WEBVTT

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I'm Black.

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Ever since I can remember,
this is how I describe myself.

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Now, describing myself as Black
was never something I did with hate.

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I was one of those kids
that had to think about race

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because when you grow up
with a white Jesus,

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you will have some questions
as to why he doesn't look like you.

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My mother was the first person

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to really shape my views
on race and diversity.

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Her explanation was simple:

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there are people who are Black,
White, Asian, etcetera,

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and although we all look different,
we're all the same.

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And that was that.

NOTE Paragraph

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I was in sixth grade when I found out
that I wasn't just Black -

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I was, in fact, brown-skinned,

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so in the middle
of the Black color spectrum.

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The term brown-skinned is a relative one.

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Compared to whom?

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No one knows because it's all made up
and varies from person to person.

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And yet, there's a very clear
understanding amongst most people

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that Drake is light-skinned
and Lupita Nyong'o is dark-skinned.

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I thought, "That's plausible."

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There are people light-skinned,
brown-skinned, dark-skinned.

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And in my Brooklyn middle school
full of Black people,

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I thought there was no divide
between said shades of Black.

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I mean, everyone hung out with everyone,
and everyone was generally respected,

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even if there was the occasional,
"Yo, you mad dark."

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Basically, there were other things

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that we, as kids, focused on
that determined our social stratification.

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Then I went to high school,
and I began to notice a couple of things.

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I realized that the world around me

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was a little biased towards people
with lighter skin.

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I realized girls with lighter skin
got more likes and comments on Instagram.

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And that guys I liked
only went after certain kind of girls.

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I also realized that darker people

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were not being represented in the TV shows
and movies that I was watching.

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And if they were,

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they were the ghetto
all-up-in-your-face like this,

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secondary character.

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However, the effects colorism
had on me at the time

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were things I thought
I could avoid and even counter

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by not giving it my energy
and living my life.

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And so I did.

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And for a while, it worked

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because I managed to convince myself -
if I can separate myself from the problem,

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I could avoid it.

NOTE Paragraph

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That all changed when I got to college.

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Because here, amongst all the college boys
and college pressures,

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I learned a lot about myself
and a lot more about the world around me.

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For the first time,
I no longer had the safety net

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of having people
who thought exactly like me.

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For the first time, the spectrum
of brown wasn't a spectrum.

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It was a dichotomy.

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You were either light-skin or dark-skin.

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I was considered dark skin,

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and people didn't see
that as a good thing.

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I mean, of course, no one said to me,

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"Amaya, you're dark-skinned,
so you're ugly."

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But there were plenty of microaggressions
that made it very clear.

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You know, the whole:

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"It's not that dark-skinned
girls are ugly.

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I just have a preference
for lighter girls."

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It was here that I realized
that colorism is alive and well,

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and people don't like to talk about it.

NOTE Paragraph

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So what is colorism anyways?

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Although this is not a new phenomenon -

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it was finally coined in 1982
by Alice Walker, who defined it

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as prejudicial or preferential treatment
of same-race people based solely on color.

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The key term here is same-race people,

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which makes it just a little 
bit different than plain racism.

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It's kind of like this:

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if America was a tree,
and its roots were racism,

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colorism would be like a leaf

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stemming off of the branch
that's Eurocentrism.

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This is because since Europeans
came into contact with Africans,

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they believed that they
were the better race.

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And this whole idea that light
was better than dark -

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because white was better than Black -

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never really went away.

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And this is bad

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because this means that not only
do darker Black people

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have to deal with racism from white people
and people who aren't Black,

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they also have to deal
with harsher treatment from other Blacks

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because they're darker
than a brown paper bag.

NOTE Paragraph

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There are so many reasons
this phenomenon is problematic.

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However, for the sake of time,
I'll only share a few.

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Colorism creates a stereotype
about what acceptable Blackness is.

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It creates a model Black, if you will,

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and colorism pits Black people
against each other,

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which is what the white man wants.

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So understand that light-skinned people
are not to blame for colorism.

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They can't help the way they were born.

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However, light-skinned
privilege does exist

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because along with these views
and notions and stereotypes

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of what acceptable Blackness
is come negative views

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and notions and stereotypes

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of people who do not fit
into this "whitist" Black box.

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These stereotypes include:
being less educated, more ghetto, uglier

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and, overall, less proper
than their lighter-skinned counterparts.

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And this is seen
everywhere throughout time.

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It's seen in minstrel shows

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where white men would dress up
as a dark caricatures

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and look almost idiotic
to make fun of Black people.

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It's still seen in television today

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where dark characters
are used as tools by writers

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to contrast light characters,

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so that the lighter characters
seem more vulnerable and soft.

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For example, Penny Proud
from the Proud family

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and her best friend, Dijonay Jones,

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with their eight brothers and sisters
and a hard-to-pronounce name.

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Or Pam and Gina from the Fox show Martin.

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It's also in critically
acclaimed literature.

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For example, Toni Morrison's
"The Bluest Eye,"

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where the main character,
Pecola Breedlove,

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was told over and over again

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that because she was dark,
she was not pretty.

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And she internalized that,

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and that made her
hate light-skinned people.

NOTE Paragraph

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The reason why this is so problematic

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is because darker people
will go to drastic lengths

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to become this model Black

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to receive the privileges
associated with it.

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This is why Caribbean people
bleach their skin.

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This is why women tell their children,

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"Don't go outside for too long
or you'll get too dark."

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And this is why some dark men,
and women, in fact,

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find the lightest person they can
to marry and have children with,

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so that their children
aren't dark like they are.

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This percolates the self-hatred
and pits Black people against each other.

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Another thing to understand -

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pitting Black people against each other -

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not a new phenomenon.

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It was used during slavery
from white people to divide and conquer.

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White people do it now
for the same reason.

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If you get Black people to hate each other

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for something so natural and biological
as the color of their skin,

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it's less likely
that they'll come together,

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which means it's less work
you need to do to stay in power.

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This phenomenon is shown best
in Spike Lee's movie "School Daze"

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where one highlight
of the movie is a musical scene

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where light-skinned and dark-skinned women
spew insults at each other, including:

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jigaboo, nappy-headed and wannabe.

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White people will also use this
to excuse their racist intentions

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or notions.

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By giving these model Blacks
special privileges

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and helping them rise to the top,

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they can hold these model Blacks
over the rest of the race, saying,

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"The system isn't the reason
you're failing.

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Look at these people:

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They're succeeding.
You're the reason you're not.

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These model Blacks ...

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are succeeding."

NOTE Paragraph

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And the craziest part is ...

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this isn't even a phenomenon
only seen in the Black community.

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Communities such as the Asian,
South Asian and Latinx communities

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experience the same thing.

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Colorism in these communities
takes many different forms.

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Whether it's a Chinese laundry commercial

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featuring a dark man
going into a washer machine

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to become a lighter, more Chinese person

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or Filipino people being told

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that they're at the bottom
of the Asian totem pole

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because they're dark.

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In Bollywood, there's
been an outcry in recent years

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because Bollywood movies
use too small of a range of skin tones

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to represent the entire Indian population.

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As a result,

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some people have started countermovements
to counter this harmful propaganda,

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such as Nandita Das and her
"Why Dark Is Beautiful" campaign.

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Latinx stars such as Amara La Negra
receive significant backlash

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over trying to break the mold
of what mainstream Latinx stars look like,

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including hyper-scrutinization
over her hair and skin,

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being accused of Blackface
and not even being considered Latina.

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So because this is something
that affects so many people,

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you'd think it's something
that more people spoke up about.

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And yes, there's been increased interest
in the whole colorism thing.

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However, the reason it's not as loud

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as it could be is because people
think it's natural.

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They've never been exposed
to anything different.

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It's what they grew up on.

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And even if you did grow up
in a household like I did

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where you were taught

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that your Black's beautiful
or your brown's beautiful

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and that your dark skin was great
and your hair's also great,

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once you walk out that door,

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you will feel all
of the effects of colorism.

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Period.

NOTE Paragraph

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So what was the point
of me telling you this?

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Well, I believe the famous quote goes,

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"The first step to recovery
is admitting that you have a problem."

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And yes, there are a lot
of problems out there - er, Trump.

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However, the reason they're being fixed
is because there are people out there

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who are working tirelessly
to get the public

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to acknowledge that there's something
that needs to be fixed.

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And this is one of them.

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I don't have one
particular solution to colorism

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because I'm one girl,
and I've had only one experience.

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However, I do want to stress something.

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Once America and the rest
of the world, really,

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recognize that colorism isn't natural,

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and that instead it's been instilled
in our minds for generations

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that lighter is better,

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then we as humans can start
the decolorization process.

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We need to kick this to the curb
and leave it in our past

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because do we really want
our time on Earth to look like this?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)