“That Person Was Wrong”: American Man Compared to Late Riky Rick in SA, Sparks Debate on Skin Tone

• An American living in Mzansi was visiting a barber shop at a mall when someone said he resembled the late rapper and fashion icon Riky Rick, but he was light-skinned
• In the TikTok video taken while walking at the local mall, he shared how differently Americans and South Africans view light-skinned people
• Social media users flooded the comment section sharing their opinions about his tone, the “light-skinned” term, and the classification of mixed-race individuals

A U.S. man who had been in South Africa for many years was left surprised after a stranger told him he looked like a light-skinned version of late SA rapper Riky Rick.

The man, TikTok user @coming4africa, recorded a short video after leaving the barber shop, and it gained views and sparked a skin tone conversation.

The American man who resembles Riky Rick

In the video, @coming4africa is flattered to be told he looks like the late rapper, calling him a legend and moves to reflect on how skin tone is seen differently in different places of the world. In the U.S., he says he’s not considered light-skinned, adding that celebrities like Drake and Chris Brown are light-skinned. In SA, however, the lines seem way more layered.

He also shares that in the U.S., he is regarded as brown-skinned, and people darker than him are labelled dark-skinned. He says he's attracted to darker tones and has been romantically linked to them. At the end, he jokes about being called a yellow bone, unsure of what part of him was yellow.

SA debates skin tone and classifications

Social media users flooded the comment section, sharing their views on skin colour and how tones are classified in Mzansi. Many pointed out that the likes of Drake and Chris Brown are biracial, so in SA, they might be called coloured instead of light-skinned. Some said light-skinned in Mzansi usually refers to Black people with a lighter tone, not mixed-race people.

Trevor Noah was mentioned; some said he’s what they refer to as a yellow bone. Others argued that the @coming4africa was more brown-skinned than light-skinned. One user joked that in Zambia, he could even be classified as white.

User @Happiness 🇿🇦 said:

"We say light-skinned if you're pure black and brighter-toned, but Americans use it for mixed people. We don't consider mixed people to be black. A mixed person will be light."

User @Bhut'Sukwini🙏 added:

"He looks like a normal South African 🇿🇦❤️maybe a Xhosa or Tswana."

User @thanzi shared:

"You are lighter in complexion, however, I don't necessarily fit the South African 'yellow bone' term; you are more of a lighter brown in complexion."

User @Vicky Vee commented:

"Yeah, it's okay for different cultures to have their own versions of what they consider light or dark-skinned. Some Asian people consider themselves dark-skinned, and that's wild to us, but it's okay because in their society, they're considered dark. In Africa, we are different between light-skinned Africans, mixed Africans, and some African Americans. To us, you would be considered coloured/mixed."

User @Karabo added:

"You’re not light skin, that person was wrong. I have noticed that people from Limpopo have different perceptions of skin tone because some people there tend to be much darker. So anything lighter is light skin lol."

User @Chris joked:

"In Zambia, they might call you white 🤣".

Watch the TikTok video below:

3 Briefly News articles about Americans

• An American man living in Jozi detailed how his cell phone was snatched by a man who drove off in a Mercedes-Benz outside the Leonardo Hotel in Sandton.
• A US couple sold their big house in America and relocated to Mzansi despite friends and family advising them against moving to a third-world country.
• A woman from the US left online media users laughing after sharing how a South African man tried to get her contact number at a club while she was with her partner.

Source: Briefly News