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Wednesday, Mar 3, 2009 11 PM PST:THE MINORITY REPORT
SHADES OF COLOR IN HOLLYWOOD: “DARK GIRLS”
But with all we know through the sciences of genetics, anthropology, biology and other corroborating scientific disciplines, we still don't know why skin color continues to be a primary factor in the physical and emotional way that billions of human beings around the world interact with one another in all manners of social, business, economic, political, and the most personal of societal undertakings.
In what has been touted by most (white journalists and pundits) in the mainstream media as America's new “post-racial society” by the election of Barack Obama as U.S. President, the following quote on that election campaign by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid became a headliner in the nation's media last month:
“He (Reid) was wowed by Obama's oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama – a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,'……".
And with that quote, the new “post-racial” societal construct everyone was talking about came to a screeching, fish tailing halt.
As one black internet blogger rhetorically queried: “Were Obama's odds of being elected greater because he is a light-skinned rather than a dark-skinned black man? The answer is almost surely yes. The fact is that Americans show a clear preference for lighter-skinned African Americans. Tests of beauty perceptions show that Americans prefer light-brown skin to darker skin or pale skin.
He further added: “Let's just say people like Obama, Colin Powell, Eric Holder, and Halle Berry probably would have had an even harder time earning fame and fortune were their considerable talents and efforts contained in a darker package.”
(Ever heard of The 1940 Clark Doll Experiment? A study that found that black children aged 6 to 9 often preferred to play with white dolls over black; and that the black kids gave the color "white" attributes such as good and pretty, but "black" was qualified as bad and ugly?)
Echoing the thought that color still matters, L.A. Times Entertainment Reporter Patrick Goldstein, in an article criticizing the latest Vanity Fair Hollywood edition cover photo shot by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz of all white "up and coming" actresses, he said, “….It's not all that different in Hollywood, where there are oh so few black executives, agents, managers, producers and filmmakers. It's especially true of the movie business celebrated in Vanity Fair's 2010 Hollywood issue, which just arrived on my doorstep this week….” (It was less than a one day story in the mainstream media.)
2. CHAN BERRY - director of the documentary "Dark Girls"
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