In this episode, Brendane and Alyssa tackle a fraught subject in the Black community: colorism. We discuss the paper bag test, dating “loophole” women for ascendance vs. unambiguously Black women to legitimize one’s blackness. In our What We’re Reading segment, we bring things full circle with Alice Walker’s essay where she coins the term colorism, addresses why talking about colorism in relationships (platonic and romantic) is political, and the way she gathers all y’all faves! In our What in the World?! segment, we discuss interracial relationships IRL and on TV, Blackish Love on OWN, Jessica Krug and the fetishization of light-skinned women and Latinx identity in academia, “racial ambiguity,” skin bleaching, and the image “That Little Girl Was Me” that depicted Kamala Harris walking with the shadow of Ruby Bridges. Hold on to your seats, friends, because things get HOT!
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Discussed in this episode:
Dark Girls (2011) and Dark Girls 2 (2020)
Here Comes the Sun (Nicole Dennis-Benn, 2016)
Black Love (Oprah Winfrey Network, 2020)
Transcript is available on our website here.
Be sure to check out the Syllabus for Zora’s Daughters 100 – no prerequisites needed!
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