Untitled By Ynez Mahoney, Naima Noguera, Lex Gavin 

As a group of light-skinned mixed race people of color, we confront the foundations and current realities of shadeism. Though we are affected by this structure daily, our light skin awards us the privilege of ignorance. It is a contradictory existence.

We wrote independently about our experiences of privilege and oppression, and synthesized our writings with research that provides them historical context. We struggled with how to best address our culpability in shadeism as people who live at the intersection of such fragmented identities.

       Factual information from our video can be found verbatim in our essay, but personal writings were distilled to angular, repetitive lines to evoke emotion in our audience, encouraging connections to be made constantly during our piece. A distinct, personal voice juxtaposes clinical facts. Our piece is both poetic and reflexive. We explore ourselves in fragmented performances- like our identities. Focus is constantly redirected to the camera or filmmaker, a reminder that what audiences see is merely what we wanted them to see. Image-makers shape reality.

We grappled with the overall tone of Untitled how to address systems that colonizers created while acknowledging our own complicity in shadeism. How to galvanize people to consciously observe racism and keep our unjustly elevated status as light-skinned people the piece’s primary focus. Our ultimate intent is to present our realities as proof that racial binaries dissolve under the weight of mixed identities. Shadeism violently shapes collective history. Decolonizing our communities and hearts requires dedication from all of us.