Indirect Colourism

Lexico.com defines colourism as 'Prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.' Lil Wayne was clearly being colourist when he said 'Beautiful black woman, I bet that bitch look better red.' However, in other cases it's not so clear. In his song 'Heatwave', Wiley says that he wants to see 'a light skin gyal on the road'. He didn't say that girls with light skin are better but the implication is there. This is a form of indirect colourism because it's promoting the idea that darker skin is less desirable. When young, impressionable dark skin girls hear these types of songs it sends a message that darker skin is unattractive. 

In DaniLeigh's Breakfast Club interview, Charlamagne told her that she's a pretty girl so I wasn't surprised to hear him defending her song 'Yellow Bone'. DaniLeigh's song was indirectly colorist because it's promoting the idea that lighter skin is preferable. If a little dark skin girl were to hear DaniLeigh singing 'yellow bone that's what he wants', she might incorrectly assume that ALL men want a 'yellow bone'. This might cause her to develop low self-esteem believing that her dark skin makes her ugly. 

Charlamagne compared 'Yellow Bone' to Brown Skin Girl by Beyoncé but the songs are incomparable. Dark skin girls bear the brunt of colourism so Beyoncé was helping them to see that their brown skin is beautiful (despite what society says). Kelly Rowland has spoken out about her struggles to embrace her complexion so colourism's an issue that's close to home for Beyoncé. 

Last year, a video of Ariyonna calling herself ugly went viral. Ariyonna is a beautiful girl with a gorgeous complexion but society had conditioned her into thinking that people who look like her aren't pretty. Lighter skin women are often held up as the standard of beauty which has lead some women to lighten their skin. Despite the risk of skin cancer, skin bleaching is a billion dollar industry. For the sake of dark skin girls like Ariyonna, we must continue to call out direct and indirect colourism, ignoring the gaslighters who tell us that we're bitter and envious.