Colorism In The Black Community

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MncAKWLOh34CGnLtcUt6gqkXVjmCvQpIIXmC7Cxhdek/edit?usp=sharing

Why does colorsim even exist in the black community? Why should it matter if my sister is darker than me pr my brother is lighter than me. Our blackness shouldn’t define who and what we are as people, and by colorsim it separate the black community. Colorism is discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group, and it doesn’t only happens in the black community it happens everywhere around the world. But in this case, in the black community this hold a big impact on darker skin women in particular because they are the bottom end of this.

In the media it shows how they view the black women as if she is one category and shes mostly always going to be light skin. https://amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/09/colorism-racism-why-black-people-discriminate-among-ourselves this website talks about how the media and even in everyday life darker skinned people are treated differently than lighter skinned people. Colorism doesn’t work for light skinned people, they are the ones who benefit from it. The TV dark skinned best friend or the dark skinned character were always made “manly” or “ ghetto” and being gentle or kind. Colorism does appear in everyday life, a light skinned woman/ male is more likely to be married. Different pay rates are not the same if you’re darker skinned, if you are darker skinned you are more likely to to be prison time more than lighter skin.

https://sites.wp.odu.edu/bodylore/2019/03/04/colorism-within-the-african-american-community/ This site explains how what colorism is and how it started back in slavery “Colorism within the black community dates back to slavery, for the lighter men/women were considered to be “house ni*****” while the darker tones were outside in the fields. Is it safe to say the white man created color separation within the African-American society?” and Slave owners were more “nicer” to the indoor slaves because they were the off springs’ of slave owners due to the raping of women. Slave owners usually did not want to claim or recognize their illegitimate children therefore, they were given special privileges instead” the talks about how it shows in the media. how you see the main character is light skinned or white most of the time and darkskin is the second lead.

https://www.idsnews.com/article/2020/11/black-vocies-colorism-is-a-plague-in-the-black-community This site is actually an interview, the people who were interviewed were college students. The first question was have you ever experienced colorism before, James Stewart said, “I’ve personally not had to go through colorism that concerned me, but I’ve seen my friend go through it. Someone who happened to be, of course, African American was speaking about how they hate light skins.” I think this really speaks the truth because some people hate light skins because they are the Exception of being black. if you are a dark skin black girl you tend to see a process in which people don’t find you beautiful so they tend to get jealous and don’t like light skinned black women. They asked the same question to DeDjreanna Thames and they said, “Yes. I grew up in a mostly Black neighborhood. I had girls jump me growing up because I was too light. I was told I didn’t belong because my skin wasn’t dark. I was picked on a lot because I was very light.” This is interesting because colorism doesn’t work for lighter skin people, you benefit from it not being hated just because you’re light skin. They are the ideal type of black girl to be, they jumped you because they were envious of you, not because you were light skin.

https://www.litwi.org/blog/colorism-among-the-black-community This article brings up how colorism does exist and it does appear i the black community. It’s very toxic because some black men or men in general wouldn’t date dark skin women. The reason why i said women is dark skin men are fetishized and looked over into being “sexy” or “fine pieces of chocolate”. Dark Skin women don’t get fetishized unless they have some sort of “white features” then you would be considered “exotic”.” The “paper bag test” is often utilized in black spaces and the hiring of black people in the 19th and 20th centuries. If someone is the same color as or lighter-skinned than a paper bag, they would be allowed into space/considered for hire. If they were any darker than a paper bag, they would not be allowed in that space/considered for that job.” This made me sad because I remember my great grandfather told me about this. and how they had a brown paper bag to tell you if you are good or not. “shows that dark-skinned women are less likely to be married than lighter-skinned women.” Yes I remember reading about this, it’s crazy how people are so anti dark skin and don’t want to marry them just because their oppressors made them think that way. https://www.nccj.org/colorism-0 This site explains the difference between Colorism: Racism: And Discrimination: And telling how if you experience that you would know which one it would be. It states, “Skin tone was often the most important factor in applying for work as a person of color in the mid-20th century. Light skin was often reported on a resume ahead of any other information or experience.” This isn’t a surprise for me, a lot of dark skinned people get declined based on their skin color. “Dark skinned defendants are more likely to be convicted and receive the death penalty than lighter skinned ones. | MS Magazine” This is heartbreaking because it shows how colorism is ingrained in society, you don’t ask to be born but you still have to handle a world that will decline you just because you have darker skin. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4365794/ This source talks about how darker skin men were more discriminated against than lighter skinned men. “It is not surprising that early research conducted following the emancipation of slaves found that African Americans were influenced by colorism.” I feel like it’s black men and women should fix that in the community, it’s so ingrained in the black community that colorism is hidden by “ preference“ and they would often say “I like light skins because dark skins are….” This is colorism!! It doesn’t matter if you have a lighter skin tone you still are black at the end of the day. “Indeed this interdependent orientation may extend to African American constructions of masculinity ideals as well. For example, masculinity research suggests that African American manhood is often constructed relationally.” Some black men wants to date a light skin women because they do not want their baby to be dark, I heard in many cases that if black men wants kids they go for light skins because obviously they are the perception of beauty but also they are worried about how dark they’re baby is going to be, which is strange because skin color doesn’t matter if you make a baby, you could both be dark skin but comes out with a brown skin or a lighter skin baby.