Real with Rue

A background on Colourism:

Colourism can be defined as discrimination against people with a different skin tone, especially within the same racial group. 

I believe Black people have come a long way, as we’ve seen that the things we used to recognise as acceptable are no longer socially accepted today. However, colourism, what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie believes to be is the sister to racism, is still an area which haunts the the Black community today.

Growing up I had moments where I wished to be like the light-skinned girl on the comically named ‘Dark and Lovely’ box(a relaxer for your hair). The girl was always a ‘nice shade’ of Black skin.

I have never experienced direct colourism as I didn’t have social media until I was 16 and I lived in a predominately White area, so it was racism or nothing. However, I have friends who have told me about their experiences growing up, being told by boys they liked that they were too Black and growing up seeing lighter females being the main pick. Even with Black males, being referred to as ‘Blick’ with the preference of the time (myself included) being ‘Lighties’ which was the trend back then.

Many of us  didn’t recognise that this self hate in fact stemmed from colourism, which is more sinister than racism as its harder to root out than racism. Colourism isn’t in your face as Racism’s Ni**er with the hard ‘er’. It is subtle in its approach and deep rooted within African culture. A study conducted by the WHO in 2011 revealed that 40% of African women use skin lightening products, with 77% from Nigeria and an increasing  35% in South Africa.

What is Cancel culture?:

Cancel culture is a term coined from social media, which people withdraw support for a  person/group, due to their actions which may be deemed unacceptable and offensive.

Recently a debate was sparked about previous tweets of UK Influencers, including both Black/White male and females about their tweets inciting colourism in 2013. People were most shocked at Influencer Nella Rose, who is normally seen as the modern age Black girl and OnlyBells. I was shocked to say the least, to some of the thoughts that people had at such a young age towards people, due to skin tone. Many people on twitter argued we should boycott these people and their businesses, which affects them financially.

One thing about Cancel Culture is it makes you realise how fickle people are, in the digital age of likes and followers. It is important not to rely on the praises of Human encouragement as they cannot sustain you. The same people that will support you will be the same ones that tear you down in a matter of minutes and seconds.

*I DO NOT condone the rape tweets made by OnlyBells.  as its a very sensitive topic, which is all together a separate topic.*

Forgive and Forget?

Many influencers quickly drew up an apology on the Notes app on the iPhone. Nella was one of the few who did a video, and spoke against her tweets in an apology video. It’s hard to accept, but people do change. Nella Rose is an advocate for many Black girls and encouraging us to be our true selves, myself included. I personally agree that everyone should be called out for their actions 2013 or 2022. We should bring attention as to why they said those things, also where they are mentally today compared to the mindset in which they wrote those tweets.

The issue with the internet is that it really is a bandwagon. There are people hoping onto this colourism anger, against influencers based on their own agendas.  Some people may not even care about the tweets but feel the need to jump on the bandwagon because of the joy of watching someone fall. I believe it’s very obvious when you look at the type of hate that is being received by influencers such as Nella Rose with people telling her it was her fault her mother passed. Alongside, the premature death of Aliyah Maria Bee’s unborn baby was due to her own demise. At the same time, this is the same platform that will preach mental health the next day.

What’s crazy is that the internet never really know what they want. If you apologise they won’t accept it because you wore makeup or if you didn’t wear makeup then you planned it too meticulously. Before you go and add your two pence, ask yourself why are you angry, is it really because you feel for Black men/women or is just hatred for the person. If the tweets truly affected you, you have the right to be angry but also realise what would be the right form of retribution, as it was the past.

What is even crazier is people saying ‘we don’t forgive you’ and sending even more hate after the apology. We need to remember that we all have said and done things we are not proud of.  For those that believe, Judgement will come to each of us and if God can accept an apology AND change in behaviour, who are you to decide what apology is acceptable!

Think before you Tweet:

The internet and social media makes it so easy to feel as if we know someone, but the reality is we don’t.

Social media has allowed us to connect with each other but people need to remember its a permanent record of the things you say. I think the biggest lesson is to remember that not everyone on the internet is your friend. If you think how many times a celebrity has sent a tweet or posted a picture which the magazines have captured even after they have deleted.  People need to be aware that these things can even affect your job prospects, so its all well and said trying to delete the account later but people can screenshot and save without you knowing.

A Solution?:

Colourism is something that has created unnecessary competition within the black community. If we only recognised that blackness is not one shade, and that’s okay. Maybe, if we actually Stood by our word to ‘cancel’ businesses and brands who encouraged colourism, like the Chinese did with Gucci, we could move 2 steps forward.  Future wise, I believe it’s important to educate the future generations on colourism and having a ‘preference’ of being lighter and teach them to love themselves in their own shade of skin.

It’s been Real,

Rue x

References:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/colourism - Accessed 02/05/2020

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/09/colourism-is-finally-being-taken-seriously-thanks-to-celebrities-like-lupita-nyongo - Accessed 02/05/2020. para 3

The Global Beauty Industry: Colorism, Racism, and the National Body  By Meeta Jha

https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/april-2019-july-2019/paying-high-price-skin-bleaching -  Acc 02/05/2020

John 2:24-26 (NIV version)
Special mention to Black Twitter for the content.