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Thesis for colorism in the black community
Racial identity development theories
White racial identity development
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This paper looks at the way the guy I mean people rationalize their use of skin bleaching products. It also looks at the forces that have led to this predicament of shame and ugliness in any skin tone other than white skin. I have also looked into the psychological and physical effects of colorism on the people of Ghana. The idea of Colorism is not new. It is only recently that a name has been placed on it and it has been studied. Countries that have people with various skin tones have always practiced ways to lighten their skin. Due to the growth of technology, mass media and other ways of communication people who would not have been exposed to Western ideas of beauty are now being bombarded by the white beauty .Europeans ideology of attractiveness and power has taken every step to destroy non-whites image of them. This has allowed for people in what we considered Third World countries to relate color to access to resources and privilege (Hunter, 2011). European ideas of beauties has had a significant effect on is urban Ghana. The Ghanaian people have been brainwashed into forgetting who they are. They see themselves as ugly compared to Europeans. This is a mindset that is shared between some men and women in Ghana. The needed to be lighter is also shared between fair skinned and dark skinned Ghanaian. No matter how light a Ghanaian is they feel like they can always be lighter. Even though many of the beauty advertisements are aimed towards women, men still feel the need to lighten their skin. They are told by beauty and cosmetic advertisements that the bodies they were born with are not good enough. They are told repeatedly to change and/or modify their bodies as much as they can to image that is accepted globally (Hunter, 201... ... middle of paper ... ... chemically and surgically change themselves to achieve beauty and success, yet whites can use natural ways to “improve” their beauty. This is common in almost every advertisement geared towards nonwhites. They are repeatedly in directly and indirectly belittled by a society that keeps them from their history. Due to this, nonwhites are left vulnerable to low self-esteem, to now, depression and misguided beliefs. In a society that gives them a false sense of hope that by the manipulating their skin they have a chance to succeed in every way that matters, socially, politically, and family wise skin lightening in skin bleaching are realistic options. The problem that holds true is that beauty like a race is socially constructed and can change at any time. The idea that one can speak home white is misleading. It is not something that one can achieve but has to inherit.
Anthropologists and geographers have studied and overtime come to the conclusion that distribution of skin color is not random. Darker skin color has been found to typically come from near the equator and lighter skin colors are typically coming from closer to the north and south poles. Over the years, researchers have found that darker skin colors has protected the skin from having skin cancer. Recent studies have shown that “skin color is the product of natural selection acting to regulate the effects of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation on key nutrients crucial to the reproductive success” (169).
First, their needs to be some degree of plainly debunking this myth. To which, Larson cautions, would require a change in mindset, as “The majority of Africans have skin colors which in the United States, operating under the "one drop" rule, would be classified as "black." However, precisely that is where the first ‘debunking’ occurs. Larson discusses how that view is problematic because the African people don’t necessarily see race in that context. Rather, they focus on small details concerning slight variations in skin pigments and hair type to create a variety of sub-races and cultures, which they find vastly different amongst themselves. This first view can come across as misleading simply because of an egocentric worldview throughout Western cu...
...Americans heads that beauty is to have loight colored skin,”whites expressed ideas that they were the inferioir to blacks and managed to instill in blacks’ minds that the light skin complexion they had, the more they possesd”(Maxwell). As of modern day, nothing has changed. Things even got worse. Society has made it to where that a light colored skin complexion is the way to be. African Americans gave colorism another meaning.They constantly discriminate their own race for not bearing light colored skin and nice straight hair. African Americans have segregated their own race into light colored skin and dark colored skin. Dark colored African Americans are doubloed discriminated by the caucasians and half of their own race. Addittionlly, light and fair colored skin toned Americans receive “special” priviledges and opportunitiesz because of their phyical appearance.
Altabe, M. (1996). Ethnicity and Body Image: Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. Tampa, Florida: University of South Florida.
Colorism in the United States is a result of the history of people being discriminated based upon one’s skin tone. For many years, the European standard of beauty has been set forth and pushed upon mainly young men and women of many backgrounds
It is sad to know that we cohabit a nation where you are frowned upon because of the content of your skin. This documentary depicts adolescent Black/ African American girl and boys, and women talking about their melanin. Society imposed on us that to be beautiful you must be of a fairly light complexion, have a sculpted body, perfect bone structure, and have nice non-kinky hair. This image has been imbedded in our society, and resulted in those in the Black/ African American community feeling as is they are ugly, non lovable, unwanted, not smart, less than, lacking self confidence, and wishing that they can change their skin tone (by bleaching) to be accepted and to be considered beautiful.
It is this form of prejudice that has more to do with skin tone rather than race. This mentality oppresses and criticizes those with darker skin tones and those that deviate from one desired appearance. It is for this reason that many Black women have gone out of their way to assimilate to society’s beauty standards or attempt to be “white”. What this simply means is that these Black women have gone to extreme lengths to appear light skinned and to make their natural hair as “white” looking as possible. This is partially due to the racist and colorist mentality in this society but also because there is a huge market in making Black women feel as if they are unworthy of being called beautiful because of their skin tone and hair. In Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” he states that within his own community each individual spends an average of five thousand dollars a treatment on an attempt to get “good hair” and that the industry that is responsible for pushing this upon Black women is worth about nine billion dollars. The effects of this colorist mentality can be seen throughout history take for example during the Supreme Court case “Brown vs The Board of Education” (1954) in which it was deemed unconstitutional for a State to enact laws that created segregated schools solely for Black Americans. One of the pivotal
In other words one’s characteristics inclusive of skin color, facial structure and hair texture appears to regularly inspire acts of being degraded. Moreover African Americans have the impossible task ...
the disastrous effects that colorism and racism can have on a whole culture and how African-
During the 18 century, people divided humans based on where they live and skin color like Europeans as “white”, Africans as “black”, Indians as “red”, and Asians as “yellow”. For example, in Haiti, color has been the dominant force in social and political life. Skin texture, facial feature, hair color, and socioeconomic class together play a role in placement. The anthropological perspective define race as members of a society have similar biological traits. These members are diverse from other members of society because of these traits. In the end, the race concept is not acceptable to humans but it is used as a cultural classification. ...
Rodriguez, Richard. “Complexion”. Good Reasons. eds, Lester Faigley, Jack Selzer. Boston: Longman Publishers, 2001. 441-443.
The Association of Black Psychologist (ABP) (2013) defines colorism as skin-color stratification. Colorism is described as “internalized racism” that is perceived to be a way of life for the group that it is accepted by (ABP 2013). Moreover, colorism is classified as a persistent problem within Black American. Colorism in the process of discriminatory privileges given to lighter-skinned individuals of color over their darker- skinned counterparts (Margret Hunter 2007). From a historical standpoint, colorism was a white constructed policy in order to create dissention among their slaves as to maintain order or obedience. Over the centuries, it seems that the original purpose of colorism remains. Why has this issue persisted? Blacks have been able to dismantle the barriers faced within the larger society of the United States. Yet, Blacks have failed to properly address the sins of the past within the ethnic group. As a consequence of this failure, colorism prevails. Through my research, I developed many questions: Is it right that this view remain? How does valuing an individual over another cause distribution to the mental health of the victims of colorism? More importantly, what are the solutions for colorism? Colorism, unfortunately, has had a persisted effect on the lives of Black Americans. It has become so internalized that one cannot differentiate between the view of ourselves that Black Americans adopted from slavery or a more personalized view developed from within the ethnicity. The consequences of this internalized view heightens the already exorbitant mental health concerns within the Black community, but the most unfortunate aspect of colorism is that there is contention on how the issue should be solved.
3. Racism, sexism and negative stereotypes come at a cost for African American women. They suffer psychological and physical damage from the oppression that they face. Society has placed specific Eurocentric beauty standards for women which cause Black women to feel shame and want to change their weight, hair texture, body shape and skin color. “In a society where the standard of beauty remains
First, women spend huge amounts of money to improve their looks. So here we are unable to escape the reality that we can never be flawless or blemish free; moreover, as long as women have the belief that all greatness de...
My plan is to investigate in my research from which perspective people prefer individuals according to their skin tone. My research will indicate the following research questions.