Combating Colorism: Dark Skin Activist, Author and Actress Rashida Strober

Rashida Strober, the world’s first dark skin activist and the inventor of dark skin activism.

Get to know Rashida Strober, the world’s first dark skin activist and the inventor of dark skin activism. No one else has done what she has done.  Millions came to know who she was through her commentary on the rapper, Kendrick Lamar, back in 2015 which took the world by storm via the power of social media and forced the conversation on dark skin.

People bashed her. People mocked her. People said she was crazy. People said, “What in the world is a dark skin activist? She was stalked and harassed. She took the real hits for dark skin. But since that time many others have attempted to emulate her but none can emulate the real struggle of dark skin activism that Rashida began back in 1998 in the trenches before the bright lights of social media.

Rashida gave birth to dark skin activism in 1998 at Saint Petersburg College with her historic lecture on the Sudanese dark skinned beauty Alek Wek, and since then has gone on to develop a body of work around only dark skin.

She is the first author, actress and activist to focus her work exclusively on dark skin and has been very consistent. Her commitment and dedication to equality for dark skinned people makes her the queen of dark skin. She is the face of dark skin in a world that has long ignored the plight of dark skinned people. She coined the word “darkism” and wrote a book of the same title. She coined the phrase “dark skin activist” and “dark skin activism.”

Rashida brought dark skin activism to the internet in 2009, but has a proven track record of dark skin activism offline within her community. Back in 2012, the queen of dark skin’s dedication to dark skin issues showed when she created the first show on the internet and otherwise to exclusively focus on dark skin female issues. Her pioneering show was called A Dark Skin Woman’s Revenge, and aired on Get Live Radio in Clearwater, Florida.

The queen of dark skin has also written the most books on the topic of dark skin. Rashida has four books and two plays under her belt, and is currently writing a 5th book on how she invented the concept of dark skin activism. The book is called “Inventing Dark Skin Activism: The Rashida Strober Story.”

Her other books include: “Darkism: 25 Ways Dark Skin People Are Discriminated Against“, “A Dark Skin Woman’s Revenge“, “How to be the Hottest Dark Skin Chick on the Planet” and “A Dark Skin Girl’s Triumph: The Rashida Strober Story“.

Her plays include two that are the same as the titles of two of her books. The plays are “A Dark Skin Woman’s Revenge and A Dark Skin Girl’s Triumph: The Rashida Strober Story”. The third play is entitled “The Crucifixion of the Dark Skin Activist.”

A gifted actress, the queen of dark skin has also created the first Dark Skin Activist Tour featuring her one-woman play A Dark Skin Woman’s Revenge. Not only did she write and produce the play, she also brilliantly plays five women. She wrote the play in 2006. With little resources, she began searching for other dark-skinned women to play the characters but they either did not want to portray the characters or there was no money to pay them so Rashida used her talents to play all the women herself. Rashida has since won an award for her portrayal of one of the characters, winning actress of the year at the Playwright’s Red-Carpet Awards. Rashida has produced the play all over the US including the Atlanta Black Theater Festival, The DC Black Theater Festival and at the University of South Florida.

A victim of what Rashida calls dark skin mental abuse she decided to release her story to the public for free. In 2006 she wrote the play turned audio book, A Dark Skin Girl’s Triumph: The Rashida Strober Story. The story details her struggles of overcoming poverty, homelessness and dark skin abuse to obtaining a Master’s degree from the University of South Florida. Sharing her personal story would not only be therapeutic for her but would also help others. A true pioneer, Rashida’s dark-skinned activism is the first of its kind. The world’s first dark skinned activist has created a new paradigm to eradicate dark skinned discrimination of all kinds. Since 98’ the dark-skinned activist has been relentlessly advocating for what she calls “dark skinned beauty equality” and “dark skin equality.” She’s appeared on TV, the cover of the Floridian, on countless international internet talk platforms and as the featured story for many newspapers. Her fans will tell you that they have never seen anyone advocate with such, passion and sincerity as Rashida does for dark skin.

Rashida also speaks to the youth and in her community about darkism. As a long time speaker at the Great American Teach-In, the queen of dark skin speaks to school aged children from kindergarten to 12th grade. She also lectures at churches and libraries and other community organizations. The queen of dark skin has also been counseling people on dark skin issues for years free of charge. From France to Africa to New York she receives messages from people asking for her help. She says the most rewarding part is helping people who confide in her about their dark-skinned struggles. They count on her to be there, listen and not pass judgment. They know that she truly understands because she’s been there. A fan recently contacted her telling her that he works in corporate America and takes her book, Darkism, with him to work daily as a source of inspiration.

The queen of dark skin will be appearing for the first time in Harlem, New York with her off Broadway production of the play, A Dark Skin Woman’s Revenge. This is a one-woman show where Rashida plays 5 characters. The show will take place Saturday, November 4th at the Maysles Documentary Center located at 343 Malcolm X Blvd in Harlem.

To purchase tickets, visit www.queenofdarkskin.com. To reach the queen of dark skin for bookings and appearances about her work and its impact at http://www.darkskinisbeautifulcampaign.com/bio.

The Documentary

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Has anything really changed since the days of American slavery when dark-skinned Blacks were made to suffer even greater indignities than their lighter skinned counterparts? Ask today’s dark Black woman. Dual documentary Directors/Producers D. Channsin Berry (Urban Winter Entertainment) and Bill Duke (Duke Media) took their cameras into everyday America in search of pointed, unfiltered and penetrating interviews with Black women of the darkest hues for their emotional expose’, “Dark Girls”.

Two years in the making and slated to premier at the Toronto International Film Festival, “Dark Girls” pulls back our country’s curtain to reveal that the deep seated biases and hatreds of racism — within and outside of the Black American culture — remain bitterly entrenched. Berry states of the film’s origin, “When Bill called me with the idea of a documentary about dark-skinned women, I was in right away. Being a dark-skinned Black man, like Bill, I have gone through similar traumas.

Being separated and discriminated against by our own people. It stifles your self-esteem. Bill and I shared our similar experiences and immediately understood that we knew the best way to approach this.” Duke adds, “In the late `60s a famous psychological study was done in which a young Black girl was presented with a set of dolls. Every time the she was asked to point to the one that wasn’t pretty, not smart, etc., she pointed to the Black doll that looked just like her. In her mind, she was already indoctrinated. To watch her do that was heartbreaking and infuriating. CNN did the test again recently — decades later — with little progress. As the filmmakers behind ‘Dark Girls,’ our goal is to take that little girl’s finger off that doll.” Dark-skinned Black American women from all walks of life will be covered with a key focus trained tightly upon women struggling for upward mobility in the workplace of Corporate America.

“The sickness is so crazy,” Berry continues. “These ladies broke it down to the degree that dark-skinned ‘sistas’ with ‘good’ hair vs. dark-skinned women with ‘kinky’ hair were given edges when it came time for coveted promotions.” Additional interviewees for “Dark Girls” include White men in loving intimate relationships with Black women that were passed over by “their own men,” as well as dark-skinned women of Latin and Panamanian background to bring a world perspective to the issue of dark vs. light. Berry concludes, “The skin issue is a discussion we all need to have once and for all…so we can eradicate it.”

Official Movie Website: http://officialdarkgirlsmovie.com/