Chapter One: Overview In the early 1600’s during the years of European colonization, the complexion of an African determined their worth. Many lighter skinned blacks were often the offspring of their white owners and even given such tasks such as housework and the darker skinned blacks were the enslaved Africans mostly given the hard tasks, such as working out in the fields. The enslavement system operated as a form of white dominance, it rewarded those who emulated Whiteness culturally, ideologically, economically and aesthetically. From this enslavement system brought upon by European colonization rooted colorism. Colorism is sin color stratification (Okazawa Rey, Robison, & Ward, 1987). Colorism is also a form of oppression that is expressed through differential treatment of individuals or groups based on skin color. Typically colorism tends to favor those of lighter complexions and the darker complexion experiences rejection and mistreatment. The idea of colorism may have been adopted as truth to some and this affects the black community in ways such as it privileges light skinned people of color over dark in areas such as income, social status, and education. This paper will survey two year college students about colorism, its effects on the black community, and ways to encourage young blacks to fight against the ideas. Chapter Two: Review of Literature The issue of colorism dates back to the early 1600’s when slavery was around. The color of a slave’s skin determined the chores assigned. The darker skinned slaves, some of pure African ancestry were given physically demanding tasks such as field labor and slaves of a lighter complexion most likely bi-racial due to sexual relations with their slave owners were give... ... middle of paper ... ...entral and South America, Asia, and Africa. This mostly affects the younger women because society shows prejudice amongst those of darker skin. During the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s, it seemed as if the importance of color had faded into the background because light skinned blacks came together with the darker skinned leaders to create a new social order. Below the surface there were suggestions of colorism. In the 1960’s the phrase “Black is Beautiful” was coined. With this some dark leaders questioned the loyalty of the light skinned black radicals; they believed that they had too long from color privilege to understand oppression (Hall, 1992, pg36). Works Cited http://eldhughes.com/2012/03/01/black-is-beautiful-50-year-anniversary-a-movement-that-went-viral-before-digital-technology/, http://tuftsjournal.tufts.edu/archive/2002/may/features/skin.shtml
Lynching of black men was common place in the south as Billie Holiday sang her song “Strange Fruit” and the eyes of justice looked the other way. On the other side of the coin, justice was brought swiftly to those blacks who stepped out of line and brought harm to the white race. Take for instance Nate Turner, the slave who led a rebellion against whites. Even the Teel’s brought their own form of justice to Henry Marrow because he “said something” to one of their white wives (1). Flashing forward a few years later past the days of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, several, but not all in the younger generation see the members of the black and white race as equal and find it hard to fathom that only a few years ago the atmosphere surrounding racial relations was anything but pleasant.
Even though slavery was abolished Jim Crow laws were made illegal years ago, racism is still not gone, and this is Bonilla-Silva’s central argument in his book, “Racism Without Racists.” While racist practices are not as overt nowadays, the covert, institutionalized ways of today’s new racism are just as discriminatory, he argues. One particular sentence that stood out that sums up the first part of his argument is “that the main problem nowadays is not the folks with hoods, but the folks dressed in suits.” Because of this switch to a more covert way of discriminating against people of color, white Americans have become color-blind to racism. In turn, the country is now home to “racism without racists,” which is the second part of the author’s argument. Because racism has become so internalized in our institutions, it can sometimes be hard to recognize, or at least admit to, the discrimination that is so prevalent in the U.S. Because whites either don’t recognize or admit to this racism, they claim that they don’t see color, and that any inequalities that are at play are due to the minorities not working hard enough in our meritocracy.
Color blind racism is an “ideology, which acquired cohesiveness and dominance in the late 1960s, explains contemporary racial inequality as the outcome of nonracial dynamics,” according to Bonilla-Silva (2). In order to analyze color blind racism, Bonilla-Silva relies “mostly on interview data (11)” through a 1997 Survey of Social Attitudes of College Students and a 1998 Detroit Area Study (DAS) (12). Bonilla-Silva then breaks down the analysis of color blind racism into four central themes to convey how whites explain a world without racial issues: abstract liberalism, naturalization, cultural racism, and minimization.
Although an effort is made in connecting with the blacks, the idea behind it is not in understanding the blacks and their culture but rather is an exploitative one. It had an adverse impact on the black community by degrading their esteem and status in the community. For many years, the political process also had been influenced by the same ideas and had ignored the black population in the political process (Belk, 1990). America loves appropriating black culture — even when black people themselves, at times, don’t receive much love from America.
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New, 2012. Print.
Some say, history is the process by which people recall, lay claim to, and strive to understand. On that day in May 1963, Mississippi’s lay claim: Racism. Between 1882 and 1952 Mississippi was the home to 534 reported lynchings’ more than any other state in the nation (Mills, 1992, p. 18). Jim Crow Laws or ‘Black Codes’ allowed for the legalization of racism and enforced a ‘black way’ of life. Throughout the deep-south, especially in rural communities, segregation prevailed.... ...
Since the beginning of slavery in the America, Africans have been deemed inferior to the whites whom exploited the Atlantic slave trade. Africans were exported and shipped in droves to the Americas for the sole purpose of enriching the lives of other races with slave labor. These Africans were sold like livestock and forced into a life of servitude once they became the “property” of others. As the United States expanded westward, the desire to cultivate new land increased the need for more slaves. The treatment of slaves was dependent upon the region because different crops required differing needs for cultivation. Slaves in the Cotton South, concluded traveler Frederick Law Olmsted, worked “much harder and more unremittingly” than those in the tobacco regions.1 Since the birth of America and throughout its expansion, African Americans have been fighting an uphill battle to achieve freedom and some semblance of equality. While African Americans were confronted with their inferior status during the domestic slave trade, when performing their tasks, and even after they were set free, they still made great strides in their quest for equality during the nineteenth century.
Racism has jumped to the forefront of conversation politically as well as socially recently. However, many fail to see the full extent of racism and the harmful effects it has had in American history. Post civil war brought a realization to the nation, that although now free, blacks, Indians and mixed descendants or mulatto’s were considered a lower class and Jim Crow Laws help cement them in this class of society. These laws, many referenced post Civil War, have origins dating pre Civil War as well. In 1835, “North Carolina passed a new constitution, which declared that ‘free Negroes, free mulattos, and free persons of mixed blood’ could not vote.” This de facto movement not only affected the lives of African Americans but also immigrants, Catholics, Jews and other groups of people.
In 2014, Dr. Wallace Best wrote a candid article for the Huffington Post discussing what he deemed as the irrational fear of black bodies. The context surrounding this critique stemmed from the surge of black men dying by white police officers. In the article, Dr. Best provided historical insight into this deeply rooted, unwarranted anxiety that white Americans have used as probable cause to commit violent acts against blacks, as well as systemic control over black men as a means of protection to maintain societal order. With this assertion, Dr. Best offered a critical analysis in understanding the fanatical need to preserve ownership over black movement due to this ubiquitous threat of black skin and the African American male. However, what
Over the past four-hundred plus years, racism has plagued the history of American society. The idea that one person is inherently better than another because of the color of their skin has always been present from our founding to today. During the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the mid 1900’s, racism was repeatedly being dealt blows by those brave enough to stand up for the rights they felt belonged to citizens of all shapes and colors. One important event that led to progress for people of color was the desegregation of the schooling systems. From young girls walking into all-white schools to black men being selected to participate in different academies, the Civil Rights movement to desegregate schools was influential in how progress
The basis for such injustices being done within a race of people can mainly be associated with the subconscious racists thoughts of individuals. These are the thoughts that lay deep within the crevices of one’s mind. The thoughts that an individual is sometimes ashamed to acknowledge. The art of believing that a lighter shade of black is better is primarily a thought process that has plagued the Black community for far too long. Maintaining such beliefs is what causes the racial divisions between light-skinned and dark-skinned Blacks to persist.
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.
"Social Forces." The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order. Oxfordjournals,org, 2007. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.
I grew up in North Carolina and I had encountered discrimination at an early age because I witness the advantages and disadvantages of the color of a person’s skin. In general, the majority of the different ethnicities from where I grew up lived in their own neighborhood and it was frowned upon from someone from another race to be in that particular neighborhood. I was taught early on that society has different rules because the color of your skin and hidden messages that states you’re supposed lived here. The hidden message in our society was from the “Old South”, where the Jim Crow Laws enacted in the 1870s which defined as” The law brought legal racial segregation against black Americans in the American South and these laws were ended in 1964 by the Civil Rights Act of 1964” were still relevant in today’s society (“Negro in American Democracy”, p. 2). As I grew older, I learned through my personal experiences and previous courses that the most important barrier amongst races is intercultural communication. The way we were raised develops our self-identity in which we are influenced by our neighborhoods and family values that were relayed to us at an early age. Majority of people interacts with their own cultures the most because of the comfortable level and they’ll have a greater chance
Black Consciousness movement is “revolution in consciousness that encompasses all black institutions, including the Black Church.”(2939) This movement was a much needed awakening in the conscious minds of Black people. For years they were subjected to dehumanization tactics, which resulted in loathing of self. Collectively, Black people are thought to have an immense dislike for everything which resembled that of the African. We were a “people who hated our African characteristics.” (2931) We hated our skin, we hated our hair, we hated our features, we found ourselves feeling imprisoned in our skin. Prisoners to an unjust society merely because of the hue of their skin. They were forever in bondage; no longer were they in physical chains, but now they were in mental chains. A shift in perspective in the 1960’s and 1970’s invoked a change in the mentality of the Black community. Their consciousness was roused with a “revolution” undertone. The people wanted change. They wanted an identity that no longer made them feel hostages in a foreign land, but one which embraced their h...