(Photo Credit: Johnny Nunez/Getty Images)
Tory Lanez wants to put a spotlight on colorism as expressed in a brand new Instagram post he wrote this weekend.
The artist posted a video as he performed during a music video shoot, where allegedy the director tried to substitute a dark skinned complexion woman for one who was more lighter skinned as they danced beside Lanez.
You then see him temporarily stop the shoot to bring the darker skinned woman next to him.
“As a black man , Sometimes I’m going to joke about the black community just like we all do,” he wrote. “BUT WHAT IM NOT GOING TO DO IS ALLOW ANY OF THESE DIRECTORS TO DE-VALUE OUR BLACK WOMEN,” adding that he’s seen directors “swap out our women of color for women of lighter complexion, or women with straighter hair ETC. IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY AS ARTIST TO STAND UP AND NOT LET THIS HAPPEN … it’s BEEN time to embrace our woman of color.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byxh8_aA2Vg/
Within the day after its posting, there have been rumors of inconsistencies with the story.
One report claims that Lanez had lied about the way the situation went down, as allegedly told by the darker skinned woman that is seen in the video.
Update: Dark Skinned chick says @torylanez lied about the whole thing and that he barely even spoke to her. She claims Tory asked for the other girl to be there and only gave her compliments. pic.twitter.com/elGkUUMDhX
— Gossipofthecity (@gossipoftheciti) June 17, 2019
Whether it went down as we initially saw or not, it does help re-open an important conversation on how colorism is used in media, and how we can all look to continue improve the different shades of beauty around the world.