Edited by Lili Fishman
Colorism is a process that privileges light‐skinned people of color over dark‐skinned people of color in areas such as income, education, housing, and the marriage market. Often times, people cannot distinguish racism between colorism because of the misconception that racism is merely discrimination against another person due to their skin tone. However, both colorism and racism are two different forms of oppression.
Racism is more synonymous and connected to white supremacy, whereas colorism is more of a product of white supremacy. People with lighter skin tones are valued more than people with darker skin tones because of the association with possessing light skin. The common conception is that people with lighter skin tones are more attractive, intelligent, graceful, approachable, whereas people of darker skin tones are stereotyped as aggressive, intimidating, and unapproachable. These stereotypes have many social, economic, and political implications. In many communities of color, light skin is praised and it is very common for those of a darker complexion to be isolated and alienated in their own families because their skin happens to be dark, literally becoming the black sheep of the family. Historically, during the enslavement era of black people in the United States, slave owners intentionally placed black people with dark skin outside doing manual labor while black people with light skin were allowed to be inside of the house as a divisive tool within the black community. At the same time, this uplifted whiteness, showing that having light skin was positive and in proximity to whiteness, gives power to systemic light skin privilege.
According to Harvard sociologist Elis Monk’s 2014 study:
Black people on average have a 36% chance of going to jail in their lifetimes. Having dark skin can increase this by 30%.
A University of Georgia study found:
Potential employers prefer light-skinned black men, regardless of credentials.
For black womxn applicants with identical credentials, the light-skinned black womxn were preferred.
Villanova researchers studied 12,000 cases of African-American womxn imprisoned in North Carolina and found:
Light-skinned womxn received prison sentences that were 12% shorter than dark-skinned womxn.
Womxn with light skin ended up serving sentences that were 11% shorter than dark-skinned womxn.
It’s very common for people to see colorism simply as preferential treatment of the prejudicial treatment of same-race people with dark skin, but in actuality it also encompasses both featurism and texturism. Featurism is the degradation of recognizable black features such as broad noses, coarse hair, and big lips. In fact, people of color who possess features coded as Eurocentric features actually benefit from featurism. Texturism is the peferential treatment of people with loose textured hair and the prejudicial treatment of people with coarse or kinkier hair within the same race. A common example is the fact that afros, braids, or locs being seen as unprofessional in schools and work spaces and children having to actually be told to go home because their hair is too distracting, taking away from their education. It is important to recognize that colorism is not only the preference of lighter skin to the detriment of darker skin, but it is also the preference of straight hair to the detriment of coarse and kinky hair, and the preference of Eurocentric features to the detriment of noticeable black features. These colorist attitudes are upheld by those with institutional power, reinforcing the notion that having lighter skin is better and acceptable in comparison with those with darker skin. All black lives matter, regardless of skin complexion.
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This piece was edited by Lili Fishman.
Sources
https://www.theroot.com/the-lighter-the-skin-the-shorter-the-prison-term-1790864659/amp
https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/monk/files/monk_-_the_color_of_punishment_-_ers.pdf
https://qz.com/1724590/colorism-influences-probability-of-going-to-jail-new-study-finds/
https://abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Colorism_JASP_Article.pdf
_ajs.pdf
_the_consequences_of_race_and_color_in_brazil_-_sp.pdf
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140114091952.htm
https://newsone.com/1328605/light-skin-black-women-prison-sentences/
https://qz.com/1724590/colorism-influences-probability-of-going-to-jail-new-study-finds/
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