Thug Life Army

A mini firestorm was kicked up last week when in an interview rapper Yung Berg (Damn we misspelling young now too.) expressed his distaste for brown skinned sisters which he referred to as "Dark Butts". According to Burg, when it comes to women, "I''m kinda racist… I don''t really like dark butts too much… It's rare that I do dark butts. Like really rare… It's like, no darker than me."

Yung Berg; obviously sans manager, publicist or anyone who would have a clue and totally oblivious to the radio host trying hard to save him and his budding career actually continued, "I love the pool test…jump in the pool exactly like you are and you don''t come out looking better wet then you were before you got in the pool then that's not a good look". Apparently "racist" Berg believes that if a dark skinned woman jumps in the pool she''ll hop out with an Angela Davis afro and skin looking like Ashy Larry.

Needless to say everybody jumped on Yung Berg and in a matter of hours an "apology" was recorded in which he even paid homage to his "lovely dark skinned" mother. (Which made me wonder if there was a jet black frying pan waiting for his head when he got home?) While the internet and blogs were annihilating this brother I started thinking, can we really blame Yung Berg?

I mean, I''m sure the brother spent his formative years (he's only 23, Wikipedia baby) watching rap videos an imagining one day he''d be in one. And, if you have ever seen 1 or 1000 rap videos you know dark skinned sisters are damn near non existent in them. (Ironically, Yung Berg has a dark skinned sister in his new video.What's not ironic is that he disses her for a lighter skinned

woman.) I guess video casting directors are giving the pool test too.

Name me one well known video vixen (I know that's sort of an oxymoron, but you know what I mean!) that's not light, bright or damn near white. Look at the sisters who have started there own cottage industry writing books about all the rappers, ball players and rappers they''ve…uh…had relationships with (Yeah I know that's a stretch) Karrine Steffans (No I won''t call her by her nickname! By the way, how do you write a book about all of your…uh…exploits and dedicate it to your son?) , Carmen Bryan (Nas'' baby's mom) and now Mos Def's wife Alana Wyatt. A brown skinned sister can''t even get a book deal?

But, beyond just videos take a look Tyra Banks'' America's Next Top Model. Tyra who had her own struggles in modeling and was quoted as saying, ""My biggest obstacle was that I was black and curvy," must have internalized the racism she faced, because in the ten seasons the show's been on the air only one winner Danielle Evans (You know I Wikipediaed this one!), qualifies as a brown skinned beauty. Damn, even Tyra's giving the pool test!

Hollywood has always been in on the act, just ask Angie Stone. She went in on a recent interview about the movie industry. Angie said, "Well, you know it goes back to the very beginning. If you were light skinned you were in, if you were dark skinned you were out. It very well works that way in the industry. You see very [few] dark skinned people on top of the game. Most of the superstars are very fair or mullatto people. You can check your stats. It works that way in the film world too. I have lost almost every single opportunity to star in a film to Macy Gray or Jill Scott because they''re light and I''m dark."

Just a few years ago, Will Smith put Hollywood on blast for not wanting to cast a black woman opposite him in the romantic comedy, "Hitch" instead choosing Latina Eva Mendes. (According to Wikipedia this is Yung Berg's favorite movie) Will complained "There's sort of an accepted myth that if you have two black actors, a male and a female, in the lead of a romantic comedy then people around the world don''t want to see it." People around the world and Yung Berg homey!

The reality is the epitome of beauty in this society is the blond hair blue eyed white woman and the closer you are to that image the easier it is to be accepted as attractive. Yung Burg is just a product of years of conditioning, countless hours of BET programming and horrible interviewing skills, and if that's a reason not to support the brother then we should boycott the entire entertainment industry.

Although, it is a sad day when you lose your own mom as a fan.

Please visit Jasiri X at http://www.myspace.com/jasirix