“Love & Hip Hop” Star Amara La Negra Is Calling Out Racism — And Colorism

Jan 26 2018

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It's a scene all too common in the entertainment industry: A male producer tells a female musician she needs to change her appearance in order to be successful. This time, when the interaction unfolded during the premiere of VH1's "Love & Hip Hop: Miami" on Jan. 1, the female artist pushed back. Dominican-American singer Amara La Negra walked out as her male castmate made racist comments — that her Afro wasn't elegant, for example — and instantly put herself on the American pop culture map. She announced she signed with the record label BMG, and landed an appearance on the widely-syndicated hip-hop radio show The Breakfast Club. During that interview, she again shot down ignorant comments from the hosts, who asked if she was imagining the colorism she says she's always experienced in her community because she has dark skin. "Being a Latina that looks like myself in the Latin industry is very hard," Amara told VICE News. "And I never would have imagined that talking about it would open this worldwide conversation." Now, she's getting ready to record her first album and take her shot at the American market — while promoting her underrepresented Afro-Latino culture along the way. Watch her full VICE News interview above.