Yesterday I was at the dentist and at the mercy of what they had on the television. It happened to be Good Morning America which is not something I would normally tune into, but I am so glad it was on during my cleaning because I got to see their discussion of colorism. Here is the link to the segment and the transcript: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/style/story/colorism-people-color-overcome-insecurities-biases-71875856
Earlier this summer I heard an interview on NPR with Brit Bennet, author of The Vanishing Half. The link to this interview is here:https://www.npr.org/2020/06/05/870303515/brit-bennett-set-her-novel-50-years-ago-she-didnt-expect-it-to-be-timely
Last week I had the chance to read the book and it was AMAZING. Great character development, a book that spans generations, deals with racism, family stories, family secrets, identity struggles, and….colorism.
This would be a fun book selection and interview/segment review for a group of friends wanting to learn and enjoy the story. It would be a great book critique assignment and mini lesson for a diversity class in any discipline, and it would be a useful component of an Employee Resource Group examining issue such of diversity and inclusion and equity. In short, this collection of resources on colorism is good learning for a variety of contexts.
“Her death hit in waves. Not a flood, but water lapping steadily at her ankles. You could drown in two inches of water. Maybe grief was the same.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half
Teaching (toward) Beloved 