The Proud Family's Light Skin Favoritism 🤔🤔🤔
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- Опубликовано: 16 ноя 2024
- My reaction and thoughts to how The Proud Family favored light skinned characters in more ways than one. From the colorism episode to Trudy and Penny being the token light skinned mom and daughter. Let's discuss this. Please don't forget to comment , like and subscribe. Thank You!!!
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#TheProudFamily #Colorism
There's nothing wrong with watching a show like The Proud Family just for fun but there's also nothing wrong with analyzing this show because everything was done with intentions even down to the skin tones of each character 🧐
Think about it, they probably made penny proud light black versus dark black to attract a larger audience and her dad (the comic relief) is a darker skin tone than the rest of the proud family including sugar moma.
I think the reboot should’ve aged the characters up the 20 years the show was off the air to show the changes between the times. All the same, it’s very modern/current for a reboot to copy and paste the original content in appearance with a modern twist.
hey tony can you make a video about trudy and oscar and if their really good parents
I also as a hobby merman, get updates on merperson media and there’s this show called serin. In season 1, the mermaid villain was the only black mermaid that season and in season 2, the token black merman was killed off in a sex ritual. The cast is taken from the mermaid community and was big on Netflix in the community. Until the little mermaid remake this year, there hasn’t been a main character mermaid that’s been good in western mermaid media.
Honestly, truly
I watched this show when it first came out. Believe me when I tell you, the colorism was glaringly obvious and deeply felt, primarily because so many black shows promoted colorism for women. The problem with the proud family is that with its reboot, they never bothered to fix the problem, but leaned into it. I've got a daughter who's around my age when I first watched. She's disgusted and unamused with the show, and feels there's better stuff out there.
“Judge a man not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.” Is my favorite quote from Martin Luther King Jr. Imagine if the writers were to of implemented this into their writing?
Right ‼ You can tell they purposely decide the skin tones based on what attributes they want to give a certain black character
@@TonyTurner Yes! Also, I thought Trudy was Black and Mexican or just Mexican growing up because she resembles some of my family members and with how she behaves as well. Thought Penny was mixed as well because she also looks like my cousins.
@@sweetsisfatCool.👍🏻
Yes. Don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s Martin Luther King Jr. In 2 days. As of when I’m writing this comment.
If Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today and watched this episode, he would be displeased...
And all this just makes the colorism “he’s just dating you because you’re white” episode come off as hypocritical
In the Mexican culture; we praise light skin while looking down at dark skin. I've experienced colorism since I was born. My cousin was born a year before me. Many of my relatives praised, love, and kept mentioning how she looks "so white." I have darker skin. Those relatives shrugged me off. Not being rude but anyone could see the difference. It sucks. Colorism is REAL. Breaks my heart.
Thanks for sharing that ‼ It's really terrible but self love trumps it all
Colorism is everywhere it’s actually so sad. Like I’m African & we still have this issue smh
And it goes beyond just skin tone too. White people really dominated the world culturally it's crazy.
You dont have to putup with that disrespect.
Stand up against your bullies, even if their your family.
@@youtubestudiosucks978 I think that’s the hardest part. When it’s your own family, there’s a lot of fear you have to overcome and it sucks.
Man you were PREACHING with Trudy and Oscar. Oscar, the dark skinned father is treated like a joke while Trudy, the light skinned mother is the one bringing in the money.
To be fair many sitcoms have the father as the bumbling idiot and the wife as the competent one (i.e. Simpsons, Family Guy, Modern Family, Married with Children etc).
@@possummagic3571 Married with Children might have been the start of the bumbling dad trope, but at least there the wife (Peg) was just as much of a joke as the husband. The biggest joke of the series was how much suffering in Al’s life was due to Peg being a lazy, bon-bon eating, spendthrift. A terrible wife and mother.
The show zinged Peg just as much as it did Al.
Oscar is seldom allowed to be anything other than a huge joke for Suga Mama, Trudy, and the rest of the show to slap around.
@@HipHopConservative Married with Children was definitely NOT the start of the trope. And the trope isn't limited to Dads. Every comedy show has it's punching bags and straight men.
@@possummagic3571 "When you know better, you do better." There is no reason to continue that trope with black fathers. "Good Times" tried to subvert it, but the white producer did not want a strong black father. Oscar isn't merely funny, he's also unloving and unlikeable. As an example of "doing better," take a look at "The Wild Thornberries." That father was funny, but he was also presented as loyal, brave, loving...and usually the one who saved everyone in the end through uncommon knowledge or connections.
@@rdkirk3834 You know what, you're probably right. It's all one giant conspiracy that only affects black characters. Please forgive me, I wasn't wearing my racism glasses. They were on the top of my head. I see it now!
Another issue is the false belief that a light skin mom + a dark skin father = light skin daughters which the show seems to portray with Penny and Cece being light and Bebe being brown skin
I mean…it’s possible they could come out like that.
@@ali773n of course it’s possible but the issue is that they expect the girls to only come out light skin. A prime example being that one YT family where the mom was upset her daughter didn’t have her green eyes.
@@coolchristiangirl190The Royalty family I think
@@aamateur-artistNope
@IdontplayfrYep
As a white guy who watched Proud Family as a kid I'm kinda glad to hear I wasn't the only one who didn't realize that some of the characters were meant to be black based on how they were designed. I grew up in a pretty homogenous area so it wasn't until later on as an adult I learned more about different communities of people and stuff like colorism.. But as a kid watching the show I just thought Penny was meant to be "mixed" race. I think animation is an interesting medium to look at when it comes to colorism because it sometimes seems to skew extremely pale even for white and asian characters - like as close to #FFFFFF as possible if you know what I mean.
One time I was commissioned to draw characters from Shield Hero, and when I was color picking the screenshots, I was thrown off by how close to actual White the skin colors were
@@Nocturnalday tried drawing hatsune miku one time and had the same issue. Like shit was literally paper white.
@@Nocturnalday Animation is a bit of weird medium whem it comes to portray.human skintones. The colors are usually made lighter than in real life and when an animated ahow uses realistic skintone everyone looks darker. A good example is King of The Hill, the characters look darker than in most animations but they are actually very close to reality
@@MatameVideos That makes sense since King of The Hill is more targeted for a slice of life genre.
I’m a darker skinned black girl who didn’t grow up being affected by colorism (I didn’t know colorism was a thing until high school and then I didn’t really take it seriously until I was in college). When I got older I was shocked to see people who thought some of the characters were white or Latino. I’m glad kid me wasn’t affected by the colorism in the show, but it does kind of make me sad as an adult.
I do wonder where Sugar Mama lands in this discussion. They use a lot of the same tropes that hurt Dijonay’s character but she’s also quite often written to be wise and loving. Not to mention in the original she was very beautiful when she was younger, and in that one episode where she lost weight. Though, I imagine that’s a whole other conversation.
There’s also that new character, I think her name is Maya, that seems to be an attempt to course correct on some of the colorism issues, however I also see that people don’t tend to like her, so I don’t know, lol
They made her bad as being what people think socially aware teens are like. Shes so unlikeable she’s mostly next to Lacienaga.
Yep, there's also Maya's brother. He seems to be the Sticky clone since he's a tech whiz.
I'm not sure how everyone else sees her but I believe she's written like a spiritual negro except instead of disappearing when she's not needed she's just written to be toxic. The older relative perspective from someone kind of carefree is often needed in coming of age stories and that's the role she fills (like Moana's grandma). The funny thing is I think they chose her color due to her relation to Oscar, and I think they chose to make her his direct relative to avoid people calling the feud colorist lol.
Maya as a character already had an uphill battle ahead of her because she's new but the writers dealt her an awful hand. They wrote her to be their "woke insert" and it's really obvious. She's supposed to be the remedy to dark skin characters being unlikable but her entire personality is "power to the people" and she's incredibly unlikable. I'm not exaggerating when I say if she's not saying something generic about activism she's not a real part of the group. She's written to be a lone wolf type character but she's always putting herself around the group just to act disinterested. Her relationship with the group reminds me of Lacienega's frenemy dynamic but there isn't a clear motivation or lesson involved. Lacienega clearly has low self esteem and builds it up by being an asshole to her friends, Maya is a new student who has no problem being alone but still chooses to surround herself with people she doesn't really like.
They could have made the exact same character but aged her up and made her someone that Penny tries to prove herself to. That way her apathy would make more sense and her motivations can be a little muddled because her presence alone would be enough to say she's amused by the group.
Sugar Mama is the Madea. She meets the negative tropes. But also gives guidance when needed. But mostly a rowdy older woman when it serves the scene.
Even if only children watch the OG Proud Family, that's still something to talk about. The idea of saying "the lighter you're the more prettier you're" is now stuck in an impressionable, young child's head. It would be much worse if a dark skinned child watched it.
Definitely...
1. Trudy: As a kid, I honestly thought Trudy was either White or mixed (White & Black). The reboot hasn't done a better job at her skin tone since it looks lighter
2. I find it very telling that the writers/producers revised the Chang triplets (they aren't copy and pastes of each other) and Michael (he is officially out as queer) in the reboot, but refuse to acknowledge that they have continued to promote colorism. When it comes to Dijonay, (I believe) her voice actress said that she is not promoting colorism, but rather it's her "unapologetic" nature
3. As you pointed out, the animators made it their point to make the lighter skinned characters more likeable and attractive (ex. Noah vs Myron). They easily could've made him darker or something, but purposely made him extremely light
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i think Dijonays voice actress has less to say about it then the writers do… they’re the ones putting the words in her mouth.
Honestly yeah, dijonay is a trashy character, I understand what they are trying to say how her personality is just that, her personality, but they should've seriously changed her design
@@divine555 or even just had another character who called her out.
@@battybuddy exactly, but what annoys me first is her design, why give her that ugly ah hair? Or "wig" as Michael called it, they could've made her an all natural girl and given her an Afro, with the positive aspects of her personality I feel like it would've deeply suited her, but nah, she had to get a wig as fake and ugly as she is on the inside smh
I’m glad you mentioned Hey Arnold because I’d love for you to do an in-depth analysis of Gerald. Gerald had a drop of “token black character” syndrome but nothing else about him felt tokenized. He had multiple whole episodes to himself, he was the brains of the male group which is why he was paired with the brains of the female group Phoebe(who also deserves a video), he wasn’t as pious or level headed as Arnold could be but he was cool and always stuck to his friends side, he had obvious middle child syndrome and they wrote a whole episode around his actor going through puberty instead of replacing him like they did with Arnold. I would also love to see a proper well meaning video of that one episode where the new girl had a crush on Gerald’s older brother and Gerald had a crush on her because they thing has so many layers. That show was very very starved for dark female representation, the only one that they had was mixed light skinned and blonde, but even so I loved the show and would watch many videos trying to understand the characters who don’t get that much love.
It feels like a combo of the colorism rampant in media mixed with just enough ‘plausible deniability’ for the network. (Like making Myron dark skin, but short and nerdy and pushy) so they have multiple reasons to not like him. Has the side effect of attributing those things to the darker skinned characters too.
It bugged me growing up but I didn’t know why
It makes me wonder if they intentionally made maya unlikable. Her character concept could have been interesting but they just. Made her a joke.
There've been several points in my life where I've had to explain to non-blacks that black people can be lighter skinned without being biracial. Folks often assumed I was mixed because I had a lighter skin tone.
Nowadays that has to be explained to black people as well.
@@rdkirk3834Facts, because people can be so ignorant. I’m Guinean (West African) and my family ranges from very lightskin to very darkskin. People get so mad when I tell them that my light skin doesn’t take away the fact that I’m African. And according to those ancestry tests, I’m only 1% non-black. 😂😂😂
@@rdkirk3834 I feel you on this one. I've only ever had to explain how I'm not biracial cuz of my light skin tone but both of my parents are black jus one of them is very light skin which is where I get it from. All throughout middle school and high school I've been asked if I was mixed but they seem to not believe me when I say no. I only ever had to explain to black people tho and the first time a white person asked me if I was mixed was last semester (I'm in college now) and I quote "Are you mixed or are you just black?" I simply answered her question but it was my first time being asked by a non black person whether I was mixed or not😅
Fr in 6th grade I had to *FIGHT* for my own black card :(
You should check your family tree! You have European blood! 💅
I never thought Trudy was white. My family has a darker side and a side consisting of alot of Trudy's skin tone. Just seemed like a typical black family. Even in school there were mixed kids and light skin black kids, and while their skin tones were both light, their tones were different and their features /hair and it was pretty distinguishable. I enjoyed that the Proud Family had a mix of tones and family types growing up and I appreciated that it wasn't so homogenous.
There are also people considered light skin black but they have biracial parents and grandparents instead of one white and one black parent. I’m a product of that and I think people forget about people like me. It’s either you’re just light skinned black or biracial but I have a grandparent who’s 75% white and grandparents 50/50 etc. I’m like in the middle of both sides. I grew up with the perception penny’s mom was like that.
There is not always an easy distinction between light skinned black people and biracials. Some of us do look interchangeable to biracials with 3C hair and similar facial features. One half of my family, which I took after in everything basically, had many people who could pass as white and many who look biracial, including myself.
@@madlie2452 I believe people like you come from a long line of biracials and you are mixed racially but because of the one drop rule, it’s passed down that you’re just black. If you think about it, there is a difference between Vanessa Williams and Beyoncés mom vs. Tyra Banks who’s also light skin and have light eyes but she doesn’t come from a long line of biracials like the other two, she’s just considered light skin. If you’re close to passing as white, that’s definitely mixed and it would be considered mixed outside of the US. There are actual light skin black people (Tamar Braxton, Tyra banks etc) and then people who are a product of mixed people generation after generation or even just having a white grand parent. (Vanessa Williams, Beyonce and her mom, Alicia keys children, Steph curry and Ayesha kids, Rihanna, Chris brown etc).
Body types seem to be another thing and how characters are either complimented or insulted for it.
Why is it that Zoey is considered unattractive or a "Plain Jane" compared to LaCienega and Penny? I mean, Dijonay gets mocked because of her weight like in the Proud Family, she's called chubby.
Yeah... I started noticing this as i got older. As a darker skinned woman, realizing how often those with my complexion were treated as jokes or problematic in shows I liked was very disheartening. I was disappointed to see that this portrayal is still being used in the new Proud family show.
Maybe if they could use the fact that they have favoured lighter skinned characters and presented them more favourably to show us how society can be biased. I think it could work for a good political commentary episode, unlike their first "attempt" with Zoe. Maybe an episode that focuses on Dijonay and develops her character more? I'm open to constructive criticism or other ideas.
These are good ideas ‼ There's so many directions they can go in, but they almost always end up getting lost
Yeah...but I suppose we can always hope for better
I'm not black, but I grew up in a diverse area. And I remember when I first found out what was considered dark skinned I was a bit surprised because when you consider the range of skin tones of black people, it wasn't even close to the darkest shade. So it's definitely concerning how colorism works against darker skinned black people, and then includes like half the range of shades.
I saw Bruce W. Smith speak once, and he talked about how Oscar and Trudy were based on him and his wife. (He originally pitched the show as a couple having a surprise set of twins later in life, but Disney asked if he could add a teenager to lead the show.)
I understand that he probably didn't mean anything callous when he chose to present Oscar and Trudy as he saw him and his wife. It's also possible that he saw making Penny lighter skinned as a way to show audiences at the time that there's a wider range of skin tones for black people than what was really shown in animation at the time. And Smith probably made the mistake of thinking that because he is not lighter-skinned, he could make joke characters like Dijonay that lean into that. He did notice it early, as even in the first season, there would be episodic darker-skinned characters that were presented with more respect. But the main cast still ends up having unfortunate implications that even 20 years ago could have been thought about more respectfully, especially for the kids who would be watching the show.
This is why I wasn't surprised by how bad the colorism episode was. One of the writers dodged a question when Tariq (I think) asked him about it.
I remember that. It was Bruce Smith the creator. He gave a nonchalant answer about the colorism and rubbed ppl in the comments the wrong way. Tariq ended up putting the video on private because of the backlash
And as much as I loved the show Martin growing up, the same can be said for Gina and Pam, with the way Martin was always referring to Pam as an animal/undesirable, when imo, Pam AND Gina were both beautiful for their own reasons
Perfect example and I love that show too‼
@TonyTurner When I actually took the time to think about it, I think Martin did that bc (being that he was with Gina) he couldn't acknowledge Pam's beauty, he opt to tear her down instead, which is a whole other discussion in itself. Bc Tommy and Cole don't drag Pam and have pointed out that she's attractive. The episode where Martin keeps dreaming about Pam and Bruh Man points out its a repressed desire, further confirms that.
If Dijonay was the protagonist I don't think Disney would have been as willing to pick up the show; even if they did, I doubt it would have done as well.
I think there's a tendency for non black people to see a black person/people led media and think "well I won't be able to relate to this/this is a show for black people" and it's considered not as marketable.
Also totally unrelated but Tony looks very nice in that shirt. 😊
Thank You ‼
I am a white woman who enjoyed Family Matters and found it relatable(outside Urkle’s inventions that is.)
That depends
It COULD have taken off since white people love shows that reinforce the stereotype they already put onto black people
I think that's more bc of her character though. 😂 she is a complete mess! And she doesn't develop quite as well as Penny does.
@2:40 Reminds how animation always make the female animals a lighter shade. Think Jewel from Rio.
I think the only character who wasn't a lighter skin black woman with a figure was sugar mama when she was losing weight for her wedding. But there is also a problem with that cause let's be real, it's fatphobic in a way. The proud family always makes it a point to show that in her youth how pretty she was, but other then that NAH you where on point yet again!
I tots forgot about a lot of these characters since it's been that long since I saw them. And seeing the nanny character, no lie I thought she was Asian...THAT'S BLACK!?
Also another thing I forgot was that yeah! Blows my mind that Penny was almost much lighter then what we got. I just remembered that the creators of the proud family, almost made the show all about the twins, and they came from "bebe's kids" Which was the first black animated movie to be made. And because of that a lot of famous black people wanted to be on the show, since they missed there chance to be on bebe's kids.
Trudy Broadway star is portrayed as glamorous and she has darker skin
I thought I heard awhile ago, that Oscar and Trudy were supposed to be like Martin and Gina from Martin
Oh I thought they reminded me of them when I was a kid based on their designs and personalities, I never realized it was meant to be an intentional reference to Martin.
I could definitely see the influence in their characters even down to Trudy's hair
I really enjoy this analysis and I applaud you for goin into detail
About the issues with Light skin privilege. Not that being Light Skinned is a problem, but
It still comes with multiple more privileges that many others with darker skin wouldn’t get
So true ‼
The Proud Family show isn’t going to change especially given how the creator has responded to the feedback he got from the old show. There has been a lot of discourse about the colorism and dangerous parenting practices that has been shown in the proud family before and rather than listen to that criticism, the creator doubled down and told the audience that we don’t know what we’re talking about.
Louder and Prouder is essentially the same old toxic morals and lessons are taught with some modern day vernacular. The quality isn’t going to improve until they age up their views and take some input from some younger writers.
@nerdswagger62 he could have just ignored the criticism and go about his day.but he chose to make that comment speaks volumes. I do believe that the creator of the show does have some colorism views.
“Imagine if Dijonay was the star of the series.”
(Me imagining a ghetto version of the Loud House) 🤔
What's so unattractive about black skin? I don't get it.
Nothing all shade r great n awesome. ❤❤❤
@@MsDisneylandlover so true
@eeveefennecfox right n please check me out my friend 2 on you 2 #DisneyDiva.
Absolutely nothing! 🤷♂️
From old beauty standards. Light skin meant a person was wealthy enough to avoid hard labor and stay inside. While dark skin was associated with long days of working in the sun. Unfortunately this has spilled into modern beauty standards
I completely agree. Its no coincidence that lighter with straught hair means more desirable, beauty, most popular and darker is always ghetto, neck rolling angry black womam trope. The wife in shows is always lighter, proud family, fresh prince, Martin, dr. Dolittle with eddie murphy, family matters the chick that loved urcle ie the "hot" one was light, in sister sister the "hot" boyfriend was the light one and the dark one was the funny one, in the boondocks the hot woman was always light skinned... i see it time and time again. Beyonce, cardi B, Rhianna, nicki Manaj, etc...The "beautiful" woman break out stars is always lighter and every guy wants her. Find me a chick as dark as Akon with wide nose and big lips and natural hair black features thats as popular as these other artists!
A puerto rican Dominican here, i am light skinned myself, a light brown guy. Thebdarkest out if my siblings. But i hate that black is seen as ugly and lighter is high true beauty. Colorism is SUPER prevelant in Spanish TV. I appreciate your insight brother.
2:50 it was kind of weird they didn't get an actress who had the same skin tone or close skin tone as the first actress
Very ‼
Family Matters had darker skinned folks and was one of my favorite shows from the late 80s into the 90s
I still love that show ❤
Yeah but even then they replaced Harriett’s actress with a lighter skin actress
As a light-skinned person,I couldn't be help,but to recognize it in Animes. It's like they don't like their darker skin color. There's nothing wrong with people with light-skinned people(even dark-shinned people). The anime characters look white. With white people attributes (colored eyes like blue,green,gray,hazel)and with white people's hair(Brunette,blonde and lighter shades of those colors.)This also includes black hair(that color is for everyone.) The only time an Asian people is white is they're in India,or a Caucasian is mixed with Asian,or in Saudi Arabia. If you are a Asian with a lighter skin tone then unlike most white people they would have some color in the skin.❤🧐
Think make me think of Mindy Karling who was in the Office, at the start she was dark skin but by the end of the end she came lighter in her skin tone.
Kinda like Beyoncé!! She’s an entire YT women these days. 🤷♂️
The Whitney Houston clip 🤣🤣🤣
😅😅😅😅
I always found it a little strange on reflection that nuance was only reserved for the light skinned cast for the most part. Not that there weren't 2D light skinned background characters (can't say I remember a whole lot of character development for LaCienega's parents, for example) but it just felt that the lighter characters got more development over-all. Even in episodes dedicated to Dijonay, or the Gross Sisters, it felt like we got a quarter of the treatment. That could just be me misremembering things though, it's been a bit of time since I saw every episode to judge that.
Yeah that's true..like how lacienega has a lot of episodes dedicated to her and we've got to know a lot about her background, she's even getting her own spinoff, yet we don't know nearly as much about dijonay's character
I’m glad I’m not the only one who always thought Trudy was meant to be Vietnamese or Filipino. She’s a spitting image of my elementary school bestie’s mom, who’s Filipino. It never even crossed my younger self’s mind that she was intended to be black at all.
Granted the area I grew up in was mostly white and Asian, so that could’ve skewed it. Though, as a kid I didn’t understand why the few black kids I did know had curly hair and wore braids while the kids in the show mostly had straight hair. I didn’t understand that the preference for straighter hair was a part of colorism until much later.
I love this commentary. A lot of this times we dont realized how calculated these productions are till we get older.
As a white girl who saw the proud family in passing, (i saw only 1-2 episodes, bc my mom thought it was inappropriate because of sugar mamas name 😂) I think it’s actually super important to have well written children’s content regarding racism. I actually was interested in learning about people who weren’t like me. However I do think the proud family really dropped the ball in the depiction of brown/dark skinned people. Obviously not all darker skinned characters were bad, but lets be honest the majority were. If I had saw those episodes as a white child with only knowing a handful of black peers; who knows what I would’ve internalised. Im glad now we have better content representing black darker skinned children like Doc Mc stuffins, and Craig of the creek. But it definitely could be better and hopefully we see more projects like that for children so they can feel represented and that other children can respect/understand them.
With that episode of Zoey and Noah, it would've been interesting if Noah preferred Zoey not because she was white, but because she didn't display colorism or basically fetishize him for being lightskinned, and Penny and them collectively learned about their bias towards lightskinned black people and how quickly they forgot their darker skinned boyfriends they already had.
Nice shirt tony great seeing you
Thanks for stopping by 🔥👌🏾
to be fair Wizard Kelly does have darker skin than Oscar and also I just assume Trudy being more level-headed and successful than Oscar is the old family sitcom trope of wife being more reasonable than the husband who is a total goofball compared to his wife. Bob's Burger and King of the Hill are only family carton sitcoms I know where wives are more silly than their husbands who are more level-headed
However, "The Wild Thornberries" displayed a silly father who was still brave, loyal, and loving...and generally saved the day.
You are spot on… and of course being young I didn’t notice any of these things. The only thing I did notice of course was Dijonay being dark skin, ghetto and undesirable because I’m dark skin!
They did the same thing with the sitcom series meet the Browns
That's another good example ‼ Tyler Perry is known for doing that a lot
@@TonyTurner you're absolutely right and I almost forgot they did it with family matters but only for a limited of time then brought the original back
I wonder why Trudy is lighter than the rest of her family, not the family she has with Oscar. Her parents, her sister, her brother, her niece, and her sister-in-law.
Penny nearly made Myrone drown, she totally deserved to be stood up for the butterfly exhibit.
12:59 I really like Dijonay's outfit here compared to the rest of the girls.
I've noticed that too. No one in Trudy's family is as light as her making me think they pushed for her to be really light for whatever reason.
@@TonyTurner I just thought she had a recessive gene.
@@TonyTurnerprobably because making her family attractive wasn’t important to them
The whitney memes got me crying theyre so perfectly placed.... and wow your points are very valid lets talk about the hooray for iesha episode where they did a parody of Moesha i dont remember them giving the idea a spotlight moment or sound effects when she was introduced
I know Wizard Kelly was super successful and he was very dark skinned. It does not excuse any light skin favoritism but I feel some might use him as such.
True but he's also seen as a malicious capitalist. His video is coming soon
@@TonyTurner yeah but I wonder if it’s a commentary on how star basketball players are treated too like Michael Jordan and Lebron James. They become commodities and that commercialization of yourself can make you out to seem like you are malicious or capitalist
Honestly, I've noticed this sort of tendency in creators who wanna "inspire" a certain group. They use lots of stereotypes. Which is why I prefer to stick to shows that are just there to entertain.
The worst part is these stereotypes are one of the biggest hurdles to uplift such groups. Stereotypes make people forget the individual and treat every member of the group like a clone. It's ridiculous.
@@Bluelight802 Let's put it this way. Let's say theres a high school principal and a used car salesman. One tries to make a difference in they're community. The other just makes money. You'd expect that the principal wouldn't do certain things the salesman would. If you find out that they do, you begin to think that the principal is no better than the salesman, and you might not respect him as much.
Back in the day, Disney had another cartoon named Dave the Barbarian. I personally preferred it to Proud Family. Proud Family was one of those shows that is meant to teach morals. Dave The Barbarian was just there to make jokes, and it did have a few stereotypes.
If a show is meant to entertain, and it has stereotypes, it can use clever writing to make them funny. If it's there to preach, not only is it expected not to use stereotypes, because locking people in boxes defeats the purpose of telling an audience they can be anything, but also shouldn't because the writers are most likely not as skilled to make them funny.
Honestly, as a kid, i wanted to be Trudy. There weren't a lot of really mixed kids around me growing up, so i tended to latch onto characters like her who had a bit of racial ambiguity. But i have seen colorism in every side of my family, even myself of "white passing"/not being brown enough to be considered a poc. It was nice to see these characters being mixed and accepted in their home/community environments.
Not surprised. Is why I was so annoyed when this got rebooted. Of all the good shows they chose this one. It had glaring problems then. Just got liked cause it was the only one of a few shows with more diversity. But now that is becoming a norm? It feels like the creators haven’t been around people outside of tiktok and RUclips podcasters
I used to think Trudy was Spanish or part Spanish when I was a kid.
I've seen a lot of ppl say that ‼
That’s why I just googled this and then went on RUclips and it took me to this video. Lol
I didn’t know about that with Bruce Smith and making Penny even lighter…
I mean, I had issue with people saying I wasn’t black, because I was mixed race, but I honestly just wondered why the more darker skinned people on the show were sort of… disreputable…
You cant stop Tony, he cooking !!!
I think thats why i never really gravitated towards the show... Trudy and Penny look mixed without a doubt and so i couldn't really see myself in her. Also my friends would always say i look like dijonay and i would get so offended! I later realized that Dijonay was never ugly , they just need to fix her sterotype black face lips and give her a shirt that fits. I dont hate the show, its funny , it has its problems but thats what i thought at the time
I loved Proud Family growing up.
I never noticed how the darker character were portrayed less attractive and lighter skinned characters more attractive. But I'm white and grew up in pretty homogenous environments, so the subtleties were lost on me.
I will say, I totally thought Trudy was Asian mix, and Penny was 3/4 black, so I can't say the character designs were not confusing there.
My only benign guess as to why lighter skin tones were favoured in terms of character designs, is because they're easier to "read" i.e. comparitively darker facial features on lighter "backgrounds" would be easier to draw and animate. But as you noted, there are darker characters, and they were just as easy to "read" as the lighter characters, so...benign explanation out the window, there.
On a different tangeant, even though Oscar is an asshole, he deserves more love. Hell, I feel he'd be way less of an asshole if his family gave him the time of day. I remember how much he lit up when that exchange student actually liked his Proud Snacks.
It's really fascinating listening to a black guy talk about the show and his perspective. I've seen a few of your videos over the months as I remember this show I used to enjoy as a kid. I grew up in rural Canada. There weren't any black people where I lived. I could probably count on one hand the black people in my town until about a decade ago. So my only real exposure to it was one really dark skinned kid who moved away in like grade 2 and the rest was what I saw on TV. I didn't really think about it. They were just people. Different people. Americans. Americans are different and kinda weird. But I knew nothing about stereotypes or harmful this or that. It was just a show with wacky antics and female protagonists and a wacky dad and of course Sugar Mama. My only reaction to hearing about the reboot was 'huh. Cool I remember liking that show. I hope they don't mess it up and it's as good as I remember the original'.
I support every and anything you post especially on Aaliyah but I’m always super scared of colorism topics as I know physically how people perceive me😭😅
You're always free to speak from your POV
I’m happy that you analyzed how light-skin is used as a tool to display attractiveness. When I was growing up watching the proud family, I never saw colorism as problematic because my parents are just like Trudy (my mom is lightskin) and Oscar (my dad is dark-skin man). I thought everything in the proud family was normal cause Penny had the same complexion like me. I never thought twice about the poor treatment of darker skin characters but now I see how bad the OG writers treated them. 😢❤
When it keeps happening again and again, you can't say it's an accident anymore. Subconscious or purposeful, it is *extremely* harmful. They fixes some things in the reboot, but in a lot of ways things were either made worse or are just as bad.
Nothing wrong with analyzing any show, no matter the target audience, because media we consume always effects us in some way in life or solidifies how we view things and act. A lot of shows or books etc fall on certain tropes in appearance or voice or actions so the audience can clearly see the character how they are intended and that is true even in The Proud Family. I haven't had too many real life experiences with lighter toned POC but I did have a classmate back in middle school who was literally golden, she was stunning and everyone always wanted to talk to her about how stunning she was and figure out if her hair, light brown tight curls with some natural blondish shades, was dyed or not or if she had a crazy routine for it. She did not. She was also really polite and nice the times I'd see her although I didn't know her personally but she had to put up with the good and the bad of her looks catching people's attention. The show could have done a better job in showing the duality of being favored for your skin tone especially since the main family of the cast has a very light mother and fairly dark father. Trudy was with Oscar for a reason and despite their fights they stayed together. They could have capitalized on that then or in the reboot, and at the very least they could have made the Noah episode be about the girls coming together to not care about getting his attention because he was shallow in only wanting to date girls of a certain complexion.
I’m not surprised me and my twin sister used to talk about it as kids the gross sister being so black that they were blue, almost all of penny’s love interests being light skinned racially ambiguous men, Dijona being treated the way she was portrayed etc it was so on the nose
So many people saying they thought Trudy was Latina but I always knew she was black lol maybe that cause I’m black and kno that black comes in many shades … now lacianica she was half latina because of her dad n her mom was black .. 🤷🏾♀️ I feel for the average black person that was easy too see
Lacienaga is Puerto Rican! You can just google her
@@javiruiz8365okay Puerto Rican, Latina .. something like that lol she was something along those lines
@@LuvSCole she was just Puerto Rican!!! That’s her character! That’s her mother and father!!! I don’t understand why you say her mother was African American! I don’t understand how you got that from the show
@@javiruiz8365 her mom looks black her dad looks Rican … some Ricans really really do look black 🤷🏾♀️ … most ricans that I’ve known could easily pass for a light skin black guy or woman same texture hair n everything… soooo I mean 🤷🏾♀️ it very well could easily get misconstrued
Black Latinos exist...
I agree with everything you said not to mention, LaCienega is also seen as “better” than Penny because she has “nicer” hair and she’s technically kind of lighter than Penny and has that “foreign” aspect to her
The real gag about Trudy is that shes the lightest one in her family too not just with the Prouds but is bot the best and brightest like she is with the Prouds and after watching your analysis video with her, you can tell she definitely tries to overcompensate at now because she never was that girl in her family growing up.
At the end of the day, due to obvious history, light skinned folks are and will continue to be the standard of beauty in the black community for a longggggggggggg time
11:12 I remember watching this, and I felt *So bad* I love 🐻 skins and its really sad that being black comes with
Colorism, racism, fatshaming/fatphobia, stereotypes etc
This show 2 me felt like it was going around LS with *favorable traits* or *stereotypical* ones but not ones with *black traits* or ones that are Black+Black LS because I remember in ms having to fight for my own black card because everyone assumed I was mixed with something even if I told them otherwise
How does being black come with fatshaming? Im black and ive never seen it happening to me. Fatshaming comes with being fat not with being black, i feel like people just jumble all forms of hate together to feel more woke.
I would watch proud family, and I noticed they were meaner to the darker boys a lot, and I always wondered what it was that was happening. I am white, so, things like colorism weren't on my mind as a small child. I did interpret Proud Family as Satire, and I actually think I noticed the colorism when watching it, I alwasy felt very bad for Oscar
Love that
This is only tangentially related to complexion, but I want to ask here anyway. I wasn't a fan of the show, but did they get into why Trudy married Oscar? Because if Trudy is supposed to be as together and as mich of a catch as the episodes I watched implied, then it says a lot about her for marrying a clown bum like Oscar. And the show could write a great episode around that (though it probably would dramatically and forever change the dynamic of the show)
That's always been another running gag of the original show. How Trudy "settled" for Oscar. A flashback episode of them first getting married would be really interesting
@@TonyTurnerthat’s actually kinda a gag with a lot of sitcom/ comedy
You do see it in a lot of media of black people as well
That the “put together” “attractive” wife that looks half the age of her husband
“Settled” for a man like that for his “personality”
I think your about the only RUclipsr I can watch speak…usually I like a lot of graphics great video
Thank You ‼
I actually thought Dante was white because he lived at the nice house so I thought his parents are white
Thank you for your indepth content. First of all growing up dark skinned it was from dark skin men id get bullied from. Especially grown men and old men when I was about three who would tell me I'm ugly and jealous of my lighter prettier skin twin sister. So to see a dark skinned man like you acknowledge light skin privilege is mind boggling. Growing up black men, boys and elders would nit pick on how so much more a lady my sister was than I. And when the bashing jokes would fly no one would say no that's not right and the lighter skinned girls would confirm their agreement by a chuckle or complete silence 🤐 there would be times when a lighter skinned girl got attacked but someone black men especially and even other dark skinned black girls would stand up and defend the abused girl. But everyone that it was fitting and just for a dark skinned girl to be totally obliterated. But growing up I realized dark skinned Hispanics got bullied too as said to being "dirty". And then I learned in India dak skinned women were seen as less than. So colorism is a global disease. And I believe men like you can correct it because women will follow suit.
Thanks for sharing that ‼
Omg I remember watching this when I was younger and my sister and I noticing this! I always thought I was crazy 😮
I always thought Trudy was a Latina. 🤷🏼♀️
I’m watching the proud family at this moment and I RUclipsd that question and it brought me to this video. Lol 😂😂😂
Her parents were and family were black though in the episode where the twins get baptized
I thought she was a white southern woman 😭
Yeah penny is so very light skinned. She does look mixed, and her mom is so light skinned she almost looks like a white woman. As a kid though it was always in the back of my mind, but I never said anything until now.🤔
@camocamouflage Yes this is true but, why are the shades on tv. Have to look mixed or white.🤔
@@camocamouflage Really, what did the albino black people do for the black American community. That makes them so much more deserving of positive representation. Then the rest of the darker skinned black community? 😏
@@camocamouflage If you really believe that all people should be represented. Then why would you argue in favour of lighter skinned
black folk. Who are already represented. As opposed to the darker skinned ones. That only recently have been getting a little shine.🤔
Also, in "Who You Calling A Sissy?", Oscar (and Felix) SUDDENLY grew jealous of the Latin (light skinned and more attractive) dancers at this club when they gave attention to Trudy (and Sunset).
However, Oscar's jealousy towards the club's owner, Enrique, was exceptionally strong, especially when the dancer (more attractive and respected than him, fairer skin complexion) flirted with Trudy. He suddenly was SCARED of losing Trudy to the guy. It's kind of similar to the Sticky-Dijonay-Duke dynamic.
Apart from that, we all know that Suga Mama wanted Papi, but her feelings were unrequited. That said, when she lost weight and gave him the cold shoulder in the movie, he was interested in her and even openly flirted with her.
I noticed that in this and other black centered shows it always stuck out to me.
TBH when I was a kid I though Trudy was white.
“He didn’t see the value in Dijonay”
Honestly, there IS really no value in Dijonay. XD
Somehow Duke saw it 👀
@@TonyTurner usually we call that hallucinations. XD
Trudy looks like she could be of Khoisan ancestry.
Great video bro! You told no lies!
Thanks bro ‼
I was thinking about how Lacienega had a cousin who felt like she had everything. She had a single mother who competed with Sunset and she envied that Laceinega had two patents with a higher income.
Back when i was a kid i thought trudy was a white lady.
Wow. Honestly I'm not that surprised with how she looked in some episodes
I have seen Black people who looked likeTrudy
Yes! There’s many bLK people with European blood!
I thought the babysitter was Asian or at least half Asian (I know some half white half Asian boys who have black hair and some with brown and some in between)
I think she's latina not sure tho
I got disney plus for my kids about 2 months ago so i decided to binge watch the proud family which is a show i for the most part enjoyed when i was 10 and 11 yrs old. Ive watched cartoon analysis on the rugrats, hey arnold, and other 90s cartoons i grew up on. Something told me look up the proud family analysis because there are tons of disturbing scenes on this show. See bk in 2001 when i was 10 n 11 yrs old you tend to focus more on the kids but as a adult watching it u start to see the issues the shows have more with the adults. Watching as a adult, what pisses me of is how trudy would always make penny cancel her plans to babysit bebe and cece. That one episode called puffs magic adventure was the perfect example. She wanted to play water gun fight with her friends but ended up having to babysit and suga mamas puppy. Puff was tied to the babies stroller when they ran off n ended up in the river. While they were able to save the babies suga mamas dog was lost in the river. Its a crazy episode.
Also when it comes to the better or worse light people, if it were reality, I would say it’s just coincidence, but since it’s a cartoon where they knowingly design these characters, I agree with you.
I just realized something…
Bebes kids. The thing I knew Bruce Smith for originally, they actually had lighter skinned characters who DID get put in a bad light.
Literally until right now I thought Trudy was Latino and that Penny was Black/Latino mix
I thought she was a type of black and white mix
I think one episode of the og Proud Family series that left kind of a bad taste in my mouth when I started noticing a pattern with the skin tones was that one episode where Trudy's side of the family & Oscar's side of the family come to visit & we see the differences between their families, especially seeing Oscar's side it felt a little distasteful
Ik this is probably gonna sound problematic, but in the episode with Carlos maybe they were aware that he had “unconventional” traits and which is why they made Penny see him for what he is on the inside by the end. Like a deliberate attempt to show people with colorist and prejudiced views,that people with “unconventional” traits are actually more than what they seem on the outside. They could’ve still handled it better though.That’s just for that episode, with the colorism of the show, I agree with.
I’m honestly not holding my breath for season 3 being better, especially if they have the same writers as the past two seasons
I really enjoy your Proud Family analysis videos. I wanted to leave a comment here because I loved this show growing up, too.
From my experience as a white female viewer, I always disliked Oscar because he was kinda sexist. As you said, he's not very hard working, he's kinda lazy, he doesn't always support Penny in her pursuits. He's usually a meh father and a meh husband. As a young girl watching the show, I liked main character Penny and her mom Trudy. From my perspective, Penny and her mom were good female characters and that was good representation to me, as a young girl. Especially when Penny's friends (other female characters) are often "fake friends" who treat Penny like crap in most episodes. Having a good female lead in Penny, and showing her mother as the breadwinner of the family, were good representations of strong female characters.
However, I'll admit that I never took skin color into account. For me, it was about gender. But you're right that Trudy has a lighter skin tone than her husband Oscar, and that could easily be taken as a "stereotype" that she must be more successful cuz she's lighter skin. When analyzing Penny's friends, it's easy to say her worst friend is Deejonay, who happens to be darker skin color than Penny, again perpetuating negative stereotypes that can be harmful or toxic. Lacienega has lighter skin but she's usually pretty awful, too. And Zoey, the white nerdy girl, is often treated just as badly as Penny, too, while being the least developed of the four female friends.
Your video analysis on Proud Family are great! Love the videos!
Thank You‼
@@TonyTurner
Question for you, since you might have a different perspective as a male viewer compared to myself as a female viewer. Did you ever think that some issues with Penny's "fake friends" are more because they're young girls/female teenagers? Do you think that they would be characterized the same way if Penny and her friends had all been male instead? Or do you think the writers would have kept her friends as equally annoying regardless of gender involved?
@l.n.3372 I think it may have been different if they were all males because to the writers, they see some young girls as being catty in some sense. Where as most guys have the cliche too cool for school or nonchalant type of attitude.
@@TonyTurner
Yeah that's probably true. I am glad that it was a show that featured girls, tho, even if they were often bitchy. It's still good to have.
27k subscribers and you're still doing the "turn every light on in my mama's lounge on and hope for the best" lighting
The only one complaining is you. So now what?
Kiwi didn’t give her opinion lol 😂 she looking at you like wait I didn’t get chance to speak lol 😂 how you gonna end the video and not let me speak my thoughts lol 😂
Honestly I'm bothered by how just about all of the boys the girls take romantic interest in look like they are heading into or already in college. So much bigger than them with deep mature voices while those who either don't return their feelings or vice versa are made to look on the same age/level as them.
3:49 i love this term, observstional commentary, to your point cartoons from the late 90's that handled adult or mature themes used observational commentary excellently like how you bring up oscar, he was a parody of martin lawrence and how he was used as an actor and and how shows like martin how gina who was light skin was the queen of the series while pam who had darker skin just got dogged and shit on her features and my wife and kids treat the casting of certain characters. I always wanted to know if in the past episodes it was exploiting industry culture to make their commentaries placing these light skin characters so its okay to go over the top? Or if their was a pallete or lighting issue or was it them being sensitive of portraying people of certain skin tones as romantic antagonists? When it was jarring was when they made lil wayne light
I'm sorry, but kiwi just messing with the camera is adorable.
omg your back yessss!!! i love your vidss:D
Thank You ‼
@@TonyTurner nppp your da best!!!
This alone makes the color ism episode even more ironic.
If I didn’t know what the proud family was and someone showed me an image of penny, I would assume she’s white 😭(in the og cartoon specifically)
I feel some kind of way that they painted Oscar out to not be respected by hisMomma, Wife, or daughters. We were literally on the same page because I was thinking about that before you said it. And you must be from New York cause our accents are similar.
NYC ‼🔥
I know one thing Janet Hubert is aunt Vivian, and Marie Jo Payton is Aunt Harriet and will always be the og voice for Suga Momma. No shade on the ladies that replaced them because a paycheck is a paycheck.