Singer Tank sparked a Twitter war of words last night after he tweeted a question asking why dark-skinned women dislike light-skinned women. “I have an honest question,” he tweeted. “What do dark skinned women have against light skinned women? Aren’t we all black at the end of the day??”
It’s still unclear what prompted the singer to tweet the question on this particular day, but he did mention that his Facebook fans react negatively to pictures of his lighter-skinned girlfriends. “You should check the comments on my page when I post my light skinned girlfriend and maybe you’ll understand the frustration!” he wrote.
Twitter didn’t react kindly to the question.
Black women make men like you famous, are the main ones at your shows and routinely feel devalued by the color preferences. @TheRealTank
— Jamilah Lemieux (@JamilahLemieux) October 10, 2014
@TheRealTank the real question is what do you have against our dark skinned sisters Don’t ask questions your not willing to answer your self
— Khalilah (@lovelightme) October 10, 2014
To which, Tank responded:
I speak freely.. I fear no consequence.. I live and love my life.. #stronger
— Tank (@TheRealTank) October 10, 2014
The question is trite and assumes those of us who are dark-skinned have an inherent dislike of our lighter-skinned sisters. The issues of colorism in our community are deep and generational and cannot possibly be summarized with a simple “dark-skinned women hate light-skinned women.”
This Twitter user said it best:
@TheRealTank @Beewirks Why isn’t Oprah next to you to let you know you choosing the wrong path to set twitter aflame
— Hitachi Mishima (@ActionBastard) October 9, 2014
What do you think of Tank’s question? Was he right to ask this?