00:00Translator: Marcelo Papetti
Reviewer: Queenie Lee
00:11The movie "Straight Outta Compton"
comes out. I'm so excited.
00:15I'm from LA, so this movie
is particularly close to my heart.
00:19I saw it in theaters three times.
00:22So I'm cruising the Internet devouring
everything I can about this movie.
00:25I come across the casting call.
00:27This movie has already come out
and I'm no actress,
00:30so I wouldn't actually audition,
00:32but I just wondered, hypothetically,
00:35if I did, what role would I get?
00:38I look at the casting call,
I'm going down the categories,
00:41and I start at the top: the A girls.
00:43The casting call reads:
00:45"These are the hottest
of the hottest, models,
00:49must have real hair, no extensions."
00:52Well, since I have 20 inches
of Brazilian hair extensions on my head,
00:57doesn't quite apply to me.
01:00I go to the next category: the B girls.
01:03The casting call reads:
"These are fine girls, long natural hair,
01:08must have light skin,
Beyoncé's the prototype hit here."
01:17And might I add: not even Beyoncé
made the cut to be an A girl.
01:24I go to the next category: the C girls.
01:27The casting call reads:
01:29"These are African American girls,
01:30can have extensions,
must be medium to light skin toned."
01:35Now, maybe back when I lived in Boston,
01:39in the middle of the winter
01:40can I get away with being
"medium skin toned,"
01:44but since I've come back
to sunny California
01:46where I spend all my free time
baking in the sun,
01:50So I scroll all the way down
01:53to the last category:
01:57The casting call reads:
"These are African American girls,
02:01poor, not in good shape,
02:04must have a darker skin tone."
02:09Well, I guess that's me:
02:16When I first read this, I felt betrayed.
02:20there are just a handful of movies
starring black actors and actresses,
02:24just a handful of opportunities
02:26when people can see actresses
that look like me, on the big screen,
02:29and see that we are fierce
and beautiful and desirable.
02:34Not even in these small circles
I'm allowed to feel beautiful?
02:37I felt shoved aside for those
of more "favorable" features:
02:42light skin, light eyes,
long, soft real hair.
02:48But the more I thought about it,
02:50the more the feeling
of betrayal slipped away
02:52for the more familiar feeling
of "that's just the way it is"
02:57because in my world,
this phenomenon is all too familiar.
03:02Something just as sinister
and subtle as racism:
03:06Colorism, the discrimination of those
with a darker skin tone,
03:10typically among individuals
within the same racial or ethnic group.
03:14The story of colorism in the US
begins with slavery.
03:17The mass rape of African slave females
by white male slave masters
03:22gave birth to a cohort
of mixed-race slave children.
03:25These mixed-race slaves are related
to the slave masters
03:28and had more Anglo features,
and were given preferential treatment
03:31and allowed to work inside the house,
doing less strenuous work,
03:34as opposed to the darker skinned slaves
03:36that had to work out in the fields,
doing more laborious work.
03:40Even after slavery was abolished,
03:42whites still gave more
preferential treatment
03:44to blacks that had
more Anglo-type features,
03:47giving them better access to jobs,
housing and education.
03:51The thing is, though,
even within the black community,
03:54black people used skin tone
and facial features
03:57to discriminate against each other.
04:00They would only allow
entrance into sororities,
04:03fraternities or elite social clubs
04:05to blacks that were able to display
Anglo-type features.
04:09They'd go through a series of tests
to see if you fit the bill.
04:12One well-known test was
04:14the "brown paper bag" test.
04:16Where if you were lighter
than a brown paper bag,
04:21But if you were darker
than a brown paper bag,
04:26Another well-known test
was the pencil test,
04:29where they would take a pencil
and run it through your hair
04:32to make sure that it's straight enough
so the pencil wouldn't get stuck.
04:37The last test was called the shadow test,
04:40where they would take a flashlight
and shine it against your profile
04:43and look at the shadow that your profile
made against the wall.
04:46And if it matched that
of a white person's profile,
04:51But if it didn't, you're out.
04:54Now, though these practices
are no longer in effect today,
04:57the effects of them
are still very much so present.
05:00I remember a common "compliment"
05:02I would often get
in middle and high school,
05:04often told to me by other black males;
it went to the effect of:
05:07"Oh! You're so pretty
for a dark skinned girl."
05:12that the media continues
to place a premium on lighter skin
05:15by retouching and photoshopping
the skin of actresses of color
05:20before putting them
on the cover of magazines,
05:23as can be seen here,
05:34Now, colorism is not
just isolated to the US,
05:37its effects are global,
05:39as best illustrated by the skin-lightening
and skin-bleaching creams
05:44In India and Asia alone,
05:46skin lightening and skin bleaching
is a multi-billion dollar business.
05:51Despite the harmful toxins
that are present in these products,
05:54people are still willing
to take the risk and use them
05:57in order to achieve what they
are led to believe is beautiful.
06:01And beauty products
have flocked on this insight.
06:04One known brand, "Vaseline,"
even partnered with Facebook
06:07to come up with an app that would
lighten the skin of you profile picture
06:11in order to promote
their skin-lightening cream.
06:14And you can't travel throughout Asia
without being inundated
06:17by advertising and commercials
06:20that promise happiness and success
if you could just be a little bit lighter.
06:31Studies have shown that these messages
that we see at a young age
06:35have a profound effect on us.
06:38In 2010, CNN did a study
06:41where they interviewed young children,
just five, six, seven years old,
06:44and asked them to place
values and attributes to people
06:47based on their skin tone.
06:49Here's a clip from that study.
06:53Interviewer: And why is she
the smart child?
06:55Girl: Because she is white.
07:00Interviewer: OK. Show me the dumb child.
07:05And why is she the dumb child?
07:07Girl: Because she's black.
07:10Interviewer: Well, show me the ugly child.
07:13And why is she the ugly child?
07:15Girl: Because she's black.
07:17Interviewer: Show me
the good-looking child.
07:20And why is she the good-looking child?
07:22Girl: Because she's light-skinned.
07:27Chika Okoro: These messages
that we see at such a young age
07:29and these messages that we internalize,
07:35They stayed with me.
07:38And though I denied it and blocked it out
and I say I'm strong, I'm smart,
07:41I'm accomplished, I'm beautiful,
I'm here at Stanford and I'm not a D girl,
07:46this stuff, these messages,
07:49they stayed with me.
07:51And they manifest in this voice
that makes me question,
07:54makes me doubt
and makes me think: "But wait ..."
08:01And so now, whenever someone
gives me compliment or says,
08:04"Oh! You look nice, you look pretty,"
08:06the voice fills in the rest
of the sentence with:
08:09"for a dark skinned girl."
08:14And it makes me question my intentions
08:16because even though I say
08:17that I have these extensions
just for fun and that I like them,
08:20that voice says "No!"
08:22"You got them because you're trying
to reach a beauty standard
08:25you can actually never obtain."
08:31Even as I go to send
a simple text message,
08:34that voice in my head tells me
08:36that I should be embarrassed
or ashamed when I scroll
08:40all the way to the end,
to the last, darkest emoji.
08:49But I don't want it to stay with me.
08:52And the good thing is it doesn't have to.
08:55Because these beauty
preferences that we have,
08:58they're not something we are born with,
09:02And if they're learned,
they can be unlearned.
09:05Among us are CEOs and co-founders,
directors of marketing,
09:09you all are the arbiters
of what society considers beautiful
09:12by deciding who you chose
to put in your advertising
09:14or who you chose to be
the face of you brand.
09:17So you have the opportunity
to make the unconventional choice.
09:22And those of us that consume
these messages, we play our role too.
09:25Because the first step
to change is awareness.
09:29And now everyone in this room
is a little more aware
09:32and will see the world
just a little bit differently.
09:35And you don't have to passively accept
09:37what society tells us
to think is beautiful.
09:40We can question it,
and we can challenge the status quo.
09:46we get one step closer to broadening
the standard of beauty
09:50and creating a society
where the world can see
09:53that D girls are beautiful too.
