...Colorism: The present reality and its continuing impact on the Black community Purpose Statement/Theses To bring awareness of “Colorsim” to the community and educators of young black Americans; this practice of self oppression within the black community is often overlooked and is an internal form of racism causing continued hindrance to progression of the black community in society. Statement of Qualification: This topic wasn’t as important to me until I watched the episode on CNN titled “Who is Black in America?” by Soledad O’Brien. I am a dark skinned black man married to a white woman, we have three bi-racial children; one son age three and two girls ages eight and five. I grew up in Alabama where race is always an issue and colorsim as it is defined is normal in the black community. It never seemed as important to me until watching the episode and reflecting on how it will and may already impact my children and their future. Tentative Argument: Colorism is based on the skin tone rather than actual racial or ethnic identity. This practice developed during slavery as a method to place a value on ones skin tone. The use of colorsim set an internal superiority amongst slaves [ (Hunter, 2007) ]. This practice has carried on through generations and is learned by young black adolescents. The practice of colorsim favors lighter skin over darker skin [ (International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, 2012) ]. Colorism is a common setback within the black community...
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...Colorism is a social issue that deeply burdens many African Americans today. Many who have researched the affects that it has within the community have all came to the same conclusion that "Once colorism lodges in individual African consciousness, the affected person is literally psychologically misoriented"(Azibo). This belief system is lodged in the African American people at a young age, so from the beginning their self worth is tainted by society. For example, when I was a young girl growing up in a predominately Caucasian environment I was told that I wasn't "attractive" because I did not have straight long hair, and pretty blue eyes. Because of things like this it is "imperative to know just where colorism comes from for optimal combat of it in schools, practice, and community"(Azibo). However, there has been new research that has been found that refutes the issue of colorism between specifically lighter skins being more favorable than those with darker skinned African Americans. Some now argue that it is actually less desirable to be lighter skinned, rather than dark skinned. Meaning that having a lighter tone can be seen with a negative connotation. Regardless of what is heard in the media there are many dark women who are extremely proud of their complexity, As Zora Hurston states "I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all". She is proud of her skin and who she is within it. There are many...
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...------------------------------------------------- COLORISM WURAOLA, MUHAMMED June 29, 2014 iNFORMATIVE SPEECH SPEECH 103 June 29, 2014 iNFORMATIVE SPEECH SPEECH 103 COLORISM I will inform the audience about colorism and the effect it has on African Americans today. I will discuss when and how colorism started, and how it affects the way you feel about yourself and the way you live your life. “If you’re black, stay back; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re yellow, you’re mellow; if you’re white, you’re all right.” This is an old nursery rhyme sung by kids. These days you would probably see the same idea being expressed by African Americans themselves. There is only one ethnic group that acts as if light and dark skinned are two different nationalities. Which ethnic group, you ask. African-Americans. Colorism refers to discrimination based on skin color. Colorism disadvantages dark-skinned people, while privileging those with lighter skin. I have also experienced colorism. People of my own race, especially the men will treat you differently just based on the color of your skin, and I also used to wish I was lighter. This topic may relate to you because colorism may exist in other cultures too, like Vietnam and India. I will discuss when and how colorism started, and how it affects the way you feel about yourself and the way you live your life. This brings us to how colorism started. A man name Will Lynch, a British slave owner gave a speech at the Virginia colony...
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...Colorism A subject that is very fascinating to me is the colorism debate among African-Americans. The “light vs. dark” dispute within the African American population is widespread. If someone were to Google the phrase "light skin vs. dark skin" they would find more than a thousand results to look through. This is because the issue of skin color is still a big issue within the black race because in the times of slavery black people were treated differently according to their skin color. The roots of this kind of bigotry run deep throughout the country. African Americans see colorism all the time in the media, their workplace and even in schools but have learned to accept it. This way of thinking began in the time of slavery; skin color has been used as a means of division and special treatment within the black community. It’s common knowledge that slave masters separated their slaves in order to control them and reduce chances of an uprising. One of the main aspects of that separation was turning the slaves against each other based on skin tone. The house slaves were usually light- complexioned and were more likely to receive the special favor of doing work inside the house instead of out in the hot sun. Slaves with darker skin were usually stuck with backbreaking work in the fields. To guarantee the division of the races, it was a well-known law that if a person had 'one drop' of black blood in their bloodline they were considered to be black. As a result, this...
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...What if all African Americans were the same skin complexion? What if we never used the terms light or dark skin? What if we did not judge or imply that darker skin black people are less desirable? That Obama though qualified to run; he is “the right shade” to be president, he passed the “paper bag test”. Basically, what if we never experienced any form of colorism. The term black people are used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups. Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as “black”. The worst classification and the greatest divide with in the African American culture has come through Colorism; light skin versus dark, a form of discrimination within one’s own ethnic groups. Colorism is a term to describe prejudice or discrimination in which human beings are treated different social treatment based on skin color. It is in almost every race, but it is more predominant in the African American culture within the United States. Discrimination within and outside African American’s dates back to slavery and is still happening now more than ever. We have been brain washed through generations, teachings, peers, parents and the media. The light vs. dark topic has been apparent since the time of slavery, but its problems and consequences are still very evident. During the time of slavery African Americans were not only segregated with white people they were also segregated within their...
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...Originating in the Bronx in the 1970s, the genre that would later become a global phenomenon grew substantially in the ’80s and, by the time the ’90s rolled around, had fully matured both artistically and commercially. When you think about hip hop in that decade, two names hover above the rest: 2Pac (“California Love”) and The Notorious B.I.G. (“Hypnotize”). If you’ll recall, though, the ’90s was also a period in which hip hop expanded from being purely a coastal phenomenon. Southern anthems like “Back That Thang Up” by Juvenile and Fiend, Silkk, Mia-X and Mystikal-featured Master P song, “Make Em Say Uhh!,” dominated the charts. Meanwhile, the East and West Coasts held it down with their own distinctive hits, respectively, including Jay-Z’s “Can I Get A…” and Warren G ft. Nate Dogg’s “Regulate.” If any of the aforementioned songs come on right now, in any region, hip hop fans will react. And that acknowledgment likely manifests with head bobbing, rapping along, or dancing. 38. “Summertime” – DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince Album: Homebase Year: 1991 Before Will hit it big with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, this friends-since-childhood duo recorded a summer anthem that eventually won a Grammy for Best Rap Single in 1991 “I Wish” – Skee-lo Album: I Wish Year: 1991 . “Still Not A Player” – Big Punisher ft. Joe Album: Capital Punishment Year: 1998 Latin’s Going Platinum! Another MC gone too soon, Pun made this still-incredible Uptown record one that we’ll dance...
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...White Privilege and Colorism SOC 262 White Privilege and Colorism White privilege is a term that is used to refer to white people in America’s advantage over groups of people of color. It is said that whites have a bigger advantage, and many more perks over someone that is a non-white. White privilege makes a critical preference for white people and denies opportunities for people of color. Colorism is a form of discrimination that is based on the complexion of darker skinned Individuals, despite being of the same race (Banks, T. L., 1999). Colorism is giving privileges to lighter-skinned people of color in many different areas, such as income, education and marriage (Hunter, M., 2007). During the time of slavery, slave drivers would allow the slaves with a lighter complexion to work inside the home and live a more comfortable life. Those with darker skin complexion would work on the farms. Even today darker skinned individuals feel they are scrutinized because their skin is a darker complexion. My personal experiences of white privilege have been far and few. I sometimes find it easier to bond with individuals that are not of my own skin color. This may be a result of the environment I grew up in., which was a very diverse neighborhood. However, there have been a few situations where I have noticed I may be getting “white privilege.” For example, I have never been harassed or followed by any type of law enforcement based on the color of my skin. I have...
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...Colorism "Your eyes are blue, but you ain't white! Your hair is straight 'cuz you pressed it last night!" -School Daze Dehumanization comes in its most rampant form, towards black women, as colorism. A community of African American women stand by with broken self-esteem from a history of colorism creating stigmatism on the ideal body image of an African American female in today's society. The quest for straight hair was often a torturous obsession for the slaves, but it was not just about conforming to the prevailing fashions of the day. Straight hair translated to economic opportunity and social advantage. Because many of the more than one hundred thousand free Blacks in nineteenth-century America were the mulatto offspring of the first African arrivals and their European companions, lighter...
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...[…] most of the women wants [sic] to have, cause what they see on TV over there, lighter skinned women with nice hair and all of that stuff-so some of them want, want to be like that, so that’s why, some of them bleach their skin, cause they think the lighter their skin is, the [more] chances they have to actually one day be on TV, or get noticed by people, so they think bleaching their skin or lighter skin, is much, much better than dark skin. (Duke and Chansin) The issue being described is not only present among those belonging to African-American community (Herring 3), but the Filipino, and general Asian community as well (Dychiu 87). Given this, mass media should use its influence to help lessen instead of perpetuate occurrences of colorism in Philippine society. In order to have a clearer understanding of mass media, it must first be defined. By definition, a medium is a form of disemminating knowledge, and a mass is a large amount of people. Put together, mass media is a term that covers different forms of communicating knowledge and information to a multitude of people (Livesey n.p). There are different forms of mass media, ranging from print, to broadcast, to internet advertising and outdoor or mural media. Print media covers newspapers, magazines and journals, while broadcast media consists of television and the radio. Internet advertising media covers social networking sites and world wide web pages, while on the other hand, outdoor...
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...During the late 20’s, the NAACP and the Universal Negro Improvement Association competed for “the position of the premier African-American advocacy group”(Ware). In 1931, Marcus Garvey, the dark-skinned head of the Universal Negro Improvement Organization, accused W.E.B. Dubois’s NAACP of practicing colorism: It is no wonder that Du Bois seeks the company of white people, because he hates black as being ugly. Yet this professor, who sees ugliness in being black, essays to be a leader of the Negro people and has been trying for over fourteen years to deceive them through his connection with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Now what does he mean by advancing colored people if he hates black so much? (Ware). Dubois denied these claims, but his organizations’ actions seemingly verify Garvey’s claims. Crisis featured predominantly elite light skinned women. The NAACP appealed to the elite and educated, which were primarily light skinned blacks. In contrast, Garvey’s movement appealed to the masses; he uplifted the...
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...‘success story wedding photos’ (N=200) posted on four Indian matrimonial websites. Results showed an overwhelming bias among males for brides lighter-skinned than themselves. Males were also more likely than females to state a preference for skin color in their prospective brides, and to use qualitative words like ‘beautiful’ and ‘lovely’ to describe their preferred match. Most significantly, the ‘success story’ wedding photos consistently had lighter-skinned brides than grooms. Darkskinned women were almost non-existent in these ‘success stories.’ This research points to a technology-abetted intensification of colorism. That is to say that the powerful profile ‘menu’ options and the visual imagery of predominantly lightskinned, ‘successful’ brides illustrated on current websites visually reinforce the invalidation of dark skinned women. Keywords Internet matchmaking Colorism Indian marriage market Technology and women Skin Color Introduction Mate-seeking preferences are significant for relationships, marriage, and family life, but those preferences also illuminate larger cultural themes,...
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...The documentary started by depicting the issue of colorism in great depth. “Colorism is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on the relative lightness or darkness of the skin” (Duke & Berry, 2011). In fact, there was a story about the paper bag test that explains this problem of colorism. “The paper bag test determines that if you were lighter than the brown paper bag then you were considered beautiful, smart. If you were darker than that, then you were considered dark and unattractive” (Duke& Berry, 2011). I find this this to be one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard in my life. A paper bag should not be able to determine whether a person is beautiful. However, most dark skinned girls believe the paper bag test because they were ingrained with the belief that they were not beautiful if they were dark skinned, so I don’t blame them. Another topic that was brought up was the history of colonization. “We weren’t even considered people in the eyes of the law nor in the eyes of our neighbors in the country. “Beauty is just a small piece of a much bigger animal, and until we understand that much bigger animal, we will never understand the issue of colorism” (Duke& Berry, 2011). I thought this was a very, very powerful statement in the sense that it opens your eyes about where the root of the problem...
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...the same tasks. Rather than paying their workers based on their performance and experience, many employers pay a fraction of their employees more simply because they are male while the others receive less due to the fact that they are not. This is not the only factor that plays in role in the sharp contrast in pay between males and females, however it does play a part. There have been many forms of prejudice throughout history that exist even to this day and have become more widespread such as colorism, ableism, sizeism, religious intolerance, racism, and nativism. Colorism is a form of prejudice based on the color of a person’s skin. It is prevalent among people who share the same ethnicity or race but it can also occur in multi-ethnic and non-white communities. In most cases, colorism is in favour of those with lighter skin tones. Albeism, yet another type of prejudice -- is not as widely known as its counterparts. It refers to prejudice against people who have disabilities that can be easily perceived or seen such as those who are wheelchair-bound, deaf, blind, or suffer from Down’s syndrome. The visibly disabled are faced with prejudice from just about anyone including -- but not limited...
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...Racism and the trauma that African Americans endure is not a new concept. Racism can be defined as a “socially organized set of practices that deny African Americans the dignity, opportunities, space, time, positions, and rewards this nation offers to white Americans. (Bryant Davis & Ocampo, 2005). The interplay of racism, ethnic identity development, and racial socialization appear to be dominant themes, as African Americans interface with the legacy of slavery. Although slavery was deemed illegal in 1865, its aftermath brought about specific trauma legacies in the form of laws and policies which supported the powerlessness of African Americans. This phenomenon is known as cultural trauma. Cultural trauma is the idea that slavery as the initial...
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...Woman in ballet have to adhere to strict standards of Eurocentric beauty, but black women face a barrier to entry based on the racialized notions of the black feminine body. Black people in ballet do not share a common experience, as black men have an easier time gaining significant opportunities based on the role of the male dancer’s function in ballet. Furthermore, black women have to deal with colorism in ballet; a phenomenon that does not happen to the same extent with their male counterparts. While ballet companies are attempting to move away from traditional norms, the lack of black women in significant roles, whether it be as dancer, teachers, and other positions within the institution, is a crucial issue that needs to be corrected. With more representation of black women in ballet, young girls in grassroot programs will have role models to encourage them to further their dance careers. Overall, black women have talent that is being ignored due to dated standards of beauty, but by becoming aware of the treatment of black women in the ballet community and instilling change, a new and inclusive standard of beauty can shine on the...
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