‘Grownish’ Star Yara Shahidi Talks Colorism: ‘I Don’t View Myself As Light-Skinned’

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*The colorism conversation has been following actress Yara Shahidi since her hit series “Black-ish” started to spark dialogue about issues that matter in the Black community.

Back in December, weeks before her now hit spinoff series “Grownish” premiered on Freeform, Shahidi found herself debating with a few critics, via Twitter, who felt that she benefits from being a biracial actress of a lighter complexion with curly hair.

Shahidi is African American and Iranian.

One commenter noted that she was not going to watch “Grownish” because she was tired of shows only allowing spinoffs starring “racially ambiguous” characters.

When Shahidi saw the comment, she fired back with:

“It is a-okay to not watch the show… but on the basis of my ‘racial ambiguity’? that neglects the fact that I am perceived as a young black girl in most any space I occupy” she wrote on Twitter at the time. “Now, we can have a separate conversation on the ever present colorism and the monolithic black aesthetic on TV of 3c hair and lighter skin…”

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She decided to continue the conversation in her recent ESSENCE cover story.

“I get that within the Black community there are a couple of us who are chosen, not by any fault of our own, to represent [everyone],” she said. “But I’ve been the same character for five years…I am not out here in a ton of movies and a ton of TV shows.”

Still, she’s aware of her privilege when it comes to being an “LS/LH” woman in the Black community. (LS/LH = light skin/long hair)

“[I began to see that] people have constantly had to deal with things that slowly chip away at their identity. These microaggressions make you feel like you’re never enough,” she said. “I realized that if I still experience it on a level of being socioeconomically privileged, then I’m not even experiencing half of it.”

But when it comes to the way she sees herself, Shahidi says it can be “overwhelming” but one thing is for certain, she’s not racially ambiguous.

“I’m brown-skinned. I personally don’t view myself as light-skinned,” she said. “I also understand I’m not dark-skinned. I don’t know how to classify myself, but when you see me, unless you hear my name, no one’s like, ‘That’s a young Iranian girl.’”

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