Algorithms & skin tone bias (colorism), to be dark on the internet/"breadtube" | Khadija Mbowe

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People will push the "preference" rhetoric until they are blue in the face, but when you ask them why they have that preference it's crickets.

what doesn’t sit right with me is how y’all will pass the most disrespectful comments about darkskin woman in the means of “preferences” if I hear that word one more time I’m going to lose it 😭

“Systems of oppression never completely go away, they just evolve and morph” 😭👏🏾

It broke my heart when I saw that study where little black girls chose white dolls over black dolls because they thought the black dolls were ugly. It changed my whole perspective. It opened me up to the notion that our culture imprints these racist ideas onto our minds from birth. I did realize that I automatically had those same biases despite knowing better. The added danger is, as you say, how the algorithms use this information to reinforce these ideas for clicks on Youtube. I regret it took me so long to find these essays.

Such a relief seeing a woman as dark as I am on YouTube. It really means a lot.

I’m so annoyed by how people still pretend like colorism doesn’t exist but will complain about racism...how can you see one and not the other???

About darker-skinned girls being treated to a higher-than-average standard for beauty — I 100% felt that. As a somewhat dark-skinned Indian woman, I remember relatives telling me I’d be good looking if I was just a few shades lighter… like the features I had weren’t enough to make a dark-skinned girl pretty, but were enough to make a fair-skinned girl attractive

When I was younger, I lived in Puerto Rico and my skin was very dark. I got a lot of racism from people I knew. When I moved to the states and grew older, I wasn’t out in the sun as often and my skin got lighter. So same people now go “ wow , now you’re almost as pretty as your cousins” who btw have fair skin. My dad being Afro Latino helped me cope with the negative talk. I’m not even that dark and I grew up with that negative shit. I can’t imagine what people with darker skin go through. You’re beautiful queen ❤️

My name is Niquisha and a lot of people say to me “wow you’re so smart for having a ghetto name”. I don’t get how being black, having natural hair, and having a “ghetto name” makes me stupid.

The whole thing about “the white man already separated us why are you trying to do it further” argument against colorism always confused me because, isn’t it the other way around? I’ll never understand why you would discredit your own people even after hearing so many accounts of the same experience. THAT is what’s further separating us...

I've literally stood right next to my friend as some black men mocked her for being "dark". I had to double take because I just didn't expect that to be a thing. If people can do it so blatantly in broad daylight, irl, it's beyond real online come on people...

Tbh I’m a black male and I grew up being told by my light skin mother that dark skin women weren’t the ideal. So I find you and your channel very refreshing!

to the other white people in the comments looking to shift your algorithms: mine started changing a lot when i started not only subscribing to more black(/POC) creators and watching their videos, but then when i started actively clicking on the videos from different black(/POC) creators in the sidebar once i'd finished a video... and then watching that video and clicking through the sidebar again etc it shouldn't have to be "work" to find creators who aren't white, but my algorithm has actually changed significantly since i've started taking a more active role in my viewing habits :) thanks as always for the video khadija!

There's a dark brown skinned creator that makes rock climbing videos called Black Girls Boulder. I know it's not an essayist channel but anytime I pick up a new hobby (rock climbing for me), I specifically look for black women and love when I see darker skinned black women.

The point on dark-shinned folks having to be exceptionally beautiful is so well put, and in my opinion applies adversely and intersecionally as well. Essentially it seems to me that dark-skinned women/femme-presening indvisuals have to be the epitome of beauty while white men, especially in film and tv, can get away with being unremarkable and sttill be in the lead role.

Another Black creator is Starpuppy - she is whimsical and does cosplay and hair content :)

As a black dad of 2 I’ve started trying to educate myself on the things black women and girls go through I’m really glad I found this channel

I am a South African animator. And during my high school days doing one of my homemade comic books I made a black character that anyone who checked it out always complain on how black my character was, as if it was a crime to make a character with such a black skin tone. And it always narrowed down to joke on how black my character was, So dark skinned black character leads have to be normalized. Shout out to Khadija Mbowe on addressing these issues on her channel.

I really have a hard time when people talk about preferences because they never want to deconstruct WHY they have those preferences.