What is Colorism & Why is it a problem?
By: Serenity Ganaway
Colorism is something that has been embedded in the black community for years. It also affected me, and the way that I viewed myself growing up.
I don't recall dealing with colorism from other African Americans like myself. However, I struggled with my darker skin tone because of what I had seen all around me. I would look in the mirror and think of ways to lighten my skin because I felt that if I was light-skinned, I would be perceived as beautiful and acceptable. It was so bad that I put scars on my face trying to look lighter.
Colorism is rooted in white supremacy and started when slave masters had darker slaves working outside, and lighter slaves working inside, so their skin pigment would not get darker from the sun. The darker slaves did mostly the hard work while the lighter slaves did most of the easier work. There was a test called the "brown paper bag test" and if someone was the same color as the bag or lighter, they would get less maltreatment. If the person were darker, they would get more of the burden. As a result of that, colorism is still perpetuated up until this day.
Colorism is discrimination and bias amongst those who are of a darker complexion. This causes division amongst those within the same ethnic group. Colorism affects people of color, but mainly, black people, typically those who are darker, emotionally and psychologically.
There are harsh stereotypes that are rooted in colorism. I remember when watching tv, I would always see light-skinned women get put on a pedestal meanwhile dark-skinned women were getting put on the back-burner. It made me feel insecure and unattractive because I thought I had to look lighter to be accepted and seen as beautiful. I know now that it's not true because I realized that you can find beauty within yourself instead of defining it through someone else.
Dark-skinned black people are often criminalized, especially black men. For example, in the movie "Menace to Society", black men, especially dark-skinned ones, are portrayed as thieves, thugs, and murderers. At the beginning of the movie, it shows two young black men going into a convenience store. When one of the men was about to check out, he robs the owner and fatally shoots her.
Roger Ebert, an American film critic, says, "Caine, like so many young black men from the inner city, has grown up in a world where the strong values of an older generation are being undermined by the temptations of guns, drugs, and violence." Movies and TV shows similar to that perpetuates colorism and can give audiences the negative views of dark-skinned black men.
Not only do dark-skinned black men deal with colorism; dark-skinned black women have to take the burden of colorism as well. They take the roles of those redundant women who have children out of wedlock, those who are "ghetto" or classless; and women who can not find a man or can not maintain a relationship.
In the 90s sitcom 'Martin,' Pamela James is a dark-skinned woman who has a light-skinned best friend, Gina Waters. Pam is constantly being teased for wearing a weave, not finding a decent partner, and is referred to as different kinds of animals. She is also portrayed as the "angry black woman."
According to LIT, "we often see Colorism portrayed in TV shows such as Martin featuring Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell, and movies such as Nina featuring Zoe Saldana. Both are popular within the Black Community. Both had some representation of Colorism, whether it is a love interest with a lighter complexion are respected more than the dark-skinned friend who’s underrepresented or an Afro-Latinx actress cast to portray a woman with darker skin."
The media continuously perpetuates these stereotypes and it affects darker complected black people in real life.
Colorism has been shown to affect one's self-esteem. Seeing colorism perpetuated in media affected the way I viewed myself.
Colorism: Self Esteem & Self Love, mentions "Colorism also plays a large role in the presence of low self-esteem of darker-skinned African American women. These ideas of wanting to be accepted or “beautiful” are relatable, however, there shouldn’t be standards held to which skin tone is more beautiful."
Not only does colorism affect someone's self-esteem; it can also affect one's success. I recall being labeled as a bully, a menace, and someone that is not capable of getting along with other people all because I felt that I couldn't fit in that school environment. I almost got suspended or expelled because of false accusations made that were racially motivated.
Some studies show that darker-skinned African Americans are more likely to be suspended from school. A website article, Darker-Skinned African-Americans Suspended More Frequently states "A new groundbreaking study done by a trio of sociology professors takes a more nuanced look at the matter by examining the differences in suspension rates among African-Americans of different complexions."
The study—titled “The Relationship Between Skin Tone and School Suspension for African Americans” found that darker-skinned African-American students were more likely to be suspended than those with lighter skin tones. This study demonstrates that colorism exists in America, not only within the black community but also outside of the black community, because lighter-skinned African Americans have something called "light-skin privilege", unlike darker-skinned African Americans.
My mother is light-skinned, my biological father is dark-skinned, and my stepfather is of a dark brown complexion, similar to mine. In Georgia, where I grew up, I would mostly see dark/brown-skinned black men coupled up with lighter-skinned black women. Although the colorism wasn't direct, it damaged my self-esteem, because I thought I had to be shades lighter under the standard of beauty. I thought that if I was light-skinned, it would be easier for me to get a boyfriend and keep one.
The media programmed me to think that I was less beautiful because of the amount of melanin that I have in my skin. I remember having talks with my mother about it, and she would give me "not worry about it" or "I don't understand your problem" type of answers. I understood what she was trying to do, but at the same time, I felt misunderstood and unseen because she is light-skinned, and never walked in my shoes. It felt equivalent to a white person telling a black person how to deal with racism, when in fact, white people aren't walking in the shoes of black people. Therefore, they can't tell them how to deal with it or tell them how to feel.
Colorism in the media is expressed through different kinds of ways like music, television, and radio. For example, in YG's song Grind Mode, one of his lyrics was extremely colorist, it said, 'A n*gga can't stand no black a** b*tch'.
I always believed that the reason why some dark-skinned black people are colorist towards other dark-skinned black people is that they grew up struggling with their skin complexion and they get flashbacks of what they had to deal with behind that. Colorism has been shown to cause division and problems within the black community, therefore colorism must be dismantled because it eliminates problems and allows more unity.