Progress of Different Shades of Black Women in Film

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Currently, in the African American community, the enemy no longer lies in the Caucasian community but from within the trenches of the African American conscious. Music videos and song content only feature lighter-skinned women. The features of the “mixed girls” are exploited and the darker shaded women struggle to gain visibility. Recently Pharrell Williams released an album that featured one medium brown woman out of dozens of Caucasian, Latina, and other mulatto women and the media erupted with disapproving comments. The movie Dark Girls surfaced to shed light into the troubles of the darker women and deeply rooted tension between the different shades of women in the African American community. As a darker skinned woman—I’ve come across the comment, several times “You’re cute to be dark-skinned.” Although the comment is a compliment, and to be upset seems a bit trivial, it limits the quality of the expression. It causes one to feel beautiful within confines of constructed ugliness. Darker women are associated with ugliness and on an ugly scale from one to ten –ten being not so ugly—I just make it above water. These implications reveal a deeper issue within the cultural society.
Film not only portrays the surface level issues in a depicted society, but it also sheds light into the unconscious problems and social structures in a particular community. In the United States, in the 1700’s and 1800’s, privilege belonged to white people only. Later on the hierarchy of opportunity shifted, giving a select few the benefits of mobility, sexual preference, and economic superiority, and instead of the divide consisting of only black and white, it stratified even further into light and dark. The films Imitation of Life, Guess Who’s Coming t...

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...nn. Columbia TriStar Home Video, 1998. Film.
Howell, Llewellyn D. "Losing The Race To Erase Racism." USA Today Magazine 139.2790 (2011): 62-65. MasterFILE Elite. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Imitation of Life. Dir. Douglas Sirk. Perf. Lana Turner, Juanita Moore, John Gavin, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner. Universal International Pictures, 1959. Film.
Lindsey, Treva B. "Black No More: Skin Bleaching And The Emergence Of New Negro Womanhood Beauty Culture." Journal Of Pan African Studies 4.4 (2011): 97-116. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
Shaft. Dir. Gordon Parks. Perf. Richard Roundtree, Moses Gunn. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1970. Film.
Watson, Stevie Thornton, Corliss G. Engelland, Brian T. "Skin Color Shades In Advertising to Ethnic Audiences: The Case of African Americans." Journal of Marketing Communications 16.4 (2010): 185. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

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