In the video, Shadeism part 1, main points that were made expressed that darkness was bad and lightness was good. The color of your skin determines how you are looked and interpreted as whether you are beautiful of not. Women from different regions face the same challenges when it comes to shadeism because members of their society see darkness as a negative thing instead of positive. Many women share the same belief that being light or becoming lighter automatically changes your life for the better. Bleaching is common amongst many because the ultimate goal is to be lighter than what you are. The hate of being dark or looking down on darkness starts at home, but it is also highly engrained in our societies. Terms such as colonialism and pigmentocracy …show more content…
According to google, colorism is defined as prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. Three sociological concepts I chose that illustrate colorism or shadeism are discrimination, endogamy, and common identity. Both videos show discrimination within. Discrimination is the unequal treatment of the minority group but interestingly, discrimination occurs amongst minorities within minority groups. As we saw in the video, Shadeism, the main protagonist was discriminated by her family for being darker; the same happened to most of the other girls in the video. In the video, A Girl Like Me, black girls are discriminated against if they do not have long and manageable hair, lighter skin, etc. Endogamy appears more in Shadeism part 1, because it was stressed that to get a fairer skin child, people tend to look for lighter suitors within their racial group. Lastly, common identity appears in both videos because people within the same race identify with one another because of their similarities but as well acknowledge the disadvantages they have been they are in the same minority
The uniqueness of our minds and our cognition is irreplaceable. Beauty, and reverence of the voice lie in the opinions it resonates. We take aesthetic pleasure in the speech of those who motivate us and adopt from them a number of values and beliefs that we agree with. The likelihood of individuals basing their ideals and decision making process off of accessible and prolonged exposure to certain influences is great. These underlying unidimensional prejudices cause us to be biased in our opinions. Various forms of literature are able to help their readers to become more aware of their prejudices. Though the messages we adopt from these texts, we are able to realize the importance of basing our opinions from multiple sources and perspectives. Literature has traveled great lengths to help me become more cognitive of my prejudices, and encourages me to seek different perspectives before formulating an opinion.
Based on the title of the book alone, it is easy to say that racism is one of the many social issues this book will address. Unlike the normal racism of Caucasians versus African Americans, this book focuses on racism of the black elite versus African Americans, also known as colorism. Colorism is the discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically by others of the same racial group. Margo Jefferson says, “Negroland is my name for a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty” (p. 1).
Racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups which determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to the others. Artist like Kanye West, feel it is socially acceptable to use derogatory terms towards different demographics while others view this disrespectful. One example of racism can be found in Kanye West’s music video “Monster” which thoroughly expresses racial views in todays society that reserves and displays the differences between inferior and superior groups. Throughout West’s music video, he uses offensive lyrics, and disturbing scenes to show
The lyrics from “Formation” state, “My daddy Alabama, Momma Louisiana-You mix that Negro with that Creole make a Texas bamma” (Beyoncé); were directed toward African American women specifically because they have been taught to hate the skin they are in which leads to women using bleaching to become lighter which can be extremely dangerous if it is not used properly. The feud in the black community is light skin vs. dark skin is also addressed with these lyrics it simply states be proud of your bloodline no matter what you may be mixed with. The light skin vs dark skin argument is an end result of the brown paper bag test, which determined who would work the fields and who would work inside the house. The “Paper Bag” test was the determinant factor, if your skin color was the color of the brown paper bag or lighter you were given access to certain privileges and conversely if your skin was darker than the paper bag you were denied those same privileges (Steward). Beyoncé goes on to sing, “I like my baby hair with baby hair and Afros-I like my Negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils” (Beyoncé), this focuses on African American women changing their looks because society tells them that their natural hair and big nose is ugly. Beyoncé personally targets the criticism she received for not “combing” her daughter, Blue Ivy’s, hair stating that if
Coward, Mia "Light Skin, Dark Skin: Colorism in the Black Community." Moyo The. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Oct. 2016.
It is sad to know that we cohabit a nation where you are frowned upon because of the content of your skin. This documentary depicts adolescent Black/ African American girl and boys, and women talking about their melanin. Society imposed on us that to be beautiful you must be of a fairly light complexion, have a sculpted body, perfect bone structure, and have nice non-kinky hair. This image has been imbedded in our society, and resulted in those in the Black/ African American community feeling as is they are ugly, non lovable, unwanted, not smart, less than, lacking self confidence, and wishing that they can change their skin tone (by bleaching) to be accepted and to be considered beautiful.
“Black, white and brown are merely skin colors. But we attach to them meanings and assumptions, even laws that create enduring social inequality.”(Adelman and Smith 2003). When I first heard this quote in this film, I was not surprised about it. Each human is unique compared to the other; however, we are group together based on uncontrollable physical characteristics. Eyes, hair texture, and skin tone became a way to separate who belongs where. Each group was labeled as having the same traits. African Americans were physically superior, Asians were the more intellectual race, and Indians were the advanced farmers. Certain races became superior to the next and society shaped their hierarchy on what genes you inherited.
It is this form of prejudice that has more to do with skin tone rather than race. This mentality oppresses and criticizes those with darker skin tones and those that deviate from one desired appearance. It is for this reason that many Black women have gone out of their way to assimilate to society’s beauty standards or attempt to be “white”. What this simply means is that these Black women have gone to extreme lengths to appear light skinned and to make their natural hair as “white” looking as possible. This is partially due to the racist and colorist mentality in this society but also because there is a huge market in making Black women feel as if they are unworthy of being called beautiful because of their skin tone and hair. In Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair” he states that within his own community each individual spends an average of five thousand dollars a treatment on an attempt to get “good hair” and that the industry that is responsible for pushing this upon Black women is worth about nine billion dollars. The effects of this colorist mentality can be seen throughout history take for example during the Supreme Court case “Brown vs The Board of Education” (1954) in which it was deemed unconstitutional for a State to enact laws that created segregated schools solely for Black Americans. One of the pivotal
The Association of Black Psychologist (ABP) (2013) defines colorism as skin-color stratification. Colorism is described as “internalized racism” that is perceived to be a way of life for the group that it is accepted by (ABP 2013). Moreover, colorism is classified as a persistent problem within Black American. Colorism in the process of discriminatory privileges given to lighter-skinned individuals of color over their darker- skinned counterparts (Margret Hunter 2007). From a historical standpoint, colorism was a white constructed policy in order to create dissention among their slaves as to maintain order or obedience. Over the centuries, it seems that the original purpose of colorism remains. Why has this issue persisted? Blacks have been able to dismantle the barriers faced within the larger society of the United States. Yet, Blacks have failed to properly address the sins of the past within the ethnic group. As a consequence of this failure, colorism prevails. Through my research, I developed many questions: Is it right that this view remain? How does valuing an individual over another cause distribution to the mental health of the victims of colorism? More importantly, what are the solutions for colorism? Colorism, unfortunately, has had a persisted effect on the lives of Black Americans. It has become so internalized that one cannot differentiate between the view of ourselves that Black Americans adopted from slavery or a more personalized view developed from within the ethnicity. The consequences of this internalized view heightens the already exorbitant mental health concerns within the Black community, but the most unfortunate aspect of colorism is that there is contention on how the issue should be solved.
Colorism is a form of discrimination based on the color of someone’s skin tone. Colorism has the greatest impact on the African American culture and community. It is sad that we have to face discrimination within our own ethnic group, Along with every other ethnic group in the United States. Colorism has been passed down generation after generation. It is dated all the way back to the slavery dates. The idea of light skin being better than dark skin has been deeply rooted in our culture. We see colorism in our everyday life on social network, in our workplace, school, and relationship. We don’t even recognize it because we are unfamiliar of the word colorism and its meaning. So we ignore the fact that people are being treated different in their own race because of the shade of their skin. People are taught colorism growing up informally and don’t realize the effect it has on our culture, because we see it as normal and we were brainwashed to think that. Colorism is an issue amongst African Americans that is slowly tearing down the culture as it has been for centuries and still is today.
Have you ever been discriminated against simply because your skin is darker than the next person? Have you ever been told by someone that “your pretty for a dark skin girl or boy?” Have you ever been racist toward your own race? Since long before we or our parents were born, the black community has faced this problem of racism within the same race. In the black community, it is said that if a person has a lighter skin complexion, then they are superior to those with a darker skin complexion.
Our study of racism is related to the video because when the girl walks out of the classroom agitated, Jane Elliot said when one gets tired of being basis of their eye color, one can walk out that door, but when people of color get tired of racism, they can’t just walk out. Being a victim of racism isn’t something anyone wants to be apart of because being picked on because of your race, religion, or ethnicity isn’t something to be happy about because people should be happy of who they are not made of. I personally know people who have been victimized of racism in schools like people from the film too. Witnessing this isn’t something to be proud of because if you don’t it or try to prevent it from happening then you are no better than the person who was giving out the bullying to that person. Hopefully by seeing all these things happening around us involving racism we can finally put an end to it so people’s lives stop being in danger and put on the line
The basis for such injustices being done within a race of people can mainly be associated with the subconscious racists thoughts of individuals. These are the thoughts that lay deep within the crevices of one’s mind. The thoughts that an individual is sometimes ashamed to acknowledge. The art of believing that a lighter shade of black is better is primarily a thought process that has plagued the Black community for far too long. Maintaining such beliefs is what causes the racial divisions between light-skinned and dark-skinned Blacks to persist.
The things we do in these generations are nothing compared to what women did for beauty back in the day. For example, to remove unwanted hair from the 14th through the middle of the 17th centuries, women used quicklime...aka that stuff that gangs use to dissolve bodies! It's hard to believe, but being pale has been all the rage throughout history - until this century. And women did everything they could to make their skin a lovely white shade, the things they did too make...
Krishen, LaTour, and Allishah (2014) define the gap between one 's ideal skin tone and one 's self perceived skin tone as "skin tone tension". This theory can be extended towards the literatures discussed thus far. The gap between the fair skin an individual desires and her actual skin tone is further exaggerated by the advertisements publicized globally. Mass media fenlarges this skin tone tension gap because it is evoking a specific image women "ought" to have. The general message is that pale is more