At most I could empathise that they probably had a difficult time in finding themselves between vast cultural differences and also got a bit of stick from their school peers.

Perhaps this the problem right there. Ive seen many times on social media & blogs where lighter-skinned or mixed raced women have tried to express the prejudice they have suffered, but have been shut down entirely.

Just because light-skinned privilege exists, does that mean we should not also consider the plight and predjudices they encounter?

We should not assume that colourism is only an issue for dark skinned people. I believe that because of this misconception it could be argued that this maybe part of the reason it persists.

One of the ladies in todays episode says that she has persistently been targeted by her darker skinned sisters. She feels that this is purely down to her complexion. Personally, being someone who sits in the middle of the dark to light spectrum, this is not a problem I have ever had to deal with. Now with that being said, I can’t deny her experience. I always like to be a champion for black women but I can’t speak for everyone all of the time.

"It hurt to see us folding in on ourselves, using ourselves as whipping posts because we did not yet know how to struggle against the real cause of our misery".

Taken from Angela Davis’ Biography

As you will hear, I get quite frustrated during this episode. I struggle to get the panel to understand the perspective of a darker skinned person when it comes to colourism. I felt like it was almost comparable with trying to explain to a white person that they benefit from white privilege. Some people refuse to see it and some people are blindly ignorant to it, no matter how much it is explained. I probably didn’t make it clear enough in this episode however, I am not stating that ALL darker-skinned women have issues in dating. Neither am I suggesting that all darker skinned men have a preference to lighter skinned women, but Im merely reflecting the views I have heard and seen over the years.

Racism comes up quite a bit in this conversation and I find it interesting that the panel have more of a softer approach to it. They appear to be more empathetic towards the racist attitudes of white people and its probably because they have the scope to see it from both sides.

I also found it interesting that nobody on the panel considered themselves as ‘Black’ and were quite firm in the notion that there were mixed race. I personally feel indifferent as to how they choose to label themselves but still found it interesting. Many people will still regard your race based on how you look. If there is an ounce of ‘Blackness’ in you that is identifiable, you are Black as far as some people are concerned.

I love what I do because Im always learning about other peoples experiences. I am disappointed in myself that I never gave more consideration or even asked the question prior to now of how life was growing up as a mixed race person. Perhaps I myself had a subconscious belief that it was all roses on that side to a certain extent?

I’ll keep this blog post quite short as its a bit more of a longer episode this week.

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Take care of yourself!

See you next week!



Dionne xx