Edd’s MANtra: Color-struck

A month or so ago, when Wale’s video for “Pretty Girls” dropped, Internet “journalist” Joy Daily called him out for only featuring light-skinned women in his video.

I don’t know what she’s talking – I saw plenty of women who weren’t light-skinned. True, I didn’t see women that were five shades darker than Flavor Flav, but there were a range of complexions there.

At the time, I didn’t write about it on the blog because it was such a silly non-issue.

Since then, Daily has released a series online called “Complexion Obsession – A Hip Hop Documentary.” The series, of course, complains that there aren’t enough dark-skinned women in music videos.

It’s easy to see the point she’s trying to make – only beautiful girls are on TV, and since you don’t see any dark-skinned women with natural hair it must mean that they’re ugly. And while it’s absurd to pretend that our country still doesn’t suffer from race issues, it’s even MORE absurd to try to find moral integrity in a HIP-HOP MUSIC VIDEO.

Would the world really be a better place if dark-skinned naked women were grinding on Rick Ross rather than light ones? Why is BET a barometer of beauty in the first place?