Colorism is alive and in 2025 after Mishawnna Bynum and her pal Angel Chima-Orji had been refused entry to Miami nightclub, Membership Mona, in late June after visiting town from out of city. In her Tik Tok video recapping the preliminary prevalence, Bynum and her mates categorical their disbelief on the approach they had been handled.
“Are you aware that the membership instructed me that I’m too darkish, and too thick […] what’s actually occurring Miami?” Bynum says within the video alongside her pal and one other younger woman who they’d met that night who was additionally denied entry.
Since posting the video, it has amassed over 2.5M views of Tik Tok and 934K on Instagram the place different girls have been becoming a member of in on the dialog relating to their unfavorable experiences not solely with Membership Mona, however with Miami nightlife as a complete. A lot of Miami’s colorism and physique kind discrimination accusations stem from favoritism of girls who’re Latina or white. Membership Mona, like many different golf equipment talked about all through the web dialogue on this concern, has taken on a stance that deeply embodies discrimination. Miami-Dade County particularly has acquired public scrutiny from individuals throughout the web and past alleging prejudice, and in some instances overt racism.
“Whereas this second has gone viral, it displays a deeper, ongoing actuality. We’ll proceed to advocate, communicate out, and pursue justice till significant change is achieved,” Bynum expressed in a press release to EBONY relating to her perspective on the virality that got here from her video.
This attitude can also be displayed by the corporate’s advertising and throughout social media as most of the girls of their commercials are of fairer complexions and slimmer builds. Throughout social media, individuals have been extra vocal about areas like Miami or Los Angeles, and their “magnificence requirements” lately. Many have pushed for the African American neighborhood to cease patronizing areas that aren’t accepting of all forms of pores and skin tones or physique sorts, whereas others consider that these locations shouldn’t exist in any respect.
“My mission on this stays clear: to make clear the challenges Black girls–and girls as a complete— proceed to face (OUR reality) racism, colorism and all types of hate are usually not issues of the previous; they’re current, persistent and painful,” Bynum continued in her assertion to EBONY.
Bynum has now opened a civil rights discrimination case towards the nightclub, accusing the corporate of violating her civil rights and protections beneath the American Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination beneath the guise of intercourse, colour, race, gender, age, origin, or faith. A GoFundMe has additionally been began by Bynum and Chima-Orji in hopes of gathering the mandatory funds for correct authorized illustration and formal pursuit of a lawsuit to carry Membership Mona accountable.