I went to a get together over the weekend and got pulled into a conversation that was a remix of other convos I’ve had before.
You know the conversations: Light skin vs. dark skin…black girls vs. Spanish girls…not much representation of chocolate/dark skin girls in music videos and yada yada yada. But this time it was in regards to songs played on radio; songs you and I most likely enjoy very much and sing along to in the club or download to our Ipods. As it got later and later and as everyone but me was getting higher and higher…LOL…I got annoyed because although I felt like the points were valid; for the first time I didn’t have a response. No suggestions, no resolution, no great come back and I was stuck.
I felt like a hypocrite since I do sing/rap a long to a few songs that make references to the red bones and caramels, Indian, mixed, Spanish, etc… I am also very guilty of casting girls in videos who fit the same criteria. It’s hard looking beautiful brown girls in the face knowing that the director gave me specific instructions NOT to cast any of “them.” I even recall going to an R&B/Hip-Hop conference where the complexion subject was brought up and the video director on the panel who was darker than Akon stated how dark skin models "are not dimes” and the artists DO NOT want them in their videos.
So I’m part of the problem, huh? I’ve discriminated because of a pay check and so that I could add a video to my casting reel. Then I’d support these “artists” by playing their music and singing a long like everything was fine. WACK!
How do we change this?
I even “tweeted” about it on Twitter.com and got a couple of responses but it mostly fell on deaf ears. Folks had been too busy chatting about the NBA play-offs and the Hatton/Pacquiao fight…let’s not forget the Swine Flu. So I decided to blog a little something something hoping that you guys would chime in. Perhaps this is a good discussion to have? You be the judge.
It all started somewhere on the top floor of high-rise apartment building on a rainy sports filled Saturday night. Drinks…weed…music…drinks…spades…drinks…music and conversation…and as the weed was being passed…here comes topic #1:
PRO-ATHLETE: "No offense to some of ya’ll in this room but Chocolate girls never get shout outs in songs. It’s always "redbone, caramel, butta pecan, etc...”
CO-SIGN FROM CLUB PROMOTER: "Please! You girls are too brainwashed to even notice that in the hottest songs & videos, you get dissed, yet you still sing along and drop it like it’s hot in the club."
PRO-ATHLETE: “To me it isn’t that they’re brainwashed. I think they’re used to getting dissed and just don’t give a f*ck anymore. Like it isn’t worth the fight or the change.”
CHOCOLATE MODEL ROLLING A PHAT ONE: “I get casted sometimes just because I’m darker. I don’t take it as a compliment but I’ll take the check…thank you!”
CLUB PROMOTER: “You are not getting my point. How do you feel about these songs or videos? They ain’t talking about you or anyone who looks like you.”
PRO-ATHLETE #2: “My son’s mom is dark but I haven’t dated any dark or brown girls since I’ve been in the league. I’ll keep it real. As for videos and songs, I do hear them shout out other type chicks but if the song is hot and the beat is hot, no one cares.”
(Sounds of girls in the apartment grumbling under their breaths but no one is really speaking up.)
VERY LIGHT SKIN GIRL ON COUCH: “I’m the only light skin girl in my crew and my girls get offended when n*ggas holla at me saying, “yo light skin, yo red bone but don’t look at them. I get offended too. But I never notice the songs. The video are obvious though. It’s real obvious and it be the same girls.”
ME SPEAKING TO PRO ATHLETE #2: “Why don’t you date dark or brown girls? I know you sleep with some!”
PRO-ATHLETE #2, (while laughing): I don’t know! I travel all over and see so many beautiful women with different bodies, hair, and complexion. I don’t want the norm anymore. I want something different. I think some of ya’ll are cute but I’m just not attracted to girls who are brown or dark anymore. And songs don’t have nothing to do with it but I wouldn’t put it in a song. ”
Wow! I couldn’t say much at all except that I don’t think discriminating within our own race is cool. We should love all of our shades, no? And just as that conversation winded down, the new Young Money featuring Weezy song, “Every Girl” came on and you know WE ALL laughed when we sung along to the 1st verse! Little Wayne right off the bat says:
Uh, I like a long haired thick red-bone
open up her legs then filet mignon…
Damn Weezy…Chocolate girls need love too. But thanks to @iamdeucefly from Twitter who brought me back to one of THE greatest lines ever spit that trumps them all:
Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice
I say the darker the flesh then the deeper the roots
Thanks Tupac! I know you care…”if don't nobody else care…”
C.
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