Dre’s History Lesson - black-ish

Dre (Anthony Anderson) provides an explanation about colorism and the role it plays in different communities. Watch black-ish Tuesdays at 9|8c on ABC.

[aboubacaramine]

In every black movie the girl is always lighter than the dude.. Always.

[EvolvedGiGi]

Finally, colorism is getting national attention.

[patronsaintofnow]

Hands down, probably the best episode to date. A complex, touchy issue that's never really been dealt w/in prime time.

[mrbluesky]

One of the reason for the whole white skin thing is that in many cultures pale skin meant that you where rich enough to not work all day. Fieldwork meant a tan from the sun. So light skin meant rich and powerfull, darker skin meant pour.

[TheJeneralJ.U.-ICEForever]

😏This was probably one of the best (if not the best) episode's of "Black ish". The dissection of light vs. dark skinned isn't something that we as black ppl normally take issue with in our own families but it is discussed outside our families and into the communities. To see how colorism is viewed within a black family who obviously come's in different shades and their own perspectives, myth's, discrimination, and harassment and how they felt about it was a brilliant part of American television that I'm glad was discussed towards black ppl, other ethnic groups of ppl with color and ppl who may not even know that this does happen for people of color's respective communities.

[sams]

I’m surprised they didn’t use the bleaching creams point when talking about the Indian community. The dialogue said they’re becoming increasingly popular in Latin communities, but they’ve BEEN popular for decades in India/other south Asian countries

[lamoskgr]

I'm Dominican. An Afro Latina. I've been told all my life I'm too "prieta". That I look Haitian or African (as if that was an insult) 🙄🙄 I few years ago a family friend even gave me her homemade bleaching skin, to make me look "fairer". Seriously, there's so much self-hate in the Latin community! They don't even like admitting that Afro Latinos exist. But there are more Afro Latinos that US African Americans. How can we not exist?!

[skbaskba]

So true in the Asian community fair girls/boys would easily get married whereas for darker girls/boys it’s harder to get married.

[annaa]

Colorism is such a dangerous rooted idea in so many communities it’s sad. I see it the Latinx community first hand and many times it’s through little comments made by someone who doesn’t even realize they’re being colorist. Then other times it’s blatant on tv when all the telenovela actors are light and pale with prominent European features as if that is the epitome of beauty. It’s all rooted in colonialism by the Spanish having the ideology that ‘lighter skin is better/prettier’ live on. More people are recognizing it’s a problem and as long as communities continue to have these conversations hopefully we can erase these harmful ways of thinking.

[jpreddy]

The episode was confusing. Although Dre did a great job with this history lesson, the rest of the episode focused on Rainbow and Junior's issues with light skinned jokes. There never seemed to be a real understanding of Diane or Ruby's pain later in the episode. In fact after being called a "monster" by Rainbow for wanting to talk w/ Diane about her experiences, Ruby was the one who ended up apologizing to Rainbow without any real apology being reciprocated. Rainbow's haphazard apology ended with a "but" which negates the entire apology. There was never any acknowledgement of Diane and Ruby's experiences that actually tied in with this history lesson. Why there wasn't even an acknowledgement of the privileges the lighter skinned members received or any type of compromise as to call out colorism when they see it being done or enacted on darker skinned people.

If you had no experience with colorism, based on this episode you would think it's something dark skinned people do to lighter skinned people since they were the only ones who truly received apologies. The whole thing made me wonder who wrote this and from what perspective. If I were to guess, I would bet on it being a lighter skinned person giving their take on colorism from their experiences. The episode totally missed the point. Colorism effects darker skinned people psychologically, socially and economically. It's that deep.What we need is for light skinned folks to recognize its realness and speak up.

[sundawg]

Like how they called out other races too. Colourism is a issue that all communities suffer from.

[olgayash]

I'm Russian and there, unless someone specifically prefers lighter skin akin to Dita Von Teese or some East Asian pop stars, in general if you have a tanned skin, it's considered as "beautiful" cause you have money to spend time on a seashore or somewhere sunny. Hence comes the popularity of tanning salons and tan creams.

[antoniosergio]

I lost everything when the grandma calls Junior "lightskin Judas" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[maxpatana]

I don't why but the Mariah to Snipes colour scale gets me all the time 😂😂😂😂😂

[chrispeplinski]

I will admit this episode was funny but interesting. I am surprised earl didn’t appear in this episode since it would have been cool to see more of his backstory like ruby.

[jpreddy]

So what was the resolution to Diane's school picture? With all the dark skinned apologies, did Rainbow make her go to school and apologize to the class for messing up their photo by being to dark and standing on the back row? That's just how much this show missed the mark! Everything in this episode seemed to be what dark skinned people do to light skinned people..It bothered me that Rainbow had no real advice for how to handle Diane's experiences nor acknowledgement of her pain. Some things you just can't overlook or get passed, nor will the slogan "all black skin is beautiful" suffice for every situation.

[AriNight]

Amen to this I am a bi racial female but I am light skinned and I get judge by other people of color. This is a real thing happening in the world and I am glad there is a show like black-is that shines light on these issues

[nevergrowup]

This show taught me more about black culture than my Black History class did

[osonabay]

I applaud y’all for taking on this issue 👏🏾💯

[isaiahdatrackkilla]

This is why black ish is one of my favorite shows