Sterling K. Brown Champions Dark-Skinned Black Women

Hollywood has a long history of favoring proximity to whiteness, but actor and Washington Black executive producer Sterling K. Brown is breaking that tired cycle. He’s intentionally making space for dark-skinned Black women to be seen, loved, and centered on screen.

In a recent clip that went viral (and for good reason), the Emmy-winning actor revealed that he purposely casts dark-skinned Black women as his love interests.

“Every time I’ve had the opportunity to have a love interest on screen, it’s been a Black woman, and more often than not, a dark-skinned Black woman,” Sterling said during a conversation with Refinery29. “That’s intentional.”

Sterling’s comment strikes a nerve—in a good way.

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Why This Matters: Sterling K. Brown Doesn’t Play About His Love For Dark-Skinned Black Women

Hollywood has a complicated history when it comes to representation. The truth is every shade of Black is beautiful. Period. But we can’t ignore how often lighter skin has been centered as the “standard.”

For decades, casting directors pushed fairer-skinned actors into the romantic lead roles—the ones who get the happy endings. Conversely, Hollywood either erased darker-skinned Black women altogether or shoved them into sidekick territory.

Big-budget movie or sitcom, it didn’t tend to matter. The patterns were the same.

This kind of erasure sends the wrong message. It tells Black girls—especially darker-skinned Black girls—that their love stories aren’t worth telling, their beauty isn’t “universal,” and that they’re “too much” to be desired.

But colorism didn’t start in Hollywood.

It’s rooted in centuries of anti-Blackness: from the “white is right” messages handed down through colonization and slavery to the separation of enslaved people on plantations, to the complicated history of “passing.” Those messages shaped who got to be seen as beautiful, successful, or lovable.

And Hollywood has reflected that bias back at us for generations.

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We Love To See It: Sterling K. Brown’s Call For More Melanated Beauties Is An Act Of Advocacy

That’s why Sterling’s choices matter. When a powerful Black man in Hollywood decides to put more melanated women front and center, it challenges actions and disrupts the conditioning we’ve all been fed.

(And, honestly, it is about time).

“I know how the world values lighter skin. I want to make sure that dark-skinned women feel like they’re seen…like they’re worthy of love,” Sterling reiterated in the clip.

Listen, romantic leads are never just characters. They’re cultural markers. They tell the world who’s desired, who’s chosen, and who’s allowed to be loved out loud.

So when Sterling says, “Not on my watch,” and makes space for darker-skinned women as the ones who get the love story? We are here for it.

In the interview, Sterling added, “If I’m in a position to shift the narrative, I want to do that. I want our girls to know they’re the lead. Not just in the story, but in real life.”

We need more of this energy, Hollywood. And we’re hoping the right people are paying attention.

Watch Sterling’s full video below.