A major female Dancehall artiste has gone “brown” and the whole world is in awe about it. “The people dem seh a brown skin a wear, and everybody seem to want it”. Has Spice bleached or is she conducting a massive societal experiment? The debut of her new song ‘Black Hypocrisy’ has left listeners filled with emotions in agreement towards the lyrics or stunned that she would have taken comments about her skin colour this far.
The number one trending music video in Jamaica on YouTube shows Spice in some of its scenes with a lighter complexion. She transitions from a deep rich chocolate skin tone to one that is vanilla based, and asks her viewers “I’ll please yuh, do I look how you want me to?”.
But if that was only it!
The new complexion was not just for the music video. Spice posted on Instagram on October 22, 2018 a new image of self, captioned “Nothing wrong with a fresh start. Click the link in my bio and pre order my mix tape…..”. Fans then realized that the Queen of Dancehall had deleted all prior photos from her Instagram page and changed her display photo to reflect the new lighter skinned, Spice. Social media then went in a frenzy, and even the international Talk Show Host, Wendy Williams had to comment.
Publicity Stunt or Social Experiment?
“Dem seh mi black til mi shine, til mi look dirty
And it’s the only line in life that will ever hurt me
Cause it never come from a Caucasian, trust mi
Dis a black colorism big hypocrisy”
For such an influential woman of Dancehall to come out saying that she too is affected by this ‘colourism’ that is washed on the coastlines of our society, is a major eye-opener. Yes, it’s sad that we as a nation, as a people, have to wait for it to reach this far to see that our society has a very problematic social issue. But, at least now it is at the forefront of our media and in our faces with brown skin and blonde hair.
Too many women get put down for their various complexions, whether dark or light. The fact is, it will never be enough for society. As a people, we are flawed to find issues with women who are too dark and women who are too light. A lot of stigma is placed daily on these two extremes.
Where is this coming from?
Our historical past has left an imprint on us so deep. It’s almost like being branded with words ‘divide and conquer’ by hot brimstone. The scar of this left on our hands to see as we go about progressing as an emancipated and independent nation. Freedom is written in law, but the ideologies that were enforced in an enslaved society, a plantation society, are still with us. Our bodies are no longer caged but our minds are waiting to be released. Backra has truly achieved his goal.
So has Spice taken it too far?
Well, the fact is she is proving a point. Some black people are truly hypocritical when it comes to the conversation of skin colour. We say ‘nothin black nuh good’ but plea that it is an identity crisis when persons make the decision to tone their complexion. Truly, what is it that we hope to accomplish if we bash our own brothers and sisters about the image they were created in?
‘Black and ugly’ and ‘mi love mi browning’ are phrases that are repeated consecutively in this society. However, we fail to understand that this can create phycological damage. If something is heard so frequently, one will start to believe these idioms.
Spice – Black Hypocrisy (Official Music Video)
Spice is making a social commentary. She is showing the effect that these everyday norms can have on an individual. Spice is known to be a confident, blunt, in your face type of woman, yet still, she is opening about colourism and its effect on her self-esteem and self-worth. If a woman of this prestige can be internalizing these comments, can you imagine the everyday women?
How far will Spice take this? We are sitting and hooked to social media to find out. One can only hope that the end of this experiment will leave some change in the attempt to demolish colourism.
