Key Takeaways
- Phylicia Rashad said she grew up believing her sister, Debbie Allen, was beautiful while not viewing herself the same way.
- As adults, the sisters learned that each had admired the other’s appearance while struggling with their own self-image.
- Allen connected their childhood perceptions to colorism and recalled an uncle making a hurtful remark.
Debbie Allen and Phylicia Rashad are two of the most iconic figures in entertainment, and while they’ve both had their fair share of men who admire them and women who idolize them, even they weren’t immune to insecurities growing up. While they’ve always been supportive of one another, there was one thing they didn’t necessarily see the same way when they were younger: their beauty.
On Wednesday (Oct. 7), during an episode of Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson’s “IMO,” the former first lady brought up Allen receiving an honorary Oscar last year. She went on to mention that the camera briefly panned to Rashad, who “might as well have been right up there” with the Fame star, judging by her expression.
Michelle then asked whether the sisters ever felt competitive with one another, explaining that she didn’t really experience that with Craig because “he was a boy,” while her daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama, never seemed to compete much either. Rashad admitted, “I always felt that Debbie was beautiful and I was not,” followed by Michelle joking that “the whole room” basically went, “What?”
Phylicia Rashad says colorism influenced how she and Debbie Allen viewed themselves
“It wasn’t until we were college graduates, right? We were living together in an apartment on 84th Street, and it’s Christmas,” Rashad explained, adding that it was the first time they’d spent the holiday away from family. “Neither one of us had steady employment, but there was a little jewelry store around the corner, and we had secretly gone in to buy gifts for each other.”
On Christmas Eve, the sisters exchanged gifts before one thing led to another. “I said to Deborah that I had always wanted to be beautiful like her, and she looks at me. She said, 'But you’re the beautiful one,’” Rashad recalled. “Then we broke down and started crying.”
Allen later chimed in with her perspective, explaining that they grew up around “that colorism foolishness.” She told Michelle and Robinson, “I remember one time Phylicia loved chocolate milk, and we were drinking chocolate milk, and my uncle said to her, ‘Girl, you better drink all the white milk you can.’ And wow, that was so ugly.” The “A Different World” actress continued, “Phylicia looked more like mama than me, and I wished I was always pretty like her.”
Michelle eventually shared how she and Barack Obama are “really careful” about what the men in their family say about their daughters. “Don’t let it come from your lips, you know,” she explained. “Barack is like, ‘If you got something to say about something they got on, tell me.’” The trio then spoke about how, with the introduction of social media, many young people — and women in particular — can be made to feel lesser.
Fortunately, we’ve moved past a lot of the beauty standards and colorism Allen and Rashad grew up with, though there’s still plenty of work left to do today.