February 15, 2012

Bill Duke's film 'Dark Girls' looks at the problem of colour bias within the African-American community. After watching a clip of the effects of this bias on a young, dark-skinned girl, Bill explains where some of this bias comes from.

He says it's a result of layers of negative feedback from both inside and outside the home: "There are levels of home where things are not happening to empower children in terms of their complexion, etc. I think there's a level of media. I think media has two aspects to it. There's the sin of commission -- when you see negativity that looks like you like a gangster or a bad person or a hooker or whatever it is, it's your skin complexion. But then there's a sin of omission. Whenever there is something holistic, positive, whenever there is something that is beautiful, you're not there."