Precious; An Experiment in Colorism

So people are just now realizing that Precious contains some serious assertions about colorism, which, to the observant watcher, is rather obvious early on in the film. I have also heard others say that Tyler Perry's movies often have villains that are dark-skinned, and heroes that are light-skinned, which is consistent with this movie as well (Tyler Perry shares production credits along with Oprah Winfrey and three other producers on this film), and that the director has been open about his own issues with dark-skinned individuals in the past. All of this only leads to one conclusion, in my own mind; Precious is a lost and forgotten book from the nineties that has just now been rediscovered; is colorism being used in the film only because it is consistent with the original book (it is a huge theme in the book) or is it because of renewed interest in colorism as of the last few years the primary reason that people were drawn to the book to begin with just now?

Yet the chicken and egg theory is not really the reason behind this post, though I was not completely aware of just how prevalent colorism was in Tyler Perry's films until now. I often wonder, just how prevalent this colorism thing is and how forthcoming we are with how affected we are by it. I doubt that we need a reinforcement of colorism on the big screen to get beneath the surface of a struggle to deal with subtleties in our own culture. Ask yourself a few basic questions, and answer honestly, to see just how affected by colorism you truly are.

• Do you prefer, as romantic interests or a possible "significant other", those of your own skin tone or hue or something other than yourself?
• Is the fetishism of someone's skin tone as big of a factor as the fetishism of someone's race with respect to decisions you make as to who you will be with intimately?
• Is the skin tone of your own parents a consideration (do you seek out individuals of a similar or different tone than they are)?
• Do you treat people of your own skin tone better than, or worse than, a different skin tone?
• Do you hate yourself or otherwise secretly wish that you could be a tone other than yourself?
• Do you mistreat anyone based upon their skin tone?
• Do you honestly feel closer to individuals based upon their skin tone, or put an imaginary wall up between you and someone else based on skin tone?
• Do you give individuals of a skin tone other than you are an honest and fighting chance to prove themselves and their character?
• Have you ever come into the realization that individuals of a different skin tone may actually treat you as well as individuals of your own tone?

The list can go on and on; we often talk about the old stereotypes about slaves being out in the field on inside the house, or even the paper bag tests of the forties but fail to see just how many times individuals of different skin tones, some "completely" African-American, others "mixed" of some other race with African-American, or whatever the situation may be, can work together and perform in situations just as well as their "peers". So why does this mentality persist in a post-modern society?

It is just as I have mentioned numerous times before in this article; if you are looking for a situation to present itself you will always get the exact opposite of that situation, until you can find closure and move on. This means that a dark skinned man who doesn't honestly believe or can't honestly fathom that a light skinned girl is going to truly accept him and love him for who he is, "warts and all", is just going to continue to meet light skinned women that really are into him, until he can accept it for himself, and then that phase of his interpersonal existence is going to be a closed chapter in his book. If you could not attract that girl, or secretly have something to prove to yourself by being with her you are going to continue to run up against that situation. We're all in this together, in spite of whatever the media or anyone else is telling you, just accept it and deal with it, and move on already. There will be times in your life when you are happy that anyone is around; forget whether or not that person is that hue or tone and meets that perfect criteria for the perfect situation that occurs when the stars are in alignment and you can see the moon during the middle of the afternoon ...