Bill Duke, author of “Dark Girls”, says the most important way to promote change is to create dialogue within a community.
At The Hyde Park Miriam Matthews Branch Library, Duke spoke about his latest book “Dark Girls”. According to Duke, colorism, which is racism within a community, is what causes many people to begin to form generalizations about others based on skin color. This in turn leads to feelings of inferiority amongst certain people within the community, especially women. Duke emphasizes that this is still a major problem and needs to be addressed immediately.
“Women are the greatest sufferers,” Duke said. “I wanted to create this book in order to give a voice to these women and promote self-worth.”
In his book, Duke discusses how these feelings of inferiority not only affect adults, but children as well. Some parents unknowingly contribute to their children’s low self-esteem by simply commenting on their children’s skin color.
“There was this woman that was in a car with her best friend and her daughter,” Duke said. “And she tells her friend ‘my daughter would be so beautiful if her skin was lighter.’”
The media also plays a vital role in the way people think about themselves and others. According to Duke, the media commits two sins: the portrayal of black as bad, whether referring to the color itself or people, and also the sin of omission of African-Americans. These are all messages that are ingrained in viewers’ minds in a way that is beyond control.
Duke sees beauty in media as a business. It is something that allows businesses to say “God makes mistakes,” so in response to this, many people, especially women, go out and buy products to make themselves beautiful and more socially acceptable.
“God does not make mistakes,” Duke said. “And it is up to us to protect and make sure no harm comes to us or our families. We are all healers.”
In order to solve the problem of racism and inferiority of skin color, Duke said that people need to come together as a community and make their voices heard. If a dialogue about these issues does not circulate and people do not decide to stand up for themselves, then these problems will forever remain within our society. Although they are not so overt, they still remain prevalent.
Some audience members feel that the book “Dark Girls” will finally shed some light on the issues about skin color that society faces.
Nicole Connelly, who attended the presentation, said, “I feel like having a physical presence such as this book provides an example that things can get better and that people do not need to feel bad about themselves.”
Ashley Loupe, another audience member, said, “This book will definitely give people of color much more confidence, especially young girls.”