Dark Girls (2012)

Directed by

Bill Duke

Genre

documentary film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 11m

Rating

6.8 of 10 from 16 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary interviews African American women about their experiences with colorism, or discrimination based on skin tone within their own community. Public figures like Viola Davis share personal stories. The film also revisits a classic experiment showing that black children often favor lighter-skinned dolls.

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What happens

Dark Girls is a 2011 documentary film by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry. It documents colorism within the African American community, a subject still considered taboo by many black Americans. The film contains interviews of African American women describing the role colorism has played in their lives, with notable African Americans including Viola Davis also detailing her experience. It also reports on a new version of the 1940s black doll experiment by Kenneth and Mamie Clark, which proved that black children had internalized racism by having children select a white or a black doll (they typically chose white) based on questions asked. In the updated version, black children favored light-skinned dolls over dark-skinned dolls. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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