{"id":6169,"date":"2025-07-15T13:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T13:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/15\/write-of-passage-color-me-problematic\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T13:10:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T13:10:00","slug":"write-of-passage-color-me-problematic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/15\/write-of-passage-color-me-problematic\/","title":{"rendered":"Write of Passage: Color Me Problematic"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-6169-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/api.substack.com\/feed\/podcast\/168363904\/b885fa1597007a0a0b329f2352f91108.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/api.substack.com\/feed\/podcast\/168363904\/b885fa1597007a0a0b329f2352f91108.mp3\">https:\/\/api.substack.com\/feed\/podcast\/168363904\/b885fa1597007a0a0b329f2352f91108.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>Call me crazy.But I thought we were past some things.You know \u2014 basic rights stuff, like healthcare for all, voting rights without chaos. The idea that <em>every<\/em> American deserves life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without governmental interference.<\/p><div id=\"vanes-590435726\" class=\"vanes-content vanes-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 2px;margin-right: 2px;margin-bottom: 2px;margin-left: 2px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/fireswordandsea.htm\" aria-label=\"Fire Sword &amp; Sea\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?fit=1706%2C2560&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Fire Sword &amp; Sea\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?w=1706&ssl=1 1706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=200%2C300&ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=683%2C1024&ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C1152&ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C1536&ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?resize=1365%2C2048&ssl=1 1365w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/FireSwordSea_HC-scaled.jpg?w=1280&ssl=1 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" width=\"569\" height=\"853\"   \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>Apparently, that\u2019s so 2008.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>This week in the year 2025, two things got under my skin in the best and worst ways. First, my guilty pleasure: <em>Love Island<\/em>. I didn\u2019t watch the show live, but caught up and got hooked by you\u2019re your TikTok and Twitter <em>recaps<\/em>. I got swept up like half the internet by the stunning couple, Nic and Olandria. Interracial, magnetic, and misunderstood \u2014 especially Olandria, a gorgeous dark-skinned woman whose elegance and composure were somehow seen as\u2026 too much.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s be clear. She wasn\u2019t mean. She wasn\u2019t cold. She was poised. Tender but guarded. Stylish but composed, and one of the best-dressed contestants this season. Yet on these platform were hot-takes, threads flooded with critiques. She was too reserved. Not fun enough. Not &#8220;approachable.&#8221; Comparing and contrasting, it became clear that her darker skin shaped how some of the audience <em>expected <\/em>her to behave or willfully misinterpreted how she acted.<\/p>\n<p>Yes in 2025, dark skin can still means aggressive. Hood. Strong and never soft. Olandia isn\u2019t supposed to be the dream girl.<\/p>\n<p>Lighter-skinned contestants, equally quiet or equally assertive, weren\u2019t held to the same standard. Colorism still has reach.<\/p>\n<p>Colorism is not new. Slavery institutionalized a caste system where skin tone dictated labor, survival, and status. Lighter-skinned people, whether Indigenous, biracial, or descended from colonizers, were often placed in \u201cpreferable\u201d conditions. This twisted logic follows us through Reconstruction, through Jim Crow, through beauty pageants, and now reality TV.<\/p>\n<p>When I was researching <em>Island Queen<\/em> and came across the remarkable life of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, a formerly enslaved woman who owned businesses across the West Indies and had a documented affair with <em>a prince of England<\/em>, I assumed she must\u2019ve been biracial and fair-skinned \u2014 it\u2019s what I\u2019d been conditioned to expect with such access, desirability, and favoritism.<\/p>\n<p>But no.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy was dark-skinned, described as striking, admired by politicians, desired by colonial men. Her achievements should be <em>taught in school<\/em> \u2014 and yet she\u2019s barely remembered. One wonders if we would know her name if her skin were lighter like Elizabeth Dido Belle or her life more scripted and tragic like Sally Hemmings.<\/p>\n<p>Dorothy Kirwan Thomas was the exception, not the rule, in a world that often refuses to associate darkness with beauty or softness or wealth.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why I paused and shared the recent <strong>New York Times<\/strong> article celebrating <em>The Gilded Age<\/em> on HBO. The series is well done and its portrayal of Black high society in the 1880s is masterful. <\/p>\n<p>The article features Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, and Den\u00e9e Benton discussing the dual burden of classism <em>and<\/em> colorism.<\/p>\n<p>As Den\u00e9e speaks about working on the show: \u201cWe have an opportunity to show something that\u2019s never been onscreen. We have to widen this lens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Phylicia says, \u201cThe concerns of an era might be different, but people are still people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Audra adds, \u201cBut where we are right now, some of them are quite similar.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Colorism didn\u2019t disappear with integration. I know that because I went to school in the \u201ccolorblind\u201d North and still experienced the <em>paper bag test,<\/em> a cruel whisper from Jim Crow, it was obvious.<\/p>\n<p>Colorism didn\u2019t vanish when we elected a Black president.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s why books like <strong><em>The Vanishing Half<\/em><\/strong> by Brit Bennett struck such a nerve in 2020. Set in the fictional town of Mallard, it shows families fracturing under the pressure to assimilate and even pass.<\/p>\n<p>I return to this quote from <strong>Sonali Dev\u2019s 2019 novel, <\/strong><strong><em>Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors<\/em><\/strong> \u2014 a love story between a darker-skinned Rawandan Anglo-Indian chef and a lighter-skinned Indian-American neurosurgeon:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe syntax of prejudice\u2014threaded into conversation with the perfect pauses and facial expressions\u2014was like ciphers and spy codes. The meaning clear to those it was meant for. To everyone else, it was harmless scribbles. Easy enough to deny.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Denying the lingering effects of colorism is sad. It hides in tone and tone policing. In the silence of those who don\u2019t speak up or question biases. It can even come down to who we\u2019re allowed to root for.<\/p>\n<p>So no, we haven\u2019t solved colorism, classism, or the big R word.<\/p>\n<p>Yet there\u2019s hope in storytelling.<\/p>\n<p>I applaud <em>The Gilded Age<\/em> for giving us something new for TV, portraying Black affluence in the 1800s with elegance, and power and nuance.<\/p>\n<p>And to my fellow writers: I say <strong>don\u2019t stop.<\/strong> The market may shift. Budgets may tighten. But keep telling stories that challenge the hierarchy and bias. Keep writing histories that include all aspects of humanity now and in the past.<\/p>\n<p>Readers? Please lock in.Buy the books.Request them at libraries.Share titles that stir you.<\/p>\n<p>All of us together can make this place a better world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Books mentioned in this podcast as well as others to spotlight a world-wide perspective are:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9780525536963\"><strong>The Vanishing Half<\/strong><\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9780525536963\"> <\/a>by <strong>Brit Bennett<\/strong>Two light-skinned Black twin sisters choose vastly different paths\u2014one passing as white\u2014and their family\u2019s fate reveals the generational scars of colorism and identity.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9780062839053\"><strong>Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors<\/strong><\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9780062839053\"> <\/a>by <strong>Sonali Dev<\/strong>A modern retelling of Austen\u2019s classic featuring an Indian-American neurosurgeon and a darker-skinned chef navigating love, family pressure, and implicit bias, including colorism.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9781250205940\"><strong>Dominicana <\/strong><\/a><strong>by Angie Cruz <\/strong><strong>A young Dominican girl is married off and brought to the U.S., navigating racism, patriarchy, and internalized colorism from her community and family.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9781501117015\"><strong>The House of the Spirits <\/strong><\/a><strong>by Isabel Allende<\/strong><strong>Spanning generations, this magical realist novel touches on colonialism, whiteness, and how transparent skin grants privilege and protection in postcolonial Chilean society.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9780307278449\"><strong>The Bluest Eye <\/strong><\/a><strong>by Toni Morrison<\/strong><strong>A dark-skinned Black girl internalizes society\u2019s hatred and longs for blue eyes, believing they will make her loved and beautiful in a world shaped by colorism and racism.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9780063002852\"><strong>Island Queen<\/strong><\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/book\/9780063002852\"> <\/a>by <strong>Vanessa Riley<\/strong>Based on the real life of Dorothy Kirwan Thomas, this novel tells the epic story of a formerly enslaved woman who becomes a wealthy entrepreneur in the West Indies while confronting race, class, and beauty politics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>This week, I&#8217;m highlighting <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vahibooks.com\/\"><strong>Virgina Highlands Bookstore<\/strong><\/a><strong> through their website and <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/shop\/vahibooks\"><strong>Bookshop.org<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>We are at the 6-month point. January 13<\/strong><strong>th<\/strong><strong> will be here before we know it. Help me build momentum for <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/fireswordandsea.htm\"><strong>Fire Sword and Sea<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u2014spread the word and preorder this disruptive narrative about female pirates in the 1600s. The link on my website shows retailers large and small who have set up preorders for this title.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>You can find my notes on Substack or on my website, <\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vanessariley.com\/\"><strong>VanessaRiley.com<\/strong><\/a><strong> under the podcast link in the About tab.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Let&#8217;s keep growing and building together\u2014like, subscribe, and share. Please stay connected to <\/strong><strong><em>Write of Passage<\/em><\/strong><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Thank you for listening. Hopefully, you\u2019ll come again. This is Vanessa Riley<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is a public episode. If you&#8217;d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/vanessariley.substack.com\/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&#038;utm_campaign=CTA_2\">vanessariley.substack.com\/subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"vanes-2972779202\" class=\"vanes-after-content vanes-entity-placement\" style=\"margin-top: 3px;margin-right: 3px;margin-bottom: 3px;margin-left: 3px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?fit=1080%2C1350&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Listen to the Write of Passage Weekly Podcast\"  srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?w=1080&ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?resize=240%2C300&ssl=1 240w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?resize=819%2C1024&ssl=1 819w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/SubstackAd.png?resize=768%2C960&ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" width=\"540\" height=\"675\"   \/><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Call me crazy.But I thought we were past some things.You know \u2014 basic rights stuff, like healthcare for all, voting rights without chaos. The idea that every American deserves life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without governmental interference. Apparently, that\u2019s so 2008. This week in the year 2025, two things got under my skin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,793,9,620,756,694],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-stories","category-politics","category-recommended-reading","category-syndication","category-technology","category-tv-and-film"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/72a71d857f9ad10e388a3a9d4e0e7cf7-scaled.jpg?fit=1920%2C2560&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vanessariley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}