Grace “Spice” Hamilton caught some heat for appearing to lighten her skin for a music video recently and so naturally, the subject of colorism has been rampant in her Instagram comments.
The song, “Black Hypocrisy,” speaks to the way she’s treated as a dark-skinned person compared to light-skinned one. She explained on her Instagram page in October that she recorded the song and made the video to put a spotlight on colorism.
“On October 22nd I posted a picture of myself where I looked like I altered my appearance and metamorphosis to match the Eurocentric beauty standards,” the “Love & Hip-Hop: Atlanta” star said on Instagram Nov. 2. “I fearlessly addressed an issue that has been swept under the rug and boldly took the stance in bringing a taboo topic to the forefront. I chose to do this in the manner I did because I believe colorism is plagiarizing our Black community.”
Some people who saw the images associated with the track explained they get hate for being paler. That’s what Spice was asked about on “The Breakfast Club” Wednesday, Nov. 7 and she gave a bold answer to her critics.
“I can’t speak for them, I have to speak on what I’ve been through as a darker woman,” says the dancehall performer, who also noted she got lots of compliments when she posted her faux bleached photos. “So they complain that ‘yeah, we as lighter skinned women, we go through this, we do that’…But I’m speaking for dark women, what I’ve experienced, what I know.”
Spice’s answer brought her a ton of praise from commenters who loved how she backed up the experiences of dark-skinned women.
“Big up Spice for speaking facts 🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲”
“She’s gorgeous and I’m so glad that she brought attention to this & I absolutely love her accent.”
“I like that she’s using her platform to be vocal about colorism in the black community and call it black hypocrisy. And I’ll leave it at that.”
“Never liked the whole bleaching culture…black is beautiful.”
“SPICE Your skin pretty like chocolate, you ah set di trend!”
“That colorism is serious af in Jamaica. My girl is from Kingston and she the same skintone as spice. She told me how severe that colorism is out there. S— is no joke fam.”
