From overlooked extra to Spike Lee star: how I beat Hollywood's colorism

Like many darker skinned actors, DeWanda Wise was offered stereotypical roles of criminals and prostitutes. So she made her own movie and caught the eye of one of the industry’s leading directors

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Growing up in the DC metro area, I was cute with a caveat: I had chocolate skin.

When I was six years old, a close relative quipped that if I continued to play in the sun, I would end up “looking like a tar baby”. It was like touching a hot stove for the first time: I hadn’t even thought about the color of my skin before that moment, even though I went to an all-white school.

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from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2UpWC6x