Examples Of Colorism In Communities

Colorism in Communities In the 1940s, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark designed and conducted a series of experiments known colloquially as “the doll tests” to study the psychological effects of segregation on African-American children. In this experiment, four dolls were used, identical except for color, to test children’s racial perceptions. Their subjects, children between the ages of three to seven, were asked to identify both the race of the dolls and which color doll they prefer. The white children preferred the white dolls and assigned positive characteristics to them. When the black children were asked about the dolls they also had positive things to say about the dolls with the lighter complexion. Then when they were asked which

Many individuals are affected by it on a daily basis. For example, David Knight, a high school teacher in Boston wrote a blog about his experiences with colorism in his workplace. Knight admitted that he is very uncomfortable with how frequent his students use coloristic terms. He mentioned that he has often overheard his students referring to others as “light-skinned” or “dark-skinned”. As an African American himself, Knight did not understand why these students identified, categorized, and stereotyped their peers based on skin tone. Since Knight had grown up as an African American in Louisiana, he says that he is “used to ideas of white superiority, but [he] did not expect that so many young people of diverse ethnicities—including Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Cape Verdeans—would actively engage in everyday forms of skin-color bias” (Knight). Colorism in the United States is not just limited to the African American community. Much like Knight, Eddie Fergus, an assistant professor of education at New York University conducted a study on Latino high school males. Fergus found that Mexican and Puerto Rican males with white-looking skin are perceived as white and sometimes treated more favorably, while boys of the same ethnicity who had darker complexions are perceived as black and often experience

Norhan Amani, a young girl growing up in India shared some of her experiences with colorism on her blog. She mentioned that when she was growing up in a South Asian community, she frequently heard comments about “forsha”, or lighter skin, and “kaalo” or darker colored skin. When she would take trip back to her home in Bangladesh her relatives would compliment her “forsha” complexion. She expressed that these comments “made [her] squirm uncomfortably”, but she never thought much of it until she grew older (Amani). She then realized that lighter complexions were constantly being looked to as ideal, while individuals with darker skin tones were being degraded. While the exact origins of colorism in the Indian subcontinent are unknown, it can be attributed to many different reasons. In the pre-colonial era, the wealthy did not have to toil outside like the peasants and workers, and therefore often had lighter complexions. This led lighter skin to be equated with higher social castes and classes. After Europeans started colonizing the Indian subcontinent, they started enforcing the idea of themselves being the master race. This further led many South Asians to consider lighter skin and European-like features more desirable. Amani also explains in her blog post that advertisements for skin-lightening creams, such as Fair and Lovely, are rampant. She further explains that, “these ads often depict women who are unable to get a job or