Episode Details

Thank you Saira Anwar, Shifra Clara Wasserstein, Denise Sherrington, NAVIRO.AI, Kathryn, and many others for tuning into my live video with Rev. Evelyn Bourne (Ambilike)! Join me for my next live video in the app.

Live Summary

This conversation explores Colorism not just as a matter of skin tone, but as a system of power created during enslavement to divide our people and disrupt unity.

As was shared, the lighter you were, the closer you were positioned to whiteness—often literally placed in the house while darker-skinned folks labored in the fields. That dynamic didn’t end when slavery did. The pain, the hierarchy, the internal distrust — it didn’t disappear. We just inherited it.

We picked up the master’s tool and began using it on each other.

We talked about how colorism shows up:

* Inside our families

* In our romantic choices

* In our workplaces

* In our community interactions

* Even in Substack spaces where some of us are embraced and others are overlooked

It shows up when a lighter-skinned child is favored over a darker one. When women (and men) feel pressure to lighten their skin, straighten their hair, or alter their features to be seen as “acceptable.” When we distrust our own people faster than we distrust others. And when we measure our worth by someone else’s gaze.

We also talked about the personal wounds many of us carry — rejection, favoritism, abandonment, and the painful silence around it. Healing begins when we name what happened, without shame, without pretending, and without backing away from the uncomfortable truth.

Relevant Sources

* Dr. Joy Degruy - Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome

* The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

* My Grandmother’s Hand’s by Resmaa Menakem

* How Can We Heal from the Shades of Colorism? - Dr. Sarah L. Webb - TedxUofISpringfield

A key message:We cannot dismantle a system while still using the tools it trained us to use.

But change is possible — not overnight, not magically, but through:

* Honest conversations like this

* Education at home

* Teaching our children where they come from

* Calling out harmful patterns in real time

* Choosing solidarity over comparison

We move forward by building communities rooted in dignity, humanity, and mutual uplift — across race, gender, and identity. The goal is simple:A world where no one has to shrink, explain, or defend the skin they were born in.

Not tolerance.Not as