It's something that affects me in almost every aspect of life.

(gentle pleasant music)

(whooshing)

(hinges creak)

- There's something about having dark skin on a woman's body that shapes the way she moves through the world.

There's something about having darker skin on a male body that shapes the way in which he moves through the world.

It has real life stakes.

- From what I've seen growing up,

dark skin equates to being poor,

- dirty,

- rat shit,

- they tend to be the bad guys in Tyler Perry movies,

- straight from the border,

- that doesn't even make any sense.

I'm not deemed as beautiful, therefore I am not beautiful, and those two are not really mutually exclusive.

- Could it be that something as early as colonization or slavery is primarily responsible for our beauty standards today?

We're talking about who works in the field and who works in the house.

We're also talking about rape, the rape of slaves to produce people who were known as mulattoes, or mixed race.

These standards of beauty travel.

Eurocentric standards of beauty travel.

- In the Dominican society and our culture,

they have a phrase that's like, (speaks in foreign language)

advancing the Dominican population and making sure we're going into how they say the better.

If you're lighter, you're bettering the race and you're bettering the island, versus if you're just being you.

- I would get called the blackness.

One joke that really stuck with me was like, oh, Edgar's so black that when he leaves a car, the check engine light turns on.

That was a reference to my skin being as dark as oil.

I felt ugly being of a darker skin tone, so I tried to gel my hair, or I started listening to skater punk music.

So I tried, culturally, to lighten myself, if that makes sense.

- I went on a trip to Korea with my mom.

Some woman walked up to my mom, and she asked, "Why is your daughter so dark?"

In Korea, you have to be pale, and I almost felt like a foreigner and not so much Korean anymore.

- When we turn off the lights, they say, "Oh, Selorm, where did you go?"

Or, "Oh, you're really pretty for a dark-skinned girl."

Are you saying that my race and just the fact that I am black, is that not attractive in general?

- I remember one time that I wanted to be an angel in a parade.

At that time, they were like kind of racist, you know.

They didn't like black people to be angels, and my mommy got kind of freak out.

She was going like, "Please don't, you cannot be an angel because they gonna laugh at you."

I said, "But mommy, I am an angel."

And finally, I was an angel.

And I was the only black angel walking in the street.

And my mommy was so proud about it, and I was proud too.

- My mom started buying me a cream called Fair & Lovely.

I was in third grade when I started using (laughs) bleaching creams.

And the whole general idea was, if I'm lighter, I'll have a better life.

I'll find somebody that's gonna love me. (laughs)

There'd still be light and dark patches on my body and my face. (sighs)

It was painful, it would hurt, and I started breaking out in bad rashes, and no one said anything.

I had to stop it myself.

- How do we fix this?

We think critically about colorism.

We think about where it began, and where it begins and ends with us.

- I think change starts with providing more diversity.

You know, providing more examples of people that look like you.

- If you look at telenovelas, they usually cast the dark-skinned person as the villain, and if you never met a Latino before, you're gonna somewhat think that.

- So in Japanese media, I honestly don't think I've ever seen a darker-skinned female.

I feel it would be nice to see a change.

- It needs to start within our own culture, where we can't have Will Smith filling in every slot for black people.

Giving dark-skinned people roles that are not only supporting roles but leading roles.

- I mean a legit, badass, 007 Latino James Bond, that'd be pretty dope, I'm just sayin'.

- If I could give a message to someone like me,

- who's kind of looking at himself and feeling insecure,

- just know, baby, you beautiful.

- Believe in yourself.

- Just be you.

- You are perfect just the way you are.

That's something that no one has ever told me.

- And your skin color is a gift.

It's never been a blemish or a problem.

- When you grow up and you look in the mirror, and you're proud of who you are, it will make sense, and all the other voices will go away.

And all that's gonna be left is you.

(gentle pleasant music)

(whooshing)

(hinges creak)