Tammy Rivera Speaks Out On Colorism: Don’t Allow This To Separate Us!

Tammy Rivera Speaks Out On Colorism: Don’t Allow This To Separate Us!

Wife of rapper Waka Flocka Flame and reality star Tammy Rivera took to Instagram to speak her mind on the emergence of the colorism discussion. She said in her 4 minute and 32-second video that it has come to her attention that black women have been talking about the bullying they’ve received in the past within the black community for the shade of their skin. She captioned the video:

I’ve been seeing this on the blogs lately..

Please during this time don’t ALLOW this to separate us,, Especially at this time! Let’s teach our babies better and continue to stand together as BLACK WOMAN PERIOD!

Tammy Rivera explained that in her opinion, there is a better way to deal with this and gave suggestions for how to improve the internal racism that unfortunately exists in the African-American community. She said she’s suffered colorism herself:

We all have been subjected to being bullied whether it’s from light-skinned, dark-skinned, or whatever the case may be. I too have been, I guess what you would call a victim of colorism or someone saying like ‘oh she thinks she’s cute because she’s light-skinned.’ I’ve had people tell me all my life like ‘oh you like a dark-skinned girl. You don’t act like a red girl.’ And I really never could understand what that was because I just act like who I am but I think instead of us bickering about it as grown women and making it worse by saying ‘oh you light-skinned b**ches have been bullying us’ or ‘ you dark-skinned b**ches have been bullying us,’ how ’bout you teach your children different so that this cycle can stop?

She explained that the colorism issue can be stopped through positive reinforcement at home and basic instruction and encouragement of young black children by their parents:

If my dark-skinned niece ever came to me or came around and said ‘oh I wanna be lighter’ or ‘I don’t like her because she’s lighter’ and ‘I wanna be lighter’ or my light-skinned niece saying ‘I wanna be darker’ or ‘she don’t like me because I’m lighter’ or whatever the case may be, this stuff starts in your household. You can’t buy your children, beautiful little black girls these white doll babies and let them watch these shows where there’s nothing but little white girls on them and they’re thinking ‘this is what beauty is’ [or] ‘this is what I’m supposed to look like’ and then expect for them to understand that their black is beautiful.

The “Charlie” singer clarified that she was not advocating for lack of diversity but she instead told viewers that the toys they play with help to shape their view of the world and what is considered beautiful.

I’m not saying you can’t buy different color Barbies or different color dolls. But if you are in the store and you can’t find a black Barbie or you can’t find a black Brats doll or a black doll period, that is gorgeous and beautiful, then you might wanna start looking at other places because those are the things that start your children to thinking the way they do. Those are the things that they’re playing with daily and that they’re dressing up and that they’re seeing beauty in.

Tammy Rivera went on to encourage viewers to constantly remind black children of their beauty regardless of the differences with their race:

If you’re not telling your little girls everyday ‘baby, you are beautiful! you are gorgeous,’ then how would they know that?

If you ain’t pumpin’ your babies up, if you ain’t pumpin’ your little black beauties and queens up, then how can you be still mad and harborin’ some s**t that happened to you when you was a child? That’s because we didn’t know better. Growing up, those little girls who bullied you because you were light or bullied you because you were dark, they didn’t know better because that s**t wasn’t instilled in their household. But you know better. And you can teach your child better and you can teach your little girls better so that this s**t won’t go on until 2021 or 2022 or another decade from now

What are your thoughts on Tammy Rivera’s stance on colorism? Tell us in the comments!