MovieChat Forums > Dark Girls (2011) Discussion > The First Scene

The First Scene

posted 10 years ago by Mehki_Girl
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The first scene was sad. How did such a little girl (a very pretty little girl by the way) learn so early that she was ugly? I can remember the first time, the term "Black" was used for us (back in the 60's) and I found it so acceptable (I remember a teacher being very confused by our teenaged embrace of this word. And I remember hating the word "colored" and "negro", especially when used by white people. No explanation I can give other than I hated them using it. My grandfather used the word "colored" and occasionally "negro". Negro was usually used in a slightly condescending way. We (the younger generation) used the "n" word but it was used affectionately to describe black men (as in there were some really fine "n's" at that party).

Of course I know about those whole light skin, dark skin thing, but I was really beginning to believe that a lot of had gotten over that crap. I work with a dark skin coworker. She's 60 overweight, dresses nicely, and sometimes when she is talking to me, I think about how beautiful she is (she loves compliments and gets them often) and I also often wonder, what she was told as a child. Was she made to believe she was ugly or did she have the confidence then that she had now? I hope she wasn't made to feel that way. My mom also told me about how only light-skinned black women were used in films back in the 30's and 40's.

It's really so silly (but not silly because it causes so much pain to so many brown and black people all over the world, i.e. Latin American countries have a gradation system that is based on how light you are and how white you look (not how white genetically you are), in India and Africa [that really, really makes me sad] are slatering whitening cream on their faces, meanwhile whites (at least in the US) are tanning themselves on the beach, out of plastic bottles, with spray ons, and in tanning beds.

Anyway...just random thoughts....

[–] DisturbedPixie 10 years ago

I already stated my theory of partially how that little girl came to that conclusion (on another thread), but I think it's important to state it often.

How is a little girl supposed to think her hair is fine the way it is if her mother has her her fixed at the salon constantly? The mothers of these girls always have straight/fake/red/blonde hair, and they wonder how their girls can have such low self esteem. Because you'd look like your daughter if you left your hair natural! Instead they are buying Indian hair, or chemically destroying it or wearing wigs. Prove to your children that black is beautiful. Show them.

It starts at home. Yes the media is revolting, but that doesn't mean we can't change our culture starting in our own communities. Watch Good Hair by Chris Rock.

It is silly in a sense that white women want to be tan and black women want to be bleached. But what's not funny is that white women can now do it with a fake tan and black women are still bleaching their skin! That's causing serious damage! And of course it doesn't stop with black women, it's Asian women, middle eastern women and Latina women that are using this crap. That's the majority of the world's women thinking they need to bleach their skin, and it's crazy! Try to find some self respect and reject a white standard of beauty. White women don't even want to look white most of the time. So let it go. At least don't let your poor children see you inflicting self harm.

I personally don't like the race labels black and white, as black people are dark brown and white people are pink. Black and White has so many other connotations to it that it sets up black people to be seen negatively and white people to be seen overtly positively. It's just not helpful.

If I have the time, I often say African descent and European descent. It's factual. Even dark or light is factual though still has other definitions that can prove burdensome. Black and white is propaganda that has been engrained into us. Colored, negro and N-word just make black look better when compared, but it's not a great term. Colored, as said in this doc, is a stupid term anyways. I'd rather we just shorten these factual labels to Afros and Euros.