When you hear the word colorism, what comes to your mind? For many people who aren’t in a minority group, this word may be unheard of or new.
So what is colorism?
Colorism is racial discrimination towards individuals with darker skin, while showing preference towards those with lighter skin. This can affect people within any racial or ethnic background. We see this dicussed in the show Boondocks, “Well I got revitiligo, every year my skin just seems to get blacker. And darker and blacker and then mo’ darker. Huh. Its the opposite of what Michael Jackson got. Lucky bastard.”
Colorism came to the United Sates during slavery and colonization, whiteness in terms of skin color and features gave some people more freedom and opportunities than people with non-eurocentric features. We see this come up in the show Black-ish, “Slave owners did divide by skin color, putting dark slaves in the field and light slaves in the house”
Although slaves were eventually freed, this mentality still carried into our current society. We see this institutionally and systematically through jobs and benefits that are too often denied to people with darker skin. We also see this through pop culture, with media stereotypes like “the angry black women”, which commonly depicts dark skin, Black women. We see an example of this stereotype in the show Glee, “Why does everyone just assume I’m angry all the time? It’s called being sassy Mr.Shue”
We also see this within Western beauty standards, women with darker skin commonly need to have eurocentric features or be exceptionally beautiful to fit within that realm. In Black-ish we see the character Diana experience colorism, “Mmm look at you, you are gorgeous for a dark skin girl”.
Colorism has had a long history. It ranges from slavery to mainstream media today, and continues to cause hatred and insecurity with how we view ourselves or inferiority in terms of viewing others. It’s now so deeply embedded within our culture, it is uncertain if it will ever cease to exist.