In Western society, lightness is seen as soft, gentle, and pure, but darkness is associated with evil, violence and fear. This toxic mindset has been put in place in Western media, such as film, and music. As someone who is darker skinned living in a Western country, I have only seen black people with small noses, light skin and smaller facial features portrayed in media. With the lack of darker skinned people in media, this has diminished the confidence in darker skinned people everywhere, including myself at one point.
Colorism is defined as, prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. For example, in the television sitcom, Martin, Gina, Martin’s love interest, who has light skin, is seen as beautiful, kind and silly. Her friend, Pam, who has darker skin, is seen as loud, belligerent and annoying. While it is not obvious, this enforces the stereotype that dark skinned women, when compared to their light skinned counterparts, are less beautiful.
Colorism in media can also be seen in movie roles. Lighter skinned men are seen in a more positive light, while darker skinned people are seen negatively. Since silent films, dark skin women have been assigned the “mammy” role (To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone With the Wind), angry/sassy/bitter (Clueless, Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls) or overly sexualized (Coming to America, Monster’s Ball). Although it might not be shown, this puts black women into a box. Western media creates stereotypes based on the things that we see in media, if we are shown that black women are supposed to take care of white people, are angry, sassy or bitter or that they are hypersexual, then we are going to subconsciously believe that this is the way that things are supposed to be.
In Gone With the Wind, the only main black character is Mammy, the house servant. Since this film was made in the 1930s, this was very common for the culture of the United States at the time. The problem is that not much has changed in representation since then. According to a study done by San Diego State University, black female characters made up 14% of the top 100 films of 2016. Meanwhile, their white counterparts made up 76% of roles.
In media, representation matters. Although there have been improvements, such as in the Oscar winning film, Moonlight, the upcoming Marvel blockbuster, Black Panther, and the riveting space epic, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, there are still ways that the film industry can improve. If we are able to shy away from these toxic, problematic stereotypes and put more black directors and producers behind the camera, then we can pave the way for the future of film and have more diversity and inclusivity in media.
