Dark Girls is an upcoming documentary that explores the very complex and painful issue of colorism within the black community. The film, produced by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry , and co-produced by Bradinn French, captures the very intimate thoughts of several darker skinned women and how they view themselves through the complexion of their skin.

The clip is so powerful, and it just made me think of how much society, media and even a bogus scientific study (in reference to the very appalling and distasteful article posted on Psychology Today's website a few weeks ago, and taken down after a public outcry), infiltrates and taints the self-esteem of so many black women, especially those of darker complexions, with an image of a socially constructed beauty that opposes them in every way.

It made me think of my brown skinned mother and the struggles she went through growing up, and even my own struggles of going to a predominately white college and how I saw my own beauty as inferior. All these thoughts are fabricated by certain images that bombard us daily.

Before I start on a whole emotional rampage about how sick and tired I am of all the negativity and ignorance put out there against black women and how it is meant to corrode the very core of who we are... In the spirit of Maya Angelou: We are PHENOMENAL! No explanations necessary, because we are live proof of how amazing we truly are.

I just wanted to share a poem that I wrote a few months ago that came to me as I was putting together my hair journey video:

Beautiful Queens,

I call on you to bathe in your beauty born of various tones of

melanin.

Like a rainbow made from gradations of gold, mahogany and

black pearl

never hesitate for a breath...

You are a goddess.

Dark Girls: Preview

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.