Colorism has reared its ugly head again. And this time, it’s been resurrected by singer DaniLeigh.

 Last week, DaniLeigh  upset the internet with her song, “Yellow Bone.” In an Instagram clip that has been deleted, the singer can be seen dancing around to the song, repeating, “Yellow Bone is what he wants.” The snippet of the song and video went viral on Twitter and many immediately called out DaniLeigh for glamorizing the desirability of lighter-skin women.

DaniLeigh went on the defense. “Why can’t I make a song for my light skin baddies,” she responded, in a now-deleted comment. Days after, on Jan 24th, she made an official apology on her Instagram story. “I see a lot of brown skin women making music about their skin type and it’s like why I can’t? And to call me a colorist, call me a racist and it’s like how? I’m dating a whole chocolate man and I have beautiful melanin friends,” she said. Adding how she does not acknowledge her skin color as a “privilege” and how it was just a “chill” song. “I understand colorism is a real thing…but I wasn’t thinking so deeply on it, when I was making the song.” The truth is, “Yellow Bone is what he wants,” gaslights Black women who actually do the work to de-construct colorism. 

Think of Beyoncé’s “BROWN SKIN GIRL,” an anthem to uplift women of darker complexions in defense of living a colorist society. Beyoncé is a light-skinned Black woman using her platform to teach everyone that brown-skinned women are just as valuable and desirable to anyone else. The song, “Yellow Bone,” does nothing but reinstate colorist values. It constrains Black women. It elevates the idea of “color” superiority. The lighter the color, the more desirable. 

Colorism might be articulated in fitting Eurocentric beauty standards — even though historically it goes deeper. The one-drop rule since the early 20th century allows anyone with “African DNA,” in them to self-identify as Black. Since then, it has led to confusion as to who has the right to actually identify as Black. Who is Black? Well, anyone apparently if you have 1 percent thanks to that rule which was birthed from scientific racism. This notion allows anyone who is Black but can self-identify and appear as white. We live in a society that can alter and erase what is and what appears to be Black and consume it. 

Consumption leads to erasure. Erasure is racism. Erasure welcomes non-Black presenting individuals to steal and appropriate Black culture. Look at the recent controversy on TikTok with user n.nina666, an Asian woman accused of using a blaccent. In multiple videos she speaks in this blaccent and has even used the n-word, to which she apologized for. Subsequently, the trend of Blackfishing or using dark facial makeup, wearing traditionally Black hairstyles, and enhancing their bodies, seemingly to look like Black women is regularly on our feeds. 

Lighter skin non-Black women do not share the same experiences as darker skin women. “I don’t see my skin as a privilege,” DaniLeigh says. Well, that same privilege derives from colorism, which is the child to white supremacy. To not acknowledge light skin privilege reinforces the feeling of inferiority into Black girls of darker complexions. And, defending her song by saying she’s dating a Black man does not solve the issue at hand — it only furthers the idea that if you date a Black man, or have “beautiful melanin friends,” you can escape the consequences of your anti-Black behavior. Dating a Black man does not absolve the damaging behavior that song exudes.

At the end of the day, the issue many individuals are having with DaniLeigh’s song is how she subconsciously weaponizes white supremacy in her song. “Yellow Bone is what he wants,” because the world allows those features to be consumed and culturally acceptable. 

https://twitter.com/TyranyN/status/1353873391623794688?s=20 

I think Auntie Bernice is talking to Ms.Yellowbone Dani Leigh 😗 https://t.co/pdzgOpXwWz

— Erin Morgan (@ErinMorganT) January 26, 2021

Case “Yellowbone Is what he wants” already backs up the idea that lightskin is where it’s at not saying that’s her intentions she has every right to uplift women of her shade but at times like these women of a darker skin tone don’t get to see their beauty being valued 🤷🏾‍♂️

— Tyrone Bryant (@Carolinas_94) January 27, 2021