through comedy. After being told the same joke over time, people will cease to see the cruel nature of its meaning.
Laughter becomes the mask for the insult.
Who Gets to be Soft?
Black women on film and TV are always portrayed as if gentleness cannot be part of their nature. They are the girl-friend who tells everybody the truth. They are the woman who keeps the family together. They are supposed to endure betrayal, raise children, pay the bills, and solve other people’s problems without breaking.
Where are the scenes of protection for them?
Where is the scene of a black woman being handed flowers without begging for it? Where is the scene of her being nervous on her first date, giggling, or loving without first suffering through pain? Why does she constantly have to prove that she deserves the same gentle treatment that others deserve automatically?
In programs like A Different World, Black women were portrayed as smart, goal-oriented, and successful. The program provided Blacks with characters that have dreams, education, friendship, and lives filled with complexity. Yet, even in the context of positive Black portrayal, light-skinned women were usually placed in proximity to the traditional notion of glamour, femininity, and romance. Darker-skinned women could be brilliant and industrious; however, they did not always receive the fantasy of being loved.
The dark-skinned woman can hold her narrative; she just does not get the fantasy of being beloved in it.
Hair That Enters Before the Character Does
There is the hair.
Vivid colors. Big wigs. Curls that create drama. Styles meant to give the impression that the character is “wild” even before saying a word.
Characters like Sheneneh in Martin have been formed through the use of exaggeration. All her clothing, voice, actions, and hair are exaggerated so that the viewer starts laughing on the spot. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having colorful hair, bold outfits, braids, wigs, or weaves.
The issue starts when the same attributes are constantly assigned to dark women as they are meant to look funny, ugly, or “ghetto.” Thus, they get a costume that is made to humiliate them.
Lighter women, on the other hand, are given soft curls, natural make-up, good-looking clothing, and pleasant light. One woman gets ready for romantic dates, while the other woman gets ready for ridicule.
As always, the camera knows what it is doing.
“She Cannot Keep a Man”
Despite being successful, beautiful, educated, and independent, the dark-skinned woman in the movie still has a way of finding herself single at the end of it all.
If she seeks to be in a relationship, she is desperate. If she is unable to tolerate disrespect, then she is too difficult. If she only thinks about herself, then she is too independent. And when her relationship fails, it means that she drove him away.
For her to go through breakups just like anyone else is out of the question; her pain only serves as proof that there is something wrong with her.
It is not just on screen where this stereotype is applied; even in real life, a dark-skinned woman might be told to compromise on a few things to get the love she desires.
However, love does not need to force a woman to make excuses for the color of her skin or the loudness of her voice.
What Television Teaches Us
A television show may be only thirty minutes long; its message can last many years.
For the dark-skinned girl watching such characters, it may be clear who is chosen and who is mocked. She sees which beauty is preserved and which appearance serves as an offense. She sees how the dark-skinned woman is left alone, whereas the light-skinned one is shown affection.
Finally, she will ask herself, “Will they look at me this way as well?”
This is not simply about putting a dark-skinned woman in front of the screen. This is about making it possible for her to become fully human once she gets there. She should be able to make mistakes without being expected to speak for all dark-skinned women. She should be able to get angry without getting reduced to anger. She should be allowed to sport colorful hair for the love of it, not because it tickles the funny bones of the screenwriters.
More than anything else, she should be loved without the story implying that she has been offered a favor.
Let Her Be the Love Story
Let the black girl enter the room when the music fades out.
Let the camera show the lighting on her skin rather than conceal it. Let her be shy, mischievous, clumsy, glamorous, smart, dramatic, serene, complex, and desirable. Let her maintain her confidence without transforming it into a vice.
Let her be loved without ever being degraded before.
Dark-skinned girls are not aggressive by their nature. They are not ugly, undesirable, or lonely girls destined to live in the world alone. They are not jokes with harsh voices and colored wigs. They are girls whose beauty and humanity have been overlooked by an industry obsessed with colorism.
For many years now, the camera has known what it was doing.
It is time that it does something else.
-Written by Endiyah Turner, Chapter Writer