Tichina Arnold Walks Back "Reverse Colorism" Comment

Tichina Arnold is a respected actress known for her work on classic TV shows, including Martin, Everybody Hates Chris and now, The Neighborhood. But when it comes to racial consciousness, she admits she’s not an expert.

Recently, she responded to singer Ari Lennox, who opined on Arnold’s role as Pam on Martin. On the ’90s hit show, she and the titular character, played by Martin Lawrence, were often at odds, ripping each other in what most viewers saw as affectionate teasing. But Lennox says that she felt the characters were exhibiting colorism.

“The thing that pissed me off about Martin was how much he was goin’ in on Pam and this is coming from a girl who loves a joking a– movie and even when the joking movie is like ‘Damn, that was f— up.’ There are some things where I draw the line,” she said in a 2025 interview.

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“Pam was so f—– beautiful and so fine, and I just feel like growing up as a chocolate girl, I don’t even know if I was able to understand the greatness of Pam.”

Months later, Arnold was asked about Lennox’s comments on Deon Cole’s podcast Funny Knowing You. She said that while she understood where Lennox was coming from, the humor on Martin had nothing to do with Pam being brown-skinned. The back and forth between them came from spontaneously cracking on each other off-camera.

“It was never, ever, ever came from a brown-skinned thing. It came — it started when I really had beady beads in the back of my head,” Arnold told Cole. “I was like, ‘Daaamn.’ So, that’s when he got me, ’cause he started cracking on the back [of my head]. So, [Martin writers] started incorporating. Anything he and I did off the set, they would — it would be in the script.

And then, once the cameras start rolling with him, you don’t know what the hell’s going to come out of his mouth. So, I’ll just be waiting for it. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna get him.’ So, we would go back and forth. So, it was out of love. It was out of just, that’s what we did. It had nothing to do with color.” 

Arnold added that she feels that co-star Tisha Campbell, who played Martin’s girlfriend Gina, suffered from what she referred to as ‘reverse colorism’ because she was light-skinned. She says that Campbell was upset by the way she was treated by the audience, so much so that it would lead to tears.

“Even with Tisha, people don’t realize that reverse colorism happens as well,” she told Cole. “I remember Tisha, she would cry sometimes. It would be so bad because we had the live studio audience and the girls, the Black girls would come in, and they were there for Martin. That was Martin [during] Def Comedy Jam and stuff.”

She added, “So, it was that kind of crowd that would come to our shows and they would laugh so hard they would bang on the floor. The whole first season, every time Tisha would walk out, you would hear groans. They wouldn’t laugh; they treated her horribly.”

Now Arnold has backtracked from those comments, saying that she learned from her TV sons, actors Marcel Spears and Sheaun McKinney, that her take was off.

“You were speaking to your experience of witnessing prejudice against a lighter-skinned person,” Spears said in a video posted to Arnold’s social media platforms. “Which is a result of colorism. Reverse colorism ain’t a thing, colorism is the system that benefits lighter-skinned people because it’s closer to white supremacy. Reverse colorism ain’t a thing.”

Arnold says she’s now corrected and understands where she went wrong.

“Listen, we all have opinions. We all have our rights to opinions, but we also have responsibility. So when I misspeak, I like to apologize for that because you’re never too old to learn,” Arnold said. “So I made a statement on Deon Cole about reverse colorism. I was speaking too fast, just speaking from experience, but I never want to insult anyone for no reason. I misspoke, I spoke too soon.”

It’s safe to say that colorism has impacted Black people for most of our existence in America, whether it’s because you’re deemed too light or too dark. Campbell starred in the 1988 Spike Lee movie School Daze, which took on the topic at a fictional HBCU.

Cole and Campbell weighed in in the comments, as did fans, most of whom told Arnold the apology wasn’t necessary.

Cole shared a similar sentiment, commenting, “But yall knew what she…..never mind.”

And Campbell was supportive of her longtime friend and colleague as well.

Love you Tichina!❤️,” Campbell posted. “Keep shining Tee I will always have your back. Your heart is pure and your intentions were too.”