Blog 7

If They’re Darker Than a Paper Bag

Racism, through evidence and investigation, is not a phenomenon in the black culture; it is a reality [5. Long sentence connected to a short sentence with a semicolon]. Bill Duke, the director of the 2011 documentary Dark Girls, used the film to affect the lives of thousands of people based upon the color of their skin. The term racism can be defined as the hatred or intolerance of another race or other races. Because this documentary is based on a century old issue, Bill Duke argues the differences between dark and light skin issues [2. Start a sentence with a because clause]. These issues are expressed through the lives of many darker skinned women by personal experiences and comments that they have heard about throughout their lifetime.

            Although the colors of people of skins have not changed, people believe today that the action of racism has disappeared. The women in this film were chosen as if they were the ones that were the most bullied or discriminated against. One woman noticed that racist comments and occurrences are most common on the playground, THOUGH in the classroom, not as much [4. Use, though, to interrupt a main sentence]. Considering these are the spots she identifies, it seemed that she had been a schoolteacher that had solved lots of issues. One experiment in this documentary had actually shown a little girl in a private room with a counselor of some type. When asked to point to the prettiest or the smartest child, she had pointed to the whitest child; when she was asked to point to the dumb and ugly child, she had picked the darkest child available [6. A compound sentence using a semicolon, the two sentences mirroring each other, with repeated parallel structures]. The child that was obviously under ten years old was able to differentiate the two because of their skin color, white or black [3. End a sentence with a because clause]. Whether or not people have their own opinions or not, racism is an idea that needs to be stopped, especially at young ages and in the classrooms.

            Not only does this documentary share stories from all ages, it follows women who are struggling as a result of discriminating attitudes towards the color of their darker skin.  A girl by the name of Stephanie A. said that she was able to notice the separations in school among girls who were lighter skinned and girls who were darker skinned.  She said that the most hurtful comment that she had ever heard was that she was pretty for a dark skinned girl. Although that may seem hurtful, one woman was told that she had stayed in the oven too long. Even though one comment is no better or worse than the other, these comments are preventing woman from, first, attending school; second, going to work; and, third,  having sexual relations with darker skinned people [7. Semicolon as super comma].  One woman commented on that last piece by saying that some men don’t want to have black babies based upon the ways that there momma’s or sisters were treated.

            Many mothers tell their children, “treat others as you want to be treated.” In this video, the director used others to share their heartbreaking stories to transform our ideas on racism. The goal seemed as if Bill Duke wanted to change the ideas that people believed, racism has disappeared. Due to the hundreds of tears and comments that some of these woman have had and received, Dark Girls seemed to want to make their audience feel bad. Nor did they make you feel comfortable when watching [1. Start a sentence with "nor"]. Almost as if the audience was supposed to go apologize for the actions races have had towards dark people. As an audience member, I felt captured inside the hands of the director after watching this film; as a witness of racism, I felt that the director has blessed me with the capability of understanding racism and understanding peoples emotions through the process [6. A compound sentence using a semicolon, the two sentences mirroring each other, with repeated parallel structures]. The control and power that the director had on his audience was tremendous. Bill Duke’s way of capturing the audience was through the few common themes of sadness and fear. Whether or not his movie was made to make us feel depraved, this 2011 film influenced the lives of many by the voices and cries of the dark girls.