During a recent interview, rapper Kodak Black said that he prefers light-skinned black women over dark-skinned black women, sparking controversy over negative thoughts on complexion and race. “Light skinned women they more sensitive,” he said. “[Dark-skinned women], they too tough. Light-skinned women, we can break them down more easy.”
Posting a video of the interview to her 15.4 million Instagram followers, Amber Rose denounced Kodak’s statements. “Smh this really makes me so sad,” she wrote. “Being a ‘yellowbone’ 🙄 mixed light-skinned woman I know unfortunately that Modeling jobs, boys and opportunities came to me easier but did not realize that until I got older. Growing up in Philly I went to an all black school. I was the ‘white girl’ The one that the boys DIDN’T like, The girl that wasn’t as cool as the brown skinned girls. Black was the thing to be!”
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Rose reflected on how these childhood memories impacted her own views on race and complexion. “My mom was my only black parent, my dad was as white as snow and I came out just as light as him,” she added. “I would lay out in the sun and try to get as dark as I could. I would look at all of the beautiful dark skinned girls in my class and wish that I could wear bright color shirts like they did but it never quite looked as good on my complexion…… but the Brown skinned girls would pick on me, pull my hair and want to fight me for no reason? Why tho?! I loved them! I wanted to be them! Little did I know at such a young age society was teaching them to hate me.
“Society was telling these girls that they weren’t as beautiful as me because of their complexion,” she continued. “They were too strong and too outspoken. It was OK for men to have sex with them behind closed doors but not OK to have them on their arm. As if light skinned girls were some type of trophy for a man, it was a social status smh. Insinuating that he had money or he just had a ‘bad bitch’. I wanted to be them and they wanted to be me.”
Rose explained that this thought process was also prevalent in the workplace. “Getting older,” she wrote, “I found myself always battling racism and feminism, asking directors why isn’t there any dark skinned girls in the music videos I was featured in? Even when I was Stripper maybe there were 1 or 2 brown skinned girls that would get hired because they didn’t want the club to be too ‘Black’ 😔”
Kodak’s comments on complexion began during a recent Instagram Live stream, in which he was asked if he would be with actress/singer Keke Palmer. “I’d bag her,” he replied. “But I don’t really like black girls like that, sorta, kinda.”
Following backlash over his comments, Kodak reiterated: “I love black African-American women,” he said. “It’s just not my forte to deal with a ‘darkskin’ woman…I prefer them to have a lighter complexion than me. #MyPreference #F**kYou.”
During his most recent interview, the one that Rose posted, he continued. “I just said I don’t like women with my complexion,” he said. “I like light skin women. I want you to be lighter than me. I love African-American women, but I just don’t like my skin complexion. My complexion, we too gutter.”
In her response, Rose also called for unity in the face of discrimination. “We need to stick together as women and educate society, educate men like this with black mothers,” she said. “Not let men/people dictate what type of woman is in style or more beautiful. We are all smart and capable of being great! No matter where we come from or what complexion we are! If no one tells you you’re beautiful I’m here to tell you that you are! 😍 let’s change the stigma I love you all.”
Rose’s annual SlutWalk is set to take place Sept. 30 – Oct. 1 in Los Angeles.
Source: Rap-Up