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Why Are There No Dark-skin Black Girls In The Boondocks?

SPARKUP

211,452 views

The Boondocks explored nearly every corner of Black American life, yet dark-skinned Black women and girls are almost entirely absent from Woodcrest. In this video, we examine what that absence reveals about colorism, adultification bias, school pushout, suburban integration and the symbolic erasure of Black girlhood.

Through characters like Huey, Riley, Tom and Jazmine DuBois, we explore who is allowed to belong in Woodcrest, who is pushed beyond its borders and why representation is about more than simply appearing on-screen.

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#TheBoondocks #AaronMcGruder #BlackGirlhood #Colorism #BlackWomen #MediaRepresentation #VideoEssay

20 Comments

@kilobaxi3378 1 month ago

I think the show has a slight colorism problem too. If there was a darker skinned women in the show she was/would've been seen as evil, crazy, ghetto etc

@devaughnsalter6264 1 month ago (edited)

Nobody puts down dark skin more than other Black people. Colorism was the first racism I ever experienced.

@tylerhood5035 1 month ago

I genuinely feel sorry for the dark skinned ladies out there constantly under attack, because our people have such a abysmal level of self loathing that it traumatized our women.This episode with ebony showed me what I already knew growing up seeing in my friends parents relationships. They think ebony brown is a myth cause they simply have never been exposed to women like her and either can't handle her passion or resent her brilliance. I've seen a lot of ebonies, but everyone has a breaking point.

@Blake-tm4yp 1 month ago

a black woman pointed out her problems with boondocks and it one of my favorite shows of all time but I was open to hear her criticism. her analysis revolved around colorism also. she use the rkelly trail as a example. how the victim was display as a fast young kid but she probably was jasmine age who is display as innocent and naive. and is lighter skin and her point was how darker skin woman are seen as opposed to lighter skin. idk made me think 🤷. anyway I have not watch your video yet but love your channel..excited to have new content this Friday .

@Vv_2136 1 month ago

The irony that a black man wanted to create a show to dissect black issues but erased black women from it.... It's not lost on me. 😂😂

@pdph-kk4ut 1 month ago

Im so disappointed I didn’t realize that there were no little darkskin black girls…. I hate this so much

@duolingoowo4855 1 month ago

The show isn’t satire on society, this show IS society. Their scenes of black women being abused have the black woman as the joke.

@TheSustenanceCompany 1 month ago

They really don’t have artists like Nina Simone anymore, that clip of her performing touched my soul… absolutely amazing 🔥🔥🔥🔥

@warriorpoetdemigod 1 month ago

Because Ruckus absorbed all the Melanin in the Universe.

@catmanxyz6581 1 month ago (edited)

I'm mega white but i was rewatching the boondocks and was just talking to a friend about how the show has a kind of weird portaryl of women on the show.

This isn't crazy for older adult swim shows, but given how much of the show is ostensibly progressive, it's weird that the only real times we see women of color the context is that they are etheir crazy or at best, dates for Robert to screw up. But whenever the show depicts a "low class" or "stupid" person of color, they are almost always portrayed as dark skined which is weird.

@IshIshBaby 1 month ago

What I have experienced is that most Huey types, ie Black Power Nationalists mostly end up marrying light skinned/mixed women or white women. Make it make sense. 😭😭😭The Black Panther Party was ripe with colorism.

@lordfreerealestate8302 1 month ago

Misogynoir is real. This is why we need INTERSECTIONAL social justice.

@insupportofjunhado 1 month ago (edited)

I remember in the comic strip there was a dark skinned black girl from New Orleans who tried to stay with Huey, Riley, and Robert. I distinctly remember fans expressing they wanted her to become a regular. I'm not even sure because she was dark skinned specifically, but because she was a young female with a new perspective. Didn't happen, though.

@seeleunit2000 1 month ago

You make a good point.
Dark skin black women definitely get a lot of shit. They're either treated as hideous or invisible and it's wrong.
The most marginalized person in North America in the world are dark-skinned black women, especially if they have disabilities.

@the120cxx 1 month ago

Since nobody else is bringing it up, the silhouette girl is Miyuki Ayukawa from Basquash. She's a mechanic who works on the mechs they play basketball with.

@JanineDoes 1 month ago

I always thought the lack of recurring darker-skinned black women or girls was primarily because Woodcrest was uber white. For some reason, I assumed Ebony was brown-skin. Maybe because of her name?

@Seraphina.Is. 1 month ago

Explaining colorism to black people legitimately is just annoying and so weird. It’s always “are they not black enough” instead of questioning if it’s just us being viewed as “too black”. We all grow up black. Why does that need to be explained? Like explaining racism to a white person. So stupid

@sapphira.... 1 month ago

Now you pair that in with being a black woman or girl who is also physically disabled that is a different storyline that doesn't get to be told within these conversations as well

@DragonwolfoftheSands 1 month ago

Dropping a Nina Simone performance in the middle of this was a visionary move and it makes the point of the video so perfectly

@fatted3004 1 month ago

I’m glad we have numerous media options to show a multitude of different experiences. Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong'o and Wunmi Mosaku are doing an excellent job of representing dark-skinned Black Women on screen!👏