Lifestyle
Erica Campbell and family tackle colorism and self esteem issues on “We’re the Campbells”
Gospel artist and radio personality Erica Campbell is on television once again with her family on their new show “We’re the Campbells” on TV One.
In the show Erica and her husband Warryn Campbell don’t hold back on the topics brought up on the show from life work balance to suffering loss.
In Episode 4 “Colour Me Blind,” the family addresses the all too real issue of colorism, brought up by their 13-year-old daughter, Krista.
Krista confided in her mom Erica about the isolation that she’s experiencing at school. “Am I ugly?” Krista asked her mom. “A lot of the guys at school like light skinned girls,” Krista shared and then listed all of the couples in their family of light skinned wife and darker skinned husband pairings. Krista is very smart for her age and is not oblivious to her own talents and beauty.
However, when you have a different perspective from your parent, it may be tempting to think that people don’t understand what you go through.“You’re light skinned so you don’t really know exactly how it feels,” Krista explained to her mom. With that in mind Erica shared with her daughter that her journey is her own and there are going to be some battles that she’ll have to go through. Erica assured her daughter when she looked her in the eyes and told her “you are exactly what I prayed for…your life counts, your life means something not just to us, but to God. Your life is yours to be used for God’s glory.”
“As long as you love yourself and surround yourself with people who care for you for the inside of who you are that’s the most important thing,” said Erica
“It’s like a dagger stuck in my heart…I don’t want her to experience what I went through,” confessed Warryn after Erica brought up the issue with him. Warryn grew up experiencing skin tone discrimination and still sees it in the music industry. Even in developing talent like his own sister Joi (JoiStaRR), he had to have the hard conversation about receiving push back from music executives who loved her sound but didn’t favor her brown skin.
“I can’t protect Joi from these issues of colorism, and pretend they don’t exist, but I can be upfront and honest with her so she’s prepared for it,” said Warren.
“You can’t let people’s words dictate what you’re going to be,” Warryn advised Joi. This can be applied to anyone’s walk, for all of us have a personal battle to fight, our own crosses to carry.
Later in the episode, Erica arranged a meetup for her daughter Krista with Kheris Rogers, an 11 year old designer and youth speaker. Kheris confidently shared her own story about overcoming colorism and how her message of “flexin’ in my complexion” took off all over the Internet. In the meetup, Krista expressed her own story of being called “darkie” in the 5th grade:
In reference to this episode, Joi posted online: “Colorism is obviously still a painful issue in America, but I’ve learned to embrace my chocolate penny copper brown skin tone, and the peculiar birthmark on my face. God’s plan.”
“In my house, we’re striving to move past that issue of what your skin looks like,” Warryn said towards the end of the episode. Krista at age 13 is believing more in herself and not looking for outward validation regarding her skin tone, which was encouraging for her aunt Joi. It was great to see all of the family members step up and pour into Krista, not only sharing what they have experienced with racism and colorism, but affirming who she is. Warryn was right that it starts at home, building a positive foundation for children to see themselves as who God made them to be in a world that would want them to change who they are.
Be sure to catch more episode of “We’re the Campbells” on TV One every Tuesday night at 7 p.m. CST!