Colorism is an issue in virtually every community of color. Blame colonialism and Eurocentric standards of beauty. And one could argue that in American society, dark skinned Black women face the brunt of the oppression when it comes to colorism. It comes from all sides and very early on.
From the way little dark skinned girls are overly punished in the school system to the disparaging comments Black men make against their own women, it is an issue.
So it makes sense that girls and women can internalize these messages and their emotions, self-esteem and self-worth can be affected as a result.
In tonight’s episode of “Married At First Sight,” Briana opens up to her husband Vincent about the journey to embrace her skin tone in a very candid and honest conversation.
“Growing up, dance was my passion. But I let go of it because of what I thought would make me money, which was the engineering. I was good at math. So why not? I can make the money.”
Briana said there were several issues surrounding self-confidence as she was growing up.
“I’ll say growing up, I was a little insecure internally because of my skin tone. It was always this light skin versus dark skin thing. I thought I was unattractive or I wasn’t as cute as other people being so dark. Around the age of 15 or 16, I was like ‘You’re enough. You’re beautiful.’ And dance definitely helped develop that confidence within myself.”
See how Vincent responded to this revelation in the video below.