Jada Pinkett Smith Says She Was ‘Picked On For Being Light-Skinned’  + Willow Smith Struggled With Kinky Hair Growing Up [WATCH]

Willow Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith Says She Was ‘Picked On For Being Light-Skinned’  + Willow Smith Struggled With Kinky Hair Growing Up [WATCH]

Jada Pinkett Smith is opening up about her experiences with colorism, revealing that she has been both a witness and a victim. Joined by her daughter, Willow Smith, and her mother, Adrienne Banfield Norris, the family  discusses how internalized racism has caused a divide within the black community, and how the preference of lighter skin, began during slavery. Jada Pinkett Smith says:

“It’s discrimination or prejudice based on skin tone, from members of the same race, It began during slavery. Owners often raped their slaves who gave birth to light-skinned children. [Those children] were given preferential treatment. Lighter meant better, smarter, and more beautiful.

She continues:

This hateful bias seeped into black culture and continues to divide us. Whether you’re dark, light to in between the complexities and conflicts within our own race, when it comes to the shade of our skin are devastating, deep rooted, and affect us all”

She dedicated this episode to all of the “beautiful dark skin sisters,” with her first guest being her life long best friend. While Jada Pinkett Smith and her family, acknowledged the hardships, women of a darker skin tone have to endure, she says her experience was completely different, saying she was actually picked on for the color of her skin,

“I had the opposite in my experience, being picked on for being light-skinned.”

Willow Smith

Hair was also a hot topic during the discussion, Adrienne Banfield Norris adding that the

“approximation to white is what is valued around the world.”

Willow Smith, who recently shaved her head bald, shares her issues with hair growing up,

“That was one of the issues growing up for me, was my hair, that was just a struggle. Like it was always a struggle. Even my cousins and my friends, I would look at her hair and be like ‘I would be so much prettier if my hair wasn’t so kinky, or if I had longer hair, it would always be such an issue.”

Adrienne Banfield Norris shares her personal feelings on black people “owning their blackness,” and how she instilled that concept into her daughter Jada Pinkett Smith:

“Back in the day, you would always hear black people like, ‘I got Indian in me,’ still not owning our own blackness and that’s just a result of all the brainwashing that has happened over the years and the perpetuation of white supremacy.”

She added,

“The approximation to white is what’s valued around the world…back in the day, if you were light-skinned and long hair, you would get bank for no reason. Just think about how superficial that is.” 

Willow Smith, Trey Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jaden Smith and Will Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith recalled a conversation with her aunt, where she sternly told her she is 100% black,

“I remember having plenty of conversations with you and aunt Karen about not revealing other heritage in my blood, it was like you’re black and thats it”. 

She added,

“Karen was like, ‘don’t talk about it, because it means absolutely nothing, you’re black. Don’t let me hear you talking about, you got this in your blood, you got that in your blood, you got that in your blood.’ She was like ‘it doesn’t matter your black.”

Check out the full episode below:

Have you ever witnessed colorism? Or had your own issues with colorism? Share your experiences in the comments!