Not really if that was the case then there would be a lot more IR going on through the years in film and TV but just with light-skinned brothas.
These are some of Hollywood's top brothas(they come in all shades):
Idris Elba
Michael B. Jordan
Sterling K. Brown
David Oyelowo
Chadwick Boseman
David Boyega
Omari Hardwick
Mike Colter
First of all I would argue that almost everyone on this list is of a shade or two darker than the average African American male, the lone exceptions being Jordan and Hardwick. I respect almost all of these dudes and think most if not all have leading man looks, but they don't represent a true diversity in complexion/shade. And only one of them, Hardwick, could even pass the infamous bag test. To be honest I don't even think of Hardwick or Colter being a "top brotha" in Hollywood because neither get truly substantial roles in mainstream Hollywood or elite independent films. Here's a more complete representative list of the top black guys in Hollywood today:
Elba
Denzel Washington
Samuel L Jackson
LaKeith Stanfield
Chadwick Boseman
Michael B Jordan
Mahershala Ali
Sterling Brown
Chiwetel Ejiofor
David Oyelowo
Don Cheadle
Anthony Mackie
Will Smith
Jeffrey Wright
JOHN Boyega
Jamie Foxx
Forest Whitaker
Andre Holland
Daniel Kaluuya
Jason Mitchell
Corey Hawkins
Jessie T. Usher
Morgan Freeman
Brian Tyree Henry
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
O'Shea Jackson Jr
And on the rise....
RJ Cyler
Jacob Latimore
Jovan Adepo
Stephan James
Justice Smith
Kelvin Harrison Jr
My criteria for this list comes down to : amount of work, regularity of getting work, significance of role (leading, co-lead, key supporting role) and the type of films one gets cast for (mainstream Hollywood films or tentpole movies and award-winning independents films are most desired).
If black people can be classified in roughly three dozen shades on the spectrum then the list i put forth above only covers about a dozen flavors. Hollywood has a more narrow view of what a black man should look like and because of the black men that have gotten most of the work tend to be within a five to six shade range. Anyone outside of that like Will Smith, Jeffrey Wright, Andre Holland have been outliers. Lighter skin men are pretty much absent from this list, suggesting Hollywood has no idea what to do with them. This is pretty much opposite to black actresses as I will make clear later.
Sadly that means guys like Devonn Terrell, O.T. Fagbenle and Ray Fisher are still on the out looking in despite their talent and looks.
By the way the two names I intentionally listed last (Justice Smith and Kelvin Harrison Jr) have jumped t the head of the the black male actors getting work and both of them are light skin interesting enough. Harrison in particular is getting work everywhere. He may be the only young black actor who is keeping up with the young black (light skin) black actresses who are getting loads of opportunities.
Let's ALL be serious now. Dark skinned black women have been getting there due. Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Naturi Naughton, Imani Hakim, Tika Sumpter, DeWanda Wise... and Serena Williams & Gabby Douglass are the most popular black female athletes. Some of the colorism against darkskinned black women is legit, the rest of it is playing the victim to get ahead and justify some of their thoughts on black men. Don't fall for it. Not to mention a lot of BROWN SKINNED women have been very successful as well. Black women will be fine in the entertainment industry because they have The Black Media and mainstream on their side and OPRAH! lol.
I was limiting the discussion to actresses. I do realize though how dark skin black women are playing the victim card and how they are shaping the debate. For example any negative feedback about movies starring white males and light skin black women as love interests doesn't center over the notion of black men being shut out of the picture entirely (with either black women or white women) or doesn't dwell on why is the presentation of IR exclusively portrayed as a white guy-black gal thing. No, instead the pushback is for less light skin women and more dark skin women in those parts opposite white dudes. Black men are inconsequential. Black women are so good in making every issue about them that they can make the entire debate about increasing the representation of a portion of the black womanhood, far more prevalent on social media and blogs than increasing opportunities for ALL black men in general. And just a few days ago I saw a tweet from a black woman praising new black films like Sorry To Bother You and Blindspotting but taking a shot at both films for not using any dark skin black actresses. I get it.
That said the black actresses who are in demand don't tend to be that dark or "too" dark if you get my drift. Listing Naughton and Hakim is pretty much embarrassing, friend. Nobody is in hot pursuit for those two for major movies or even TV shows. One could argue the same for Sumpter who doesn't get that much work. Wise may be at the beginning of something big but she doesn't have a lot of movies under her belt at this point. Gurira and Nyong'o had to use the clout of Black Panther just to finally get their due and maybe they will turn that into great film careers. But they still won't be the go-to black ladies for those filmmakers that look to cast black female love interests for huge white male stars. Of course Viola goes without saying but she is THE exception and it took her a long time to get to this point. She had to earn it the hard way by being great at her craft in movies, TV and theater for over two decades. And now she has the position of the One Darkskin Black Actress At A Time slot that was formerly occupied by Whoopi Goldberg and Angela Bassett. I would include Zoe Saldana in that slot too but the industry seems to think of her as Latina as much as they do of her as black (as if the two things have to be separate).
But who are the black actresses who seem to be adding credits to their IMDB page every other week?
Zazie Beetz. She is fucking everywhere, getting almost more work in film than her male co-stars of "Atlanta" combined.
Zoe Kravitz
Zendaya
(seriously what the fuck is up with all of these Zs ?)
Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Storm Reid
Kiersey Clemons
Tessa Thompson
Ruth Negga
Sasha Lane
Yara Shahidi
Amandla Stenberg
These are the names I can remember off hand. Let me not forget the crop of other light skin actresses coming over in what seems like waves from the UK. I barely know these actresses if I know them at all. One example is Hannah John-Kamen who was in the Ant-Man sequel, the Tomb Raider reboot and Ready Player One that all came out this year. Chick just got off the boat and leapfrogged pretty much every young dark skin black actresses so far as scoring opportunities in MAJOR films. Anyone suggesting darker black women are getting anywhere near these chances in the film industry is mistaken.
