How Hollywood casts black familys
Parents
Son
Daughter
Is there a sociological reason on why this is repeatedly done?
Colorism. A happy, successful black family? The women must be light skinned. Especially the young women
oh I know colorism is the base cause, I mean why specifically does the young woman in the family have to be light? is this some twisted fetish? the mom is always a medium brown, afro-american lady. The daughter is always mysteriously mixed, but not all women in the family look like her just her alone
I think that it has to do with what characteristics are most valued at different ages and the characteristics associated with dark and light skin tones. I think it’s no coincidence that the older a black woman is in the media the more likely she is to be dark skinned. Not always, but a lot of the time the grandmothers are darker skinned. That’s because the most valuable thing as an older woman is being a caregiver and that is one stereotype associated with dark skin tones. (I feel like this goes back to the “Mammy” archetype.) But as a young woman the most valuable characteristic is beauty. Our society sees racial ambiguity as the most beautiful thing so our young black women characters are never made to look like they are actually black. And if she’s the main character of course she has to be the most beautiful so they probably make all the other women darker than her to make her seem more beautiful. I feel like I’ve seen this a lot in tv shows where the “estranged sister” is dark skinned.
They also don’t consider dark skin feminine. Being a woman and being dark skinned is a literal oxymoron for them.
Yes. And if she is cast as dark skin she is abused to high fucking heaven or casted as a sapphire(angry) jezebel( promiscuous) or mammy(eternal caregiver) rarely three dimensional
One of THE worst examples is Coming to America, where the light skinned daughter was refined, classy, and sophisticated, and chaste compared to her over-sexed younger sister who was darkskinned, always trying to fuck, and generally all the negative stereotypes rolled into one.
Another horrible example is the sitcom Martin, where the light skinned girlfriend was refined, classy, and sophisticated compared to her dark skinned friend who can’t keep a man, was loud and obnoxious, always humiliated for having beady beads, and generally all the negative stereotypes rolled into one.
Colorism even exists in animated series like The Proud Family where the light skinned Penny was refined, classy, and sophisticated compared to dark skinned Dijonay the “fast ass lil girl”, bad influence, named after mustard with 8 siblings named after spices, and generally all the negative stereotypes rolled into one.
This post is for black folk
