Breaking Boundaries in the Entertainment Industry

By: Kereen Hurley

I’m a dark skin Caribbean woman, I don’t have a broad nose, I don’t have large lips,  I’m not twerker and I don’t really have a bad attitude. I have been in the music industry as a model since 2012 and today I can truly say I understand how this industry works. There are small minded directors out there that probably wouldn’t date a dark skin girl but that’s not the problem. The problem is colorsim, which is prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone.

Despite this problem, it’s still a business and you need to be professional, creative, and open minded. In my time in the industry I’ve seen many things, like small minded directors booking average dark skin girls to put off clients, making them regret asking for them. For example I was with a agency where an a artist needed a dark skin girl for his music video. Despite me being a dark skin woman who fit the exact criteria for what he wanted, the agency supplied him with a few girls and left me out. I was left out because because the head of the agency wanted the artist to change his mind and choose a light skinned woman for his video instead of me in order to make the agency look good.

In the rare times when directors decide to book and use dark skin girls they often don’t fit the criteria for what the artists wants. For example if a director needs a dark skin girl for a music video he will usually get a dark skin girl that was really tall that should be doing fashion rather than twerking. They often do not even care if the girl is pretty or not. In other words dark skin girls are just thrown into videos regardless if that is what they were best suited for.

We are represented poorly and mistreated badly. Some dark skin girls are great for editorial purposes, for example they have full lips and strong African features. Despite this, directors don’t appreciate their uniqueness but rather throw any dark girl they can find to put in music video. When you think of a beautiful light skin model you think of a small facial features, a petite body, nice smile, and great acting skills. Why don’t they want that in a dark skin girl ? Are they afraid of competition.

Some Light skin agents in the entertainment industry are really sly and get away with supplying average  dark skin models that don’t fit the criteria  . They get away with it because they know well known directors and the casting directors so they can supply any model they want and the directors will just take the models she gives them.

Agencies gain confidence and egos when they supply the hottest light skin models and sign a few dark skin girls here and there just so it’s not obvious that they only prefer light skinned girls. The clients that hate seeing dark skin models succeed love working with these agencies because they give light skin models a platform and job opportunities. The agents pretends that they care about dark skin girls and then act surprised when no one books them knowing the whole time that they don’t fit the criteria and won’t get booked anyway.

Some dark skin women in the industry are bitter because they had a hard time trying to get jobs so they turn into agents and just sign and work with light skin and Latina models because once their models start getting booked they will get to know well known clients, gain contacts, and eventually start modeling again.

They will also know who to contact for jobs before I can get the best working dark skin model title. They don’t want to help girls like me because they want it for themselves. They only help average dark skin girls because they want to become successful first and be known as the best dark skin model in the industry even though they are agents as well.

Black woman in the industry often book Blasian models, light skin models, and African dark skin models. They don’t believe in a beautiful dark skin models that are cute and petite like me, because they don’t see themselves as beautiful. When it comes to fashion and shoots by African men, they don’t book me unless I have a lot of followers on Instagram.

Despite the issues in this industry, I overcame them and was blessed to be part of a  video shoot. I had energy,confidence ,and a big international artist, named Wizkid danced with me at his video shoot. The director liked my energy and confidence and featured me a lot in the video. After that opportunity I eventually got scouted by a good agency and worked with another great international artist, Davido. I am dark skinned ,Caribbean ,I have small facial features ,petite, and I believe my black matters. I created my own path and I didn’t let small minded people in the industry stop me from chasing my dreams.