This is a truly thought-provoking and very real documentary
about what it means to be a woman of color in this society, or any others around the world who don't the narrow standards of dominant Anglo/European beauty -- particularly hair texture and skintone/color. Far too many of us have been drowning and floundering in it since time immemorial. It's heaped and shoveled from every corner of the media and pop culture. It festers as long simmering self-hate, colorism and the deep legacies of genocide, colonialism, slavery and lingering structural racism within our communities. And these issues run just as deep for American Indian, Latina and Asian sisters with darker skintones, as well.
I can't help but think of a sorrowful story my mom used to tell me about my entry into this world in 1967. She described the Black woman in the hospital bed next to hers and what it was like on the first days they were able to hold their new babies in their arms. The nurse brought the other woman her newborn around the same time as I was placed into my mom's arms. My mom said when she looked up at the woman to smile at her and ask how she felt to see her little one, she saw a look on her face that looked like anger and confusion. She glanced hard at me and then glanced down at the baby in her arms and pushed the child back towards the nurse who gave it to her. She angrily said "I don't want that dark baby. I want a light one like hers. I don't want that dark baby." Mom always said seeing that woman react in such a way was one of the absolute saddest moments in her life. She also said, for the remainder of her stay in the hospital before she took me home, she never saw the woman ask for her baby or hold her again.
And Still the stigma burns as bright as the sun.
I've always wondered whatever happened to that child. Was her mother only suffering from some momentary deep post-partum depression in rejecting her? Did her mother grow to realize how much she adored her baby and wouldn't want to replace her with any other, no matter how pale or light?
Or was her rejection the first in a life-long psychological chain-reaction of shame, self-hate, colorism, chronic mental anguish and self-destruction?
Did she grow into an adult who has continued to perpetuate the same kind of disdain and disgust with her own darker-skinned children/grandchildren, only elevating and praising the lighter-skinned???
I'd like to think that maybe...even in the face of brutal colorism and critical, hateful eyes all around....she grew up to find an endless well of strength, self-love and self-acceptance within herself. And maybe even the inspiration to take a powerful stand like the sisters in this film and break the cycle of stigma and hate.
Look and listen with your heart and mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAmBIZBPeIE
(The doc used to be available at YouTube, but it's now broken into segments on their site....if you'd like to see the entire doc also check out NetFlix -- As of June 2014, it's streaming on their site now)
about what it means to be a woman of color in this society, or any others around the world who don't the narrow standards of dominant Anglo/European beauty -- particularly hair texture and skintone/color. Far too many of us have been drowning and floundering in it since time immemorial. It's heaped and shoveled from every corner of the media and pop culture. It festers as long simmering self-hate, colorism and the deep legacies of genocide, colonialism, slavery and lingering structural racism within our communities. And these issues run just as deep for American Indian, Latina and Asian sisters with darker skintones, as well.
I can't help but think of a sorrowful story my mom used to tell me about my entry into this world in 1967. She described the Black woman in the hospital bed next to hers and what it was like on the first days they were able to hold their new babies in their arms. The nurse brought the other woman her newborn around the same time as I was placed into my mom's arms. My mom said when she looked up at the woman to smile at her and ask how she felt to see her little one, she saw a look on her face that looked like anger and confusion. She glanced hard at me and then glanced down at the baby in her arms and pushed the child back towards the nurse who gave it to her. She angrily said "I don't want that dark baby. I want a light one like hers. I don't want that dark baby." Mom always said seeing that woman react in such a way was one of the absolute saddest moments in her life. She also said, for the remainder of her stay in the hospital before she took me home, she never saw the woman ask for her baby or hold her again.
And Still the stigma burns as bright as the sun.
I've always wondered whatever happened to that child. Was her mother only suffering from some momentary deep post-partum depression in rejecting her? Did her mother grow to realize how much she adored her baby and wouldn't want to replace her with any other, no matter how pale or light?
Or was her rejection the first in a life-long psychological chain-reaction of shame, self-hate, colorism, chronic mental anguish and self-destruction?
Did she grow into an adult who has continued to perpetuate the same kind of disdain and disgust with her own darker-skinned children/grandchildren, only elevating and praising the lighter-skinned???
I'd like to think that maybe...even in the face of brutal colorism and critical, hateful eyes all around....she grew up to find an endless well of strength, self-love and self-acceptance within herself. And maybe even the inspiration to take a powerful stand like the sisters in this film and break the cycle of stigma and hate.
Look and listen with your heart and mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAmBIZBPeIE
(The doc used to be available at YouTube, but it's now broken into segments on their site....if you'd like to see the entire doc also check out NetFlix -- As of June 2014, it's streaming on their site now)
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