7 Items Exposing Hollywood's Obsession with Promoting Light-Skinned Black Characters

Hollywood has made little progress in the last century when it comes to colorism. Both dark- and light-skinned Blacks continue to be cast in roles that perpetuate color hierarchy or white supremacy in our communities. Casting directors are in the habit of only — or mostly — hiring non-European actors and actresses with lighter skin tones because they assume that they will be more attractive to their largely ethnic-European audiences. Dark-skinned Black female actresses are especially negatively impacted by this. Here are seven ways that Hollywood's obsession with promoting light skin over dark skin is exposed. In Hollywood today, the biggest Black entertainers right now could probably all pass a brown paper bag test (Beyoncé, Rihanna, Halle Berry, Mariah Carey, Tyra Banks, Alicia Keys.) The best roles have mostly gone to lighter-skinned or multiracial actresses who fall within Eurocentric standards of beauty, including Berry, Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll, Pam Grier, Shari Belafonte, Rae Dawn Chong, Cynda Williams, Rosario Dawson, Thandie Newton, Zoe Saldana, Rashida Jones and Paula Patton. Only One Lupita There has never been a Black actress of Lupita Nyong'o's ebony skin tone to ascend to Hollywood's A-list status. What About Grace Jones? And among those Black actresses who have succeeded in Hollywood with deeper skin tones, like Grace Jones, they have not been positioned as leading ladies or, more specifically, objects of affection. Well There's Kerry Washington and Gabrielle Union On the small screen, at least, Gabrielle Union and Kerry Washington have enjoyed recent breakthroughs, although neither woman is fair-skinned, they can't really be described as dark, either. Besides, their roles aren't exactly "stereotype free" either Replace Darkness with Light or 'the New Black People' When dark-skinned actress Janet Hubert-Whitten left the sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, she was replaced by light-skinned actress Daphne Maxwell-Reid. Jennifer Freeman took Jazz Raycole's place on My Wife and Kids. But it doesn't stop at individual roles. Looking full Black seems to be getting less acceptable. More and more, Black roles are being limited to those who look biracial or multiethnic. In Their Own Words Denzel Washington revealed in a past interview that he told his daughter: “You’re Black, you’re a woman, and you’re dark-skinned at that. So you have to be a triple/quadruple threat.” I said: “You gotta learn how to act. You gotta learn how to dance, sing, move onstage.” That’s the only place, in my humble opinion, you really learn how to act. I said: “Look at Viola Davis. That’s who you want to be. Forget about the little pretty girls; if you’re relying on that, when you hit 40, you’re out the door. You better have some chops.” Viola Davis said she wasn't fazed when a New York Times article described her as "less classically beautiful than Ms. Washington, or for that matter Halle Berry," when writing about her lead role in ABC's new series How to Get Away With Murder. Black People Express Their Colorism Issues Dark-skinned Blacks are shown less love, even when it's our own people producing the films and television roles. Tyler Perry's films have dark-skinned male aggressors and light-skinned male saviors (Steve Harris vs. Shemar Moore in Diary of a Mad Black Woman and Blair Underwood vs. Boris Kodjoe in Madea’s Family Reunion). In Lee Daniels' Precious, the saviors are portrayed by Mariah Carey, Paula Patton and Lenny Kravitz — all light actors. On the other hand, the abusers and most-troubled characters are played by the dark-skinned actors and actresses Gabourey Sidibe, Monique Jackson, and Rodney "Bear" Jackson. Antoine Fuqua cast Latina Eva Mendes as the female lead and Denzel Washington's love interest in Training Day and used biracial actress Shannon Kane as the ingenue in Brooklyn's Finest. Even Spike Lee is guilty for casting Cynda Williams in Mo' Better Blues, Rosie Perez in Do the Right Thing, Rosario Dawson in 25th Hour, and Lonette McKee, Veronica Webb and Halle Berry in Jungle Fever.

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