Oprah’s Life Class on Colorism

Recently on Oprah’s Life Class on Colorism, many young African American women came together to converse on a very tough topic within the community. This rising dilemma Oprah calls ‘The Secret Shame’, also known as Colorism, is a prejudice act where people within the same race discriminate against each other based on the shades of their skin. There has been a lot of talk about the privilege of lighter skin over darker skin tones and how it has truly effected African Americans as a whole. People of darker shades have felt hurt and betrayed by lighter shades due to the rejection Colorism has caused while others may feel another way but just like the saying says, ‘there’s two sides to every story’.

During a scene in Oprah’s show, a young woman who herself is light skin explained why she didn’t understand the discrimination that has divided a race based on the preferences of skin tones. Everyone who had light skin did not consider themselves to be any better or smarter than any other African American woman. Privilege was not always the mindset and she took the time to help woman of darker skin tones understand exactly what she meant. She stated, “I’ve seen first-hand how some of my darker-skinned family members are treated, but I too struggle with discrimination. Being a light-skinned girl, you get called names. You get called ‘lite-brite,’ you get called ‘high yellow,’ ‘redbone.’ This is a reality every day.” Not only women of lighter shades feel effected by the bashing of the name calling but they felt just as neglected as women with darker shades of skin.

Dark-skinned women on the other hand, felt completely different from woman who were lighter. While watching the documentary, Dark Girls, one could see the emotional baggage African...

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...n ground in the midst of the selection of preferences. African American women with darker and lighter complexions suffered some type of emotional baggage and rejection at a point in their lives. Although one is seen to have privilege, it was never the light skinned woman’s intention to be as superior as she is. She carries privilege but, “both experienced the same things but just on the end of two different spectrum”, states American Inspirational Speaker, Iyanla Vanzant. The Secret Shame has always perceived dark woman as being the inferior but at the end of the day Colorism not only effects woman of darker complexions but woman of lighter complexions as well. No matter how hard one tries to change who they are they have to understand how this really affects the other and until then things have to be said, feelings have to surface, and hearts have to be mended.