Sho Madjozi, Pearl Thusi’s tweets spark debate on colourism

Sho Madjozi and Pearl Thusi shared their thoughts on colourism on social media and sparked a debate. Following Sho Madjozi’s BET win earlier this week, some took to social media and said her skin colour had contributed to her success, while some said Thusi’s only talent was “light-skin privilege” and she got gigs because of it.

https://twitter.com/PearlThusi/status/1143866906690170880

The two have now shared their thoughts.

In a series of tweets, Thusi admitted that although colourism was problematic, reducing her hard work, experience and talent to “light-skin privilege” was hurtful.

“I’ve never denied colourism. But if you’ve never been fair- skinned – you can’t speak on our hardships as well. Being stripped of your identity because you don’t fit people’s moulds is tough. And to blame a light-skinned person for the favour they get is ridiculous.

“Everyone who thinks the only merit I have in my career is skin colour can all go suck it. Keep using my skin colour as a comfort for your own failures. Niyan*a. Tsek. Anything I achieved – anything – oh its because she’s light. If someone was kind to me- it’s because I’m light. If I cried – she thinks she’s special because she’s light. Everything was about it, but I refuse to let anyone downplay all my hard work down to my skin colour. F*ck that,” she said.

She said that while white people’s privilege was created by them, to benefit them, dark-skinned black people were taught to hate how they looked and as a result, hated light-skinned black people because they were “close to white”.

Sho Madjozi said, while colourism was problematic, it was important for black women – dark-skinned and light-skinned – to fight for each other because if the “attractive” ones always got the job, it meant men were still gatekeepers of the entertainment industry.

“We need to fight for each other. Because if a woman’s beauty opens doors for her, it means that men still hold the keys! And that must fall,” she said.

Sho Madjozi also said it was unfair to expect light-skinned black women to not be successful because their talent and hard work would be reduced to “light-skin privilege”.

She said: “I can’t be expected to stop being great because colourism exists. But I can try to use my platform to speak out against colourism, I must speak out when I see people being treated unfairly because of colour and I can try to amplify the voices of talented dark-skinned women.”

These were some of their tweets:

Pearl Thusi, Sho Madjozi on colourism

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