00:00I'm here to tell you that light skin privilege exists.
00:03Light skin privilege stops to make you think,
00:06am I getting this because of a privilege that I was born with?
00:10I think light skin privilege is when lighter skinned people like myself
00:14are given preferential treatment or seen as softer or more feminine
00:19or more approachable than our darker skinned peers.
00:23We're seen as less black.
00:25I think that unfortunately because light skin is closer to white skin,
00:30it is viewed as more societally correct or societally desired.
00:37I would say that it's extremely ignorant to believe that having lighter skin
00:42does not help you in any sort of way.
00:45Black women in the workplace are often seen as aggressive or too bold
00:49and I feel that the fact that I have lighter skin, I have lighter eyes,
00:52I'm seen as more approachable or I fit in more with the white masses.
00:57I feel like light skin women, to be completely frank, are the palatable black women, you know,
01:04like we're the version of blackness that you can put on camera
01:08and not have anybody feel uncomfortable or freaked out.
01:11The media, which is still predominantly run by the views and the whims of the audiences
01:18and the eyeballs that they're collecting, does seem to skew still in the direction of light skin.
01:25I think diversity is more than just putting a light skinned girl with green eyes
01:31and maybe even blonde hair and freckles on the cover of your magazine.
01:34I don't know that that's diversity in its truest form.
01:37I don't know that that's the best way to represent all black women
01:41because the truth is not all black women look like this.
01:44I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood
01:48and I definitely feel the fact that I was lighter skin, I have lighter eyes.
01:52I was able to escape some of the prejudices my darker skinned classmates had to face.
01:57I wasn't seen as a troublemaker or a problem child that other black students were labeled.
02:03And while I am definitely not considered white
02:05and I definitely cannot move through the world like a white woman does,
02:09I definitely have privileges afforded to me that darker black women don't have.
02:14I think there's probably definitely been an advantage with guys dating.
02:18I hate when men compliment me on my eye color or my skin color
02:24or refer to me as exotic and they say oh I like exotic girls like you.
02:30It's insulting. It's insulting not just to me by reducing me to my attributes, my physical attributes.
02:37It's insulting to other black women because ultimately I am black
02:40and for them to see me as of higher value than a darker woman is insulting.
02:45Definitely not the type of guy I want to date.
02:47I've been out and had guys tell me that oh I don't really date black girls
02:52but I date light skinned girls.
02:55So like A, at what point does light skin stop being black?
02:59I have always, will always be a black woman first and foremost.
03:03Also, I am way more than my physical appearance.
03:07I think it's all on us to identify where notions of beauty and pretty come from
03:13and to be careful about the ways in which we are assigning value based on that.
03:17It's up to the people who benefit from it to say something.
03:21Thank you!
