Digital Gods & Digital Goddesses in a Digital World
Colorism
Colorism is the discrimination that happens within your own community. Not from outside, but from inside, from people who share your culture, your food, your language. It's the lighter skin being praised, while the darker skin being subtly devalued.
And while it's often discussed in the context of Black communities, the truth is it's global. It lives in Asian households. In Latino families. In Middle Eastern circles. It's a wound carried by so many communities of color, and naming it is the first step toward healing it
History
In the black community, it is believed that the practice of colorism started during enslavement of black people. Black people with light skin tones were often the children of slave owners.
It gave these children the privilege of supplying free labor inside the homes. Meanwhile, Black people with dark skin tones were required to perform enslaved duties outside the home.
With time, black folks describe and differentiate themselves based on their skin tones and other physical features.
In time, light skin tones among people of African descent became:
(1) a means of survival and
(2) associated with upper class and privilege
SKIN TONES
People of African descent with either light skin tones or dark skin tones are negatively affected by colorism.
Research shows that a person’s skin tone is a visible physical trait that others immediately notice during social interactions and used to form judgments.
While medium skinned skin tone reports the least amount of discrimination from other Black people; those with both light skin tones and dark skin tones, report higher incidents of discrimination from other Black folks.
BOTH GROUPS: DARK & LIGHT SKIN TONES
People of African descent with light skin tones are often asked to prove their ‘blackness’, are seen as being less Black, or prejudged as being stuck up or ‘bougie’.
These experiences may influence children with light skin tones to engage in ‘black behavior’ or underachieving behavior to prove their blackness.
Because we often associate dark skin with masculinity and dominance, boys with light skin tones may attempt to “prove” their “maleness” through negative behaviors.
People with darker skin tones are often viewed as less intelligent, are considered less attractive and inferior to other people within their community and within our ppl of color communities.
Preschoolers with dark skin tones, report negative associations with dark skin tones such as being ‘bad’ or ‘not pretty’ or less intelligent
While we cannot minimize the effect and pain of colorism against Black folks with light skin tones, colorism discrimination against black folks with dark skin tones has a serious impact on their quality of life.
Light Skin Tones
Dark Skin Tones
Dark Skin Tones
Dark Skin Tones
Light Skin Tones
Light Skin Tones
RACIALLY AMBIGUITY
As people of African descent, most of us have dual or even triple identities in that we are part of two or more races and cultures.
These dual or triple identities can lead to the inability to identify which race or ethnic group someone identifies with or belongs to.
For our brothers and sisters who have parents from different races or who may be biracial or tri-racial, it is impolite and hurtful to ask someone:
:“What are you?”
The answer to that question is:
(1) a child of God
(2) a human being.
If you are curious about someone’s race, ethnicity or culture, be respectful, kind and polite.
Most people enjoy talking about themselves and will share if we approach them in a kind and respectful manner.
Awareness
We have the power to bring unity to our communities, one day at a time. Because we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers. And throughout the African Diaspora, we rise and fall together. What happens to one of us happens to all of us.
We know discrimination. So discriminating against each other over skin tone? That doesn't make sense. We have to be honest about our own behavior, our own biases, and how we show up toward lighter or darker skin. Awareness is where it starts.
Colorism divides us. It creates fractures in Black communities that make us fight each other instead of focusing on what we could accomplish if we stood united.
Many of us don't talk about what colorism did to us. We carry it quietly. But the truth is, healing from that kind of isolation and pain? It doesn't happen overnight. It takes years.
What makes colorism so painful is that it's not outsiders doing the damage. It's your own community. Your own culture. And those experiences, the ones that make you feel isolated, like you don't belong in your own skin, they don't magically stop hurting once you're an adult. They linger.
REFLECTION: Colorism
What do you think of colorism towards light and dark skin tones within the Black communities?
Were you aware of the different ways in which black people with dark skin tones are affected by colorism?
Have you ever thought of how Black people with light skin tones are affected by colorism?
What can you do to make a difference in how people with different skin tones are treated?
In Dark Girls and Light Girls, two separate documentaries produced by filmmaker Bill Duke, he explores colorism and how it negatively affects both groups of women.