Singer DaniLeigh is the object of ridicule after previewing a song and video called “Yellow Bone (Is What He Want)” as a celebration of her light skin tone.
DaniLeigh, 26, who was born in Miami as Danielle Leigh Curiel, didn’t understand the reason for the intense backlash. She rationalized making the song after listing to many songs in years past where melanin-rich Black women felt free to extol their chocolate beauty.
Then there is the matter that DaniLeigh, whose parents hail from the Dominican Republic, is not Black to begin with and, therefore, cannot classify herself as “yellow” or “light skin.”
https://twitter.com/_Daqua_/status/1352482309807681538
To those saying #DaniLeigh is “Black too” if she didn’t recognize herself as Black during the protests how she Black now? pic.twitter.com/W6OStyEGXz
— All Tea All Shade (@TeaTimeTips2) January 21, 2021
#Danileigh, a couple things…
-no one truly cares about you borrowing da baby from his baby moms…you’re losing
– you are not a YELLOW BONE because you are not black.
-no one cares about your light skin tone
– that song is trash
-da baby’s baby mama is prettier than you pic.twitter.com/oP7HnUwDkg— PURE/HONEY PUNANY 🪑 (@bobbiesoul) January 22, 2021
After fielding stacks of responses like those, DaniLeigh initially flashed her claws on Thursday, Jan.21, 2021, and angrily defended her “Yellow Bone” song.
“Why I can’t make a song for my light skin baddies ?? Why y’all think I’m hating on other colors when there are millions of songs speaking on all types.. why y’all so sensitive & take it personal .. gahhhh damn.”
DaniLeigh’s saucy retort caused the criticisms to gain momentum to the point where she felt compelled to apologize twice in one weekend.
“I feel super misunderstood. My song ‘Yellow Bone Is What He Want,’ I think people twisted it into thinking like I’m trying to bash another woman, another skin tone,’ she said on Instagram on Sunday, Jan. 24. “That was never my intention. I wasn’t brought up like that. I ain’t never looked at my skin as a privilege, I ain’t never looked at me as I’m better than somebody because of my skin tone.”
From DaniLeigh’s perspective, she was simply replicating what artists of varying shades have done before her.
“It wasn’t something that I looked at so deeply, which I can see why people will take it deeply. I understand, and I’m sorry that I wasn’t sensitive to the topic when I wrote my comment like ‘why are you guys taking it so personal’ because it can be a personal thing to certain people ’cause colorism is a real thing, so I do get it, but I’m not that.”
DaniLeigh adds that she can’t be a racist if she is dating rap star DaBaby.
“I’m not a colorist, I’m not a racist, I date a whole chocolate man, I have beautiful dark-skin friends. Skin isn’t something I even see, it’s not something I look at.”
Flip the page to check out her apology in full.
