Dark Girls

“Dark Girls” The 2012 documentary Dark girls, is a fascinating and controversial film by American filmmakers, Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry. It goes underneath the surface to explore the prejudice, dark-skinned women face throughout the world. It explores the roots of classism, racism and the lack of self-esteem within a segment of cultures. Dark girls shows the many struggles which women of darker skin face. It allows women of all ages to tell their stories of the damage done to their self-esteem and their constant feeling of being devalued and disregarded.
Colorism is the prejudice or discrimination based on the relative lightness or darkness of the skin. The documentary takes a look into the trend of black women all over the world investing in the multibillion dollar business of skin bleaching creams. Duke and Berry also examine how black women are trying to look more Caucasian, while white women are trying to look more ethnic by using tanning booths and botoxing their lips. Colorism appears to be more of an issue within ethnic groups. Within the black community, it is preferable to be “light skin”. The “paper bag test” is, holding a brown paper bag next to your skin, if you are lighter than the brown paper bag then you are considered beautiful and smart, if you are darker than the bag then you are considered unattractive. This discriminating method was once used to admit people into groups or organizations and even to get jobs. When interviewing black men on the street, they found that many said they prefer to date light-skin women because dark-skin women are “mean spirited, angry and unapproachable”. It was also found that a dark-skin women dating a dark-skin man is less common and even sometimes considered taboo compared to one individual in the relationship being lighter than the other. African American women are the least coupled group in the United States. Statistics show that 41.9% of black women in America have never been married,