In this op-ed, Tiffany Onyejiaka explores how colorism causes a lack of representation for all forms of Black beauty in Hollywood.

Over the past few years, the "Black Girl Magic" movement has exploded onto the movie and television screens across the country. And while it's a huge step for on-screen representation, there's just one problem: This representation tends to be limited by Hollywood's colorism problem.

The range of young female blackness displayed on the big screen does not represent the range of blackness seen in today’s society. Based on American media, an outsider could rightfully assume the vast majority of black women in this country are light-skinned, which is not the case. Despite the rise in diversity on film, many black girls are not still not seeing many actors who look like them on-screen. Even Zendaya herself has addressed this, as she openly admitted to “have a bit of a privilege compared to [her] darker sisters and brothers” in her acting career due to having light skin. “If I get put in a position because of the color of my skin where people will listen to me, then I should use that privilege the right way," she's said.

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And this is what Hollywood needs to realize: That casting agents, producers, and directors tend to gravitate toward a very distinct type of black girl who fits the "Halle Berry" aesthetic: slim, light-skinned, and classically attractive in a Eurocentric sense.

Jason LaVeris

To be clear, Hollywood’s issue of colorism is not the fault of light-skinned actresses. They are not the ones perpetuating the belief that a black woman must have light skin and straight or curly hair to be cast as a leading lady. The fault lies with Hollywood producers and casting agents who refuse to push the boundaries and cast young, dark black women in important movie roles — including roles that were made specifically for them. They choose to endorse an incredibly narrow selection of black women, yet at the same time, want to get accolades for achieving diversity and representation on-screen. This is a problem that’s particular to black women; Just look at dark-skinned male actors like Idris Elba, John Boyega, and Shameik Moore, who are able to achieve a level of success that eludes their dark-skinned female counterparts. While modern Hollywood has made progress in tackling its racist history by increasing representation of black people, they are failing to adequately represent the diversity of blackness, particularly for women.

Zendaya's statement just shines light on how Hollywood has long opted for a light-skinned black female in a role explicitly based on a dark-skinned individual or character. In 2016, Afro-Latinx actress Zoe Saldana created a storm of controversy for her portrayal of Nina Simone, a renowned singer and activist. Instead of casting a dark-skinned actress, producers chose to cast a lighter one, and altered her to look like Nina. For the role, Zoe donned a prosthetic nose and skin-color-altering makeup to mimic Nina’s appearance. In X-Men, the character Storm is of Kenyan descent with dark skin and yet, has been portrayed by biracial actors, Halle Berry and Alexandra Shipp, in the movie renditions.

Why does this matter? Why does it matter that a black woman with lighter skin is portraying a black character with dark skin? Why does it matter that some of the most popular black actresses are light-skinned? Because it indicates that Hollywood still overwhelmingly believes that a black woman must possess non-black ancestry or features to be considered beautiful or valuable. Likewise, many black actors with dark skin and "blacker" features are being denied access to film roles.

"It indicates that Hollywood still overwhelmingly believes that a black woman must possess non-black ancestry or features to be considered beautiful or valuable."

In 1982, author Alice Walker coined the term "colorism" to describe the prejudices uniquely targeted to black people with darker skin and kinkier hair. Colorism is a ideology from the slavery era where slaves with lighter skin were given a host of privileges not awarded to their dark-skinned counterparts. Colorism created the belief that lighter-skinned black people are better, smarter, and more attractive than their darker-skinned counterparts because they have a closer proximity to whiteness.

That’s not to diminish what people like Zendaya, Amandla Stenberg, and Yara Shahidi have achieved as both actors and activists for representation. Much of their successes are deserved due to the time they have put into their craft and into inspiring teens around the globe to take a stance. But imagine what would happen if dark-skinned actresses were also given superstar roles and the large platforms that come with them — we’d probably see a much more diverse range of outspoken young black stars challenging the status quo all around us.

Though one could argue that the prevalence of actresses like Skai Jackson invalidates the argument of colorism, it’s important to realize that she is the exception and not the rule. It can be argued that the success of critically acclaimed actresses such as Viola Davis also negates colorism, but it does not. Viola has spoken publicly about the struggles she has faced in her industry due to her skin tone. Likewise, she, similarly to many other dark-skinned actresses, was not able to find success until later in her career.

All black women struggle to get roles and recognition in Hollywood. Any black woman finding success in Hollywood, whether light-skinned, dark-skinned, or somewhere in between, is a success for the black community. But Hollywood cannot reach true inclusivity until women with darker skin receive adequate representation as well. When we celebrate and champion a #blackgirlmagic that glaringly excludes dark-skinned black girls, we reinforce the belief that they are invisible and not worthy of anyone’s celebration. True representation will occur when a black girl, of any shade or hair texture, can go to the movies and watch actors that look just like her. Until then, we have to keep pushing, fighting, and not settling or praising representation that does include the full spectrum of black beauty.

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