Bringing Awareness to Colorism in Music

Colorism, “a form of prejudice or discrimination usually from members of the same race in which people are treated differently based on the social implications from cultural meanings attached to “skin color” that is the definition you would find in any dictionary. What they don’t tell you is why there is colorism or why it isn’t as publicized as Racism, which is why Spice decided it was time for her to use her platform to educate people about this ongoing issue. Did you know women with light skin serve 11% less time in prison than dark skinned woman? For some ignorant reason color has always been more significant than race in our society. Zora Neale Hurston once stated “If it was so honorable and glorious to be Black, why is it the yellow-skinned people among us had so much prestige” that is a question we must all ask ourselves. We claim to love and admire our tans but yet tear and break down the self-esteem of those with true melanin. The song “Black Hypocrisy” by Spice raises awareness towards colorism, something that is often overlooked and ignored but is still affecting women of color today, this song is meant for us to listen and learn something so that we may all help prevent the separation and division within friends, families, and even communities.

Spice’s released photo revealed the biases and hypocrisy within the Black Community. She used timing and suspense as a way to get people fired up. When she posted a picture of her with bleached skin she knew people were going to talk and it was going to go viral. In an interview she told us, “ I want to create awareness to colorism and it was more so done intentionally to create shock value so that i can have the world’s undivided attention to deliver the message in my music”. Like many others, Spice has been getting a lot of comments about her skin, critics in her comments have told her she looked dirty and ugly as a darkskin but as soon as she bleached her skin they started contradicting themselves and judging her for going through with the procedure. She told us in an interview with Genise, “Dem seh mi black til mi shine, til mi look dirt” a person commented those words under her picture and she used it in the song. She also stated “And it's the only line in life that will ever hurt me”. Spice is connecting to her audience by letting us know just how hurtful people from your own community can be and although it was two years ago the girl commented those words she never forgot it because of how it made her feel. Stephen from UrbunIslanders stated, “Spice has proven herself to be a marketing genius and this week we saw the shock-value of her “skin bleaching” stunt paid off in a big way” her use of timing and suspense really helped her gain more attention. People love to voice their opinions and critic others and spice knew that, she knew if she posted a photo of herself with bleached skin everyone would want to chime in on how they feel about her new look and by doing so it would show what their true colors were.

The visuals in the song “Black Hypocrisy” help teach girls to love themselves and love their skin first. For century beauty has been defined as having pale skin, the farther away you are from that Snow-White definition of beauty, the uglier you are viewed. In the video you can see Spice wearing her natural afro-hair and and shirts that have inspirational words on them. Those words are : Beautiful, lovely, attractive, courageous, and Kind. Making her dancers wear their natural hair out helps relay the message of acceptance. It makes her audience see that afros and kinky curly hair is a beauty within itself. On top of that, the words on the shirts the girls wear as they march together gives her fans confidence to show the world they are proud of their natural look. Spice’s visuals are meant to encourage and motivate black women show the world their true selves and embrace their melanin.

Through Spice’s lyrics we see how colorism can be found anywhere, it can even be homegrown. These lyrics specifically show how damaging that is to a young child’s mentality, “Cause I was told I would reach further If the colour of my skin was lighter And I was made to feel inferior Cah society seh brown girls prettier/../I get hate from my own race. Yes, that's a fact” (lines 1-12). You can go inside a family home and find a little girl whom is darker than her siblings and is treated much differently because of her skin color. People would tell her “ you look nothing like your sister, she’s so pretty” even though they have the same nose, same lips, same smile, the same features, everything but the skin color, that girl was me. Not only did it ruin my self-esteem but it took away my voice as well. I felt like I couldn’t talk to people because I wasn’t pretty enough and all they would see was an ugly girl trying way too hard to fit in. In an experiment on Youtube there is a woman named Cat that stated “ putting my hair in a messy bun and putting on sweats and going outside I couldn't do that because if I do that as a darker skin woman… somebody might think I was homeless or that i didn’t shower today” a lot of dark skin women can relate to this because society has made it hard for them to free themselves of the burden of always having to look fashionable before revealing yourself to the world. I remember seeing my step-sister lighten her skin with bleaching lotion every morning and me wishing I was old enough so I could do the same. I wanted to wake up in the morning and look cute and not have to worry about fixing my hair, ironing my clothes or getting my nails done every week so I can look like ‘clean’. Christopher Charles stated “ their skin is too dark; brown skin is beautiful; to attract intimate partners; skin bleaching is popular; light skin is fashionable; friends are engaged in the practice; the skin bleachers want to get ahead in life” that is what Skin Bleachers had to say when he interviewed them to see why they would go through this process. Spice realizes that colorism has created so much self-hatred that she had to use her lyrics to she warn her fans to be aware of what we say to others because we can be guilty of being colorists ourselves without even knowing.

The effect of colorism has become so extreme that people have gone through surgical procedures in order to kill their melanin and Spice used that as a tool when she went and got a temporary treatment to make herself lighter. During slavelry people believed the lighter you were, the closer you are to wealth and freedom because those with lighter complexions were given special treatments like working indoors while dark-skinned slaves worked outdoors in the fields and picked cotton. Till this day people bleach their skin as soon as they get rich. We can look at artists such as Beyonce, Rihanna and Lil Kim; when they first came out they were all brown skinned women but as the years went by the lighter they become. Now when you look at them they are all of lighter complexion, they are considered light-skin now. Another great example is of our late King of Pop Michael jackson. When Michael found out he had an indigo instead of embracing it and getting a tan or injections to make him darker he decided to get rid of his melanin. He told us that even in his household his own father used to bully him because of his skin tone. It is true that people think the lighter you are the more polished you look and Spice wanted to let people know how these small comments can impact a person’s life in the long run. She wanted to let the world know that we shouldn’t allow color to determine how wealthy we are or how successful we can be.

Spice shows us that in this society skin tone plays a role in who gets ahead and who doesn’t and wants us to start changing history so that our communities and family bonds can be stronger. We need to teach the new generation a different lesson and not allow color to separate us from each other. We shouldn’t break down our children’s self-esteem over something that happened hundreds of years ago. Spice’s song “Black Hypocrisy” doesn’t just explain to us her personal experience but it teaches us to be strong and how to have self-love. Her tactics and words are very moving. The way she managed to get everyone on social media fired up was strategically masterful. She allowed them to voice their opinions so that later she can call them on their hypocrisy and wake them up. Having the girls in her video walk around with positive messages on their shirts motivates her audience to protest and fight against discrimnagation. By using the same hurtful aggressive words ,that people have said to her personally, in her lyrics makes the listeners connect to her emotionally. Spice did an amazing job at bringing awareness to colorism and its toll on the Black community. She showed us how we ourselves are guilty of it whether we are aware or not. “Black Hypocrisy” was created to introduce colorism to the rest of the world, tell those guilty of being colorists to change their ways and teach dark skin women that it is okay to love yourself and that society is not always right.