“Well, well, well would you looky here,”
ANOTHER FAKE CONSCIOUS MUTHER F-KER EXPOSED. I will never support him nor his
music with one dime of my money and encourage all dark-skinned women not to
either!” Those were the words that I typed shortly after hearing from a dark
skinned young lady who I had been counseling for the past six months. This young lady’s issues were urgent and
pressing. Depressed and alone she had been suicidal due to the numerous dark
skinned female oppressive experiences she had endured. I felt it was my duty
and responsibility as the dark skin activist to always have my ear and heart
open to dark skinned women like her who suffered in silence.
“Rashida!” She wrote. “Have you seen
Kendrick Lamar’s new fiancé?” I explained to her that I had not. I was not a
follower of Kendrick Lamar’s music. I’m from the 90s era. You know, the Lauryn
Hill, Fugees, H-Town, Common, SWV, Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, Salt N Peppa, Foxy
Brown and Lil Kim era. However, knowing my track record of dark skinned
activism, the young dark-skinned woman was sure that I would research this
Kendrick Lamar situation. She knew that I was not afraid to call him out if
need be. She knew that I was not afraid to call out any colorstruck man for
that matter.
Kendrick Lamar was never the only black man that I had called
out over the years for discriminating against dark skinned women. The hard-core
fans of mine that have followed my work since the 90s know that I had been
calling out black male entertainers who discriminated against dark skinned
women for years. I had done it first in the community at the grassroots level.
I started with a lecture given about dark skinned female discrimination in 1998
while an undergraduate student at St. Petersburg College. I had done it on my
internet radio show ‘A Dark-Skinned Woman’s Revenge’ that
I created and began hosting in 2012. I had done it on social media outlets for
years. The point I’m making is that calling out what I call darkistmen was not about Kendrick Lamar.
My mission has always been to expose colorstruck black men like Gilbert Arenas and Kodak black. Men with such darkistmentalities
have been around the black community for years.
Back to Kendrick Lamar. When I researched Kendrick I found a
man full of contradictions. I found a man full of hypocrisy. Call me crazy but
I’m one of those people that believe that one should live what they speak about
in their music. Especially a musical artist that raps or sings about
socio-political issues. I hold them to an even higher standard than your
average run of the mil pop or hip-hop artist. Any musical artist singing or
rapping about the issue of skin tone has a unique responsibility to adhere to
the principals of their lyrics. My research on Kendrick Lamar’s brand indicates
that his musical artistry in terms of his socio-political stance on colorism is
not a lived reality.
Perhaps
marketing is the culprit. Numerous market research and demographic studies show
that black women do most of the spending on consumer items in the black
community. This is a fact that is used to the advantage of black male artists
who may start with a fan base of primarily black women. For some, their
marketing strategy may include placing darker toned women in their music videos
given that they are aware of this technique as a marketing tactic to boost
sales revenue. I cannot say that all black male artists are engaging the black
female audience for purely selfish economic reasons. Some artists really do
love dark skinned women and they live it in their daily lives. Much love to
those artists who do, like MusiqSoulchild, Anthony Hamilton and Common.
However, Kendrick Lamar serves as an example of an artists that uplifts dark
skinned women only in theory, as a measure of convenience. Below, I give three
examples of how Kendrick Lamar’s music, and contradictive lifestyle, has
betrayed dark skinned women.
KENDRICK
LAMAR’S “POETIC JUSTICE”
The very first awareness that I had with
Kendrick Lamar’s brand was through Facebook. Two years ago, a Facebook friend
who knows that I go hard as an activist for dark skin beauty sent me a message
asking me to look at Kendrick’s Poetic Justice video. She said it featured a dark-skinned
woman as the lead. When I watched the video I saw Kendrick Lamar all up on this
beautiful dark skinned woman. “WOW! This is a win for dark skin!” I thought to
myself, “Now here is a black male artist who respects dark skinned women.” I
thought to myself, “Here is an artist that promotes dark skinned women.”
Kendrick Lamar gave me the impression that he was deep into dark skinned
females. Fast forward two years later and this same artist chose to get engaged
to a non-dark-skinned female. I, like many dark-skinned women, felt deceived
and betrayed.
KENDRICK
LAMAR’S “THE BLACKER THE BERRY”
Given the history of the phrase “The
blacker the berry” and Kendrick Lamar’s track record of not living what he
speaks about in his music, he should not have used the phrase as the title of
his song. The lyrics in the Blacker the Berry are pro-blacker than black. He
speaks at length about the atrocities suffered by black people, yet he himself
is a contributor to the atrocity of darkism. For example, at the beginning of
the song he chimes, “everything black, I don’t want black. I want everything
black. I aint need black.” In this instance the lyrics are quite reflective of
his confused reality. In his choice of
companion, he has truly reflected this ambiguity of “wanting everything black
but not needing black.”
This song is reflective of how many black men want to
bask in the atrocities of black martyrdom, but for many, the martyrdom does not
include a union in marriage and partnership with a dark-skinned woman who has
also shared these atrocities of blackness more than anyone. Having read the
book, the Blacker the Berry, about a dark-skinned woman who experienced darkism
within the black community, Kendrick Lamar’s use of the title, The Blacker the
Berry, is an insult to me as a dark skinned black woman. I will be the first to
admit that I have not the slightest idea as to whether Kendrick Lamar has read
Wallace Thurman’s 1929 masterpiece, The
Blacker the Berry. We have Wallace Thurman and the story of the dark-skinned
Emma Lou to thank for the popular phrase, “the
blacker the berry.” The deep painful origins of this phrase cannot be taken
lightly. This is the reason that I
cannot help but take issue with Kendrick naming his song after this historic
book when his choice in mate does not reflect what he raps about.
Wallace Thurman’s groundbreaking novel about a dark-skinned
woman, Emma Lou Morgan, who was discriminated against by black people because
of her dark skin tone was nothing short of a black tragedy. The subject matter
of dark skinned female discrimination was revolutionary for its time. Through
Emma Lou’s experiences, Wallace Thurman pulled no punches in writing about the
stark reality of how dark-skinned women were treated in black American society.
One of the most haunting phrases from his book is when he stated in reference
to Emma Lou that “the tragedy of her life
was that she was too black.” Emma Lou’s life chances were diminished from
the moment that she came out of her mother’s womb. This was because she was too
dark skinned. I sat in my room crying for hours after reading this monumentally
important book. The pain was all too real. I could feel every inch of Emma
Lou’s pain. I am her. She is me. As such, it is quite disheartening to know
that a musical artist has taken the title of this book as the title for his
song, while expressing the same form of discrimination that the title of the
book speaks about. The irony!
KENDRICK
LAMAR’S “COMPLEXION”
My critics have pointed to Kendrick
Lamar’s song Complexion as a defense
against Kendrick’s aversion to darkism. While the song adds to the discourse on
the history of darkism and how it impacts black people, the fact remains that
while he speaks out against darkismhe ironically perpetuates it. History has
shown a pattern of some black men promoting the very thing they rant against.
The 1960s black power era is a great example of this contradictory darkism
phenomena. For example, while fighting for black power in the 1960s, many of
the chief male proponents of black power were themselves darkist in their mate
selection. This is tantamount to succumbing to the very thing that they claimed
to be fighting against.
There are countless black men who consider
themselves to be freedom fighters for black empowerment who suffer from
colorstruckedness of the worst kind. The inherent contradictions regarding
their behavior is both confusing and appalling to the black community as a
whole. Their behavior is also deceptive.Darkist
men have serious internal issues regarding skin tone and women. Their actions
can be compared to what W.E.B Dubois termed “the double consciousness of black
folks.” This sentiment can be renamed “the double consciousness of black men”
who are on the one hand pro-black while on the other hand discriminating
against dark skinned women in their mate selection. In essence, Kendrick Lamar,
Gilbert Arenas and Kodak Black’s actions follow a historical pattern in regards
to the discrimination of dark skinned women as suitable life partners. It is my
hope that one daymen like these come to terms with their “double consciousness”
in regards to their discriminatory behavior towards their own dark skinned
women one of the severest forms of darkism.
Rashida
Strober is the first activist, author and actress to focus her work exclusively
on dark skin. She will be performing her off-Broadway play, A Dark Skin Woman’s
Revenge in Harlem, New York on November 4th 2017 at the Maysles
Documentary Center located at 343 Malcolm X Blvd in Harlem New York. For tickets
go to rashidastrober.com.
By Dark Skin Activist, Rashida Strober