Tisha Campbell got candid about colorism and having light-skinned privilege during a new interview in which she also talked about behind-the-scenes of School Daze.
The iconic actress has been in the game for years, and along the way, she has learned a few things about herself and the entertainment industry as a whole. As reported by Essence, she opened up about these things during a recent discussion with SiriusXM Urban View host Mike Muse.
During the interview, the actress spoke about the importance of setting boundaries in life. She also shined a light on light-skinned privilege, which she’s been aware of for most of her life.
Campbell found ways to set boundaries for herself without being "selfish."
Campbell spoke on boundary setting and how she had to learn to put herself first spending after years of living for other people.
“Not everybody’s gonna be happy with your boundaries,” the Martin star said. “There are a lot of people that don’t like the fact that I may have maybe isolated myself to only a small group of friends now, that I don’t give the way that I used to give of myself. That’s okay. It’s not being selfish. It’s being self-full. It’s making sure that you have boundaries set in place so that you are not overextending yourself to everybody all the damn time.”
The actress says she's currently experiencing some firsts.
She explained, “For the first time in my life I’m actually giving to me first because I want to be the ultimate wife, or the ultimate mother, or the ultimate coworker. And I would sacrifice my own energy, self-love, everything, to make other people more comfortable.”
Campbell shared her thoughts on light-skinned privilege and Spike Lee's social experiments around colorism.
In addition to opening up about setting boundaries, Tisha Campbell also spoke about her experience with light privilege and colorism during the interview.
According to the actress, she’s experienced light-skinned privilege all of her life. However, the first time she saw it first-hand at work was when she was filming Spike Lee’s 1988 musical comedy-drama School Daze.
"So Spike [Lee] put all the light skinned girls in one hotel; a nicer hotel. He put the dark skinned girls in a motel. Then he put all the boys, not just, you know, both factions,” Campbell said.
“He put all the boys in a light skinned girls hotel. I was always at the motel with everybody else. I hung out with them. But it was to create real method chaos.”
On colorism and privilege, she said, “No it’s true and it’s real. There is a thing of light-skinned privilege. It is very real. That people have had to deal with. We are just now celebrating melanin. We are just now coming into understanding how beautiful black truly is, our own people. You know what I mean?”
