Alleged felon and rapist, Kodak Black, recently announced via an Instagram live stream that he wouldn’t date a black woman in response to a fan asking if he would date KeKe Palmer. Black followed this statement by saying that he would date Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Lopez but black women are just not his preference.
Unfortunately for Kodak Black, black women could not have cared less. In fact, it seemed most black women were rejoicing at the fact that this convicted rapist/ trash rapper was sparing them. Many took to Twitter to express their disdain at Black for being so blatantly colorist, but many also poked fun at the rapper for assuming he even had a chance with black women.
The irony of Kodak Black talking about he doesn't like black girls like any of us liked his ugly ass.
— Kennedy ✨ (@HelloKennedi) June 25, 2017
https://twitter.com/anitaphaker/status/878968760723542017
Oh my god, I am so surprised that Kodak Black doesn't like black girls. Wow. Who would've thought. pic.twitter.com/YBxcPrkMGZ
— g☆ (@MurderGeeWrote) June 25, 2017
What was problematic about Kodak Black stating his “preference” lies within the fact that he gave us an excellent example of colorism in the black community, a term coined by Alice Walker in her 1983 book, In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens. She defined the term as,
a prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their colour
To elaborate, for generations, light-skinned black women have commonly been of preference in comparison to dark-skinned black women. Due to this, Walker coined the term colorism and marked it as an evil that was preventing African Americans from progressing as a people.
The problem with Kodak Black’s colorist comments is that it further perpetuates the ideology that dark-skinned black women are not enough and that they are constantly in competition with light-skinned black women or women of other races. Blatantly stating you’re not attracted to a woman because of the color of her skin is not simply a “preference”, it’s discrimination. It also shows Kodak Black’s self-hate as an African-American man himself. In fact, adding fuel to the fire, Black responded to all the hate he was receiving by stating that he loves African-American women, but it’s just not his forte to “deal” with one (as though African-American women need to be dealt with).
With this in mind, it is important to remember that black women deal with this hatred and discrimination on the daily. Instead of uplifting and supporting black women, it often feels as though black men are constantly finding ways to hate on us in order to make themselves look better in the eyes of white people.
Hopefully one day, African-American men (and men of all races) with the same mentality as Kodak Black will learn to refrain from using colorist language and separating black women based on the tones of their skin.
However, it’s not hopeful.
