Colorism: The Ultimate Light Skin vs Dark Skin Battle When I was younger, I knew a girl named Dajah. Our fathers grew up as best friends so it was inevitable for us to become best friends as well. We had a lot in common except one thing, our appearance. Dajah had biracial parents so her skin was lighter than mine and her curls were a little more defined. I didn’t see a problem with this until we got older. In middle school, we became more interested in boys. She would always get boys’ attention frequently if we went somewhere together, I felt invisible. Even random adults would comment on how beautiful she was, I remained invisible. I began to grow a tad bit envious and viewed myself in a negative way because I did not look like Dajah. Myself Firstly, this color-struck mindset has affected how black people view other black people. These days, dark skins are not the only target of colorism. Light skin people are getting the short end of the stick as well. Grey’s Anatomy actor, Jesse Williams, received a humanitarian award at the BET Awards. He delivered a speech and included content about racism. Subsequently, social media was flustered by his remarks and claimed that he was in fact, “too light-skinned” to have endured any type of racism. That was the general statement circulating the media by other black people. Colorism has led dark skins to deny their light skin counterparts as members of the community. Colorism has also managed to dictate the societal standard of beauty. Referring to the personal story above, I believed that because my friend Dajah was light skinned, that was what I had to be to be considered “pretty”. There are plenty of young girls who have had or currently have this mentality due to what they see and hear. Colorism is a hard system to escape. The history behind the concept of colorism contributes to the development of the black community. Willie Lynch predicted and sort of dictated the future of black people with his method. From then until now, there has been an apparent divide within the community that is hindering us from progression. Because it is still prevalent, that shows that we are weak in the mind, just as Lynch sought out for. It took a short amount of time to construct this system, it is now up to our society whether we continue to build it up or quickly deconstruct
By being color conscious, we see the strengths in one another and acknowledge the experiences of one another as significant and valuable. This idea of being color blind vs. color conscious is directly related to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the All Lives Matter (ALM) movement. One of the criticisms in this ordeal is that the BLM never put forth the notion that all lives don’t matter. Obviously, all lives matter. But, I think saying all lives matter in response is ignoring the fact that blacks have been disproportionally mistreated, profiled, and arrested more often than
When people hear African history their initial thoughts are slavery and segregation, yet there is more to African history than those two events. The reason why many people would only know the American portion of African history is because that is what is predominately taught in most schools. In the movie Hidden Colors 2: The Triumph of Melanin, it goes deeper into the cultural beginning of the African history. As mentioned in the film “90% of African history makes up everything”. Hidden Colors 2 is an exceptional and informative documentary that extends to telling the hidden truths behind the suppression of the black culture.
The history of slavery has shaped colorism to what it is today. For example, in the article Art Exhibition Exposes Racism by Bernadette Steward there was something known as the “Paper Bag” test which was part of the start to the African American discrimination, “if your skin color was the color of the brown paper bag or lighter you were given access to certain privileges and conversely if your skin was darker than the paper bag you were denied those same privileges” (Steward 1). This test came about in the late twentieth century after slaves were “supposedly free”. This problem goes back to the early 1700’s when “a slave master from the Virgin Islands came at the invitation of some southern slave owners to teach the how to better control their slaves” (Steward 1). The slave master only cared about the stock they were gaining and told the slave owners that killing the slaves was no good for their stock and told the slave owners to turn one group against the other. In other words, make a group believe that they are superior over the other group. The slave master ended up taking African women and produced an offspring that looked incomparably different from the Africans. Because of this, there was a lighter offspring and a change of their features such as straighter hair,
African Americans suffered from racism during Jim Crow system for many years. “Racism is the belief that the physical characteristics of a person or group determines their capabilities and that one group is naturally superior to other groups”(United Nations Human Rights). On other words, racism means anyone has different physical characteristics such as color skin or gender is lower than the majority or another group. Slavery in the United States began after English colonists settled and continue for many years (Kenion, 1912). During slavery years, The Americans transferred African men and women to the US to work in farms, housekeeping and serve white people. After many years, the African Americans demanded for their freedom and equality with white people. As a result, the white Americans created Jim Crow system. The Jim Crow laws were racial segregation laws and used from 1876 to 1965 in the United States. The laws used to organize life between African Americans and white people. The system was dealing with African Americans as second level citizenries and withe people as first citizenries. African American could not get the simple rights such as qualified education and health care. For example, North Carolina schools were racially segregated because Jim Crow system say’s that, African American and white students should study in separate and equal schools. In fact, schools in North Carolina were separate, but not equal. By 1875, “public education in North Carolina was a legally ordained system” (Kenion, 1912). Every thing was separate such as facilities, teachers, resources, and students. In North Carolina, African American and white students had been attended segregated public schools. However, the schools were unequal. The whi...
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.
The African American community is supposed to be united under the Black race, but that is where the problems come in. Under the ethnicity of African Americans, and have pride in their skin color and are supposed to be joined together, there is a system of separation within the different shades of “Black.” In the black community, there are all kinds of shades of black, yellow, light, brown, dark brown, and other shades. According to Dr. Ronald Hall, a social work professor at Michigan State University, "As a result of having been colonized particularly by Spaniards, the British, etcetera, a lot of people of color internalize and idealize values for lighter skin because that is considered the norm.... ... middle of paper ...
Some of the black codes were still unlawfully enforced for decades after they were made illegal. Some people might not be as racist and have a different mindset then they do now. The segregation that the black codes caused causes people to be more sensitive towards racial inequality because of the segregation the black codes caused. Like how people were getting pissed that the Emmys didn’t have enough black people being nominated. We would be much closer as a community without the lingering ideas and mindset that the black codes have put into us. We would be much closer without segregation and
To those who say, “Black is Just a Color,” allow me to enlighten you on why “black” is more than just a color, and why black is a lifestyle. Being black in America is a lifestyle that is not chosen, but one that you are born into. The black culture is a culture that thrives off of being strong, beautiful and independent. Black culture somehow despite its undoubtedly incredible come up within the last 100+ years and being amongst the smallest race in the human race, somehow still manages to have the highest number of inmates in prison. Being black is having to fight every day for what we all rightfully deserve, and that is common respect.
It sure is hard living in a society where as a human being, a person will feel humiliated and unappreciated by others. Nobody is born with the desire to choose either their skin color, their family, or their choices of basically anything. Yet, black people always get the target of being treated the most unfairly treatment from the rest of the human beings. Till this day most of the people do not get the context of why would someone ever disrespect the other just cause of a color? We live in a society were sadly the looks matter than who the person actually is inside and what they can do as an individual.
Society and media play a huge role in why this colorism between different shades of black exists.
People believed that the darker the pigmentation, the poor and less powerful one is. When the African Americans, Mexican Americans and Asians migrated to the United States, the belief that darker skin tone holds less power inaugurated. Although in 1955 the Supreme Court outlawed segregation, and introduced the idea that “all men are created equally”, we still experience discrimination, racial, prejudices, and stereotyping comments today (add citation). In a symbolic interactionist perspective, according to the Sociology textbook, prejudice is a “belief about an individual or a group that is not subject to change on the basis of evidence.” No matter what evidence, proof you provide their opinion wouldn 't change. Like the Sociologist Zygmunt Bauman said “ Man is before his acrs; nothing he does may change what he is.” Discrimination, stereotyping and stigma are almost the concept, but the main difference is discrimination is the “unequal treatment of individuals on their basis of their membership in a group.” Where on the other hand, stigma is “ An attribute that is deeply discrediting to a individual or a group because it overshadows other attributes and merits the individual or group may possess.” And Stereotyping is more of “generalization of a set of characteristics to all members of a group.” Stereotyping is very common in everyday life, for example, when I’m sitting in my car alone in a parking lot while waiting for my parents to finish shopping, if I see a group of African American guys, I will lock my doors and make sure all the windows are up. Or even when we the teacher announces that only “one” persona got an A on their exam, and we all are more towards looking at an Asian person, because they are noted to be hardworking and smart. Lastly racism is “ the idea that one racial group is inherently superior to another; often results in institutionalized relationships
Segregation has and still affects perceptions of Blackness inside and outside the Black community by making Black people see themselves as White people see them. Many of Black people have accepted the fallacy that they were inferior to White people at a young age, and Whites learned that Blacks were lower then Whites at a young age as well.
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.
According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.
Once you are a black individual you will be stereotyped base on your color; it does not matter where you are from, the work that you do, or who you associate yourself with, these accusations will still be prominent. According to an article “The list of Stereotypes,” a teacher asked her student to compile a list of stereotypes that people have about black individual and the stereotypes they have about White and Latino people. From the list provided these were the stereotypes of blacks: “stupid, Irresponsible, Crack babies, Teen pregnancy, Drop-outs, Incarcerated, Fatherless, Love fried chicken, and Kool-Aid, Hard workers? Athletic, Violent, Live in the ghetto/the projects, Wasted generation, Loud, obnoxious, rude, Nappy hair, Bad attitudes, disrespectful, Hoodlums, Poor, Dirty, drugs, porn, weed, Guns, Low job expectations and Speak different English”; in contrast, white people was stereotype as: “very proper Sense of entitlement, power, Always think they’re right, Rich with big houses, and Have better jobs.” (The List of Stereotypes 2007) This shows the inaccurate label’s that have been placed on the black society; hence, you have a wide range of black individuals bleaching, because no one wants to be known as the wasted