Every woman wants to believe she's beautiful. Consequently, the definition of beauty is abstract in itself, especially to some black women. Amidst the various unpleasant burdens black women persistently withstand on a daily basis is the fierce, apparently overwhelming divide of colorism. I, like many others, have had my own battles with colorism. I vaguely remember an African girl in my sixth grade class with a light complexion, naturally curly brown hair and green eyes being cruelly ridiculed for being " a contradiction to her culture" by other girls in the class. Solely because of certain features, she was deemed different. Thus, making her not worthy of admission into the association of the other black girls. I can also recall thinking to …show more content…
myself " I am happy that my skin is brown. Not too light. Not to dark.” Honestly, I can not even begin to justify my thought process at that time. If I was to blame it on anything, it would have to be my ignorance. I grew up in a predominately black neighborhood, so prior to that point, it never really occurred to me that colorism even existed. I was certain that all blacks were on the same level. However, as I got older, it became more apparent that some people would regard themselves to be superior due to the pigmentation of their skin. I even started to notice how women with darker complexions were usually casted as the loud/ghetto female, who was regarded as the punchline to a joke in the movie or TV show. On the other hand, women with lighter skin were oftentimes regarded as the beautiful love interest. Individuals may not always recognize it, but this is colorism. It conveys the problematic correlation among the pigmentation of one’s skin and the twisted concept of beauty in the media. Furthermore, the existence of colorism has fabricated a barricade on the union of black women. Instead of coming together and empowering one another, some black women feel the need to be in constant competition in regards to beauty and the superior skin tone. Magazines are infamous for their absence of diversity. Their depiction of beauty usually falls in line with the European characteristics, straight hair and a light complexion. This is not astonishing since many magazines in cooperation with various fashion industries. Light-skinned or Dark-skinned, it is long overdue for young black women to finally own up to their profound resentment towards each other. Instead disregarding one another due to the slightest of infractions, they need to respect the complexities of their distinct features, preferences and experiences. Colorism should be brought to the awareness of young black women through social media and diversity work shops in schools to eliminate the negligent practice of self oppression and ongoing manifestation of internal racism, which has produced a block on the entwining of young black women in society. It is time for young black women to look past the superficial values that the media has inflicted upon them. As a consequence of the prominent appearance of colorism, many articles and documentaries have been written on colorism, the impact it has on society and various solutions to counter against it.
These documentaries and articles should provide sufficient information for me to write my research paper and prove my thesis. The first source is a documentary called “Dark Girls,” which highlights the cultural widespread of colorism and how such prejudice is most prominent within the black community. The documentary also traces the roots of colorism back to slavery, as a survival tactic and the role it plays in society. Another documentary I will consult is Black in America, which also implies colorism is a adverse societal identification that proceeds from slavery and has progressed into the modern world. The next sources are various articles with information about the “paper bag test.” By studying this topic, I will prove that there is a dire need for black women to be educated on the existence of colorism and the impact it has on society. With regards to the social media problem, young black women have the option of joining various organizations such as The Black Girl Project (BGP). The BGP addresses the insinuation of colorism through dynamic peer engagements and workshops to build intercultural and intergenerational relationships between young black women. Websites that will be helpful in the education of colorism is Twitter and Tumblr. On Tumblr, individuals have the options of writing blogs. One Tumblr in particular, afamcolorism.tumblr.com, really stood out to me. On the website are confessions and past experiences with colorism. There is also a question and answer portion of the website where the readers can relate to or ask individual questions. The Huffington Post has several articles discussing colorism. One in particular, “The Problem with Black Women” by Kim Lute, gives a detailed summary of the self-defeating value system in America which is based primarily
on the external features of black women. Without the self-defeating value system, young black women are more likely to form friendships and long lasting relationships. Since social media is one of the larges mediums of communication, the information will always be available for it’s members. What I hope my audience will gain from this paper is the importance of being aware of what colorism is and ways to decline the maturation of colorism. Colorism is real and it is not going anywhere without the corporation of young black women. They have to be educated and willing to take the certain actions necessary to prevent colorism. Virtual diversity workshops and social networks such as Twitter and Instagram (or other online publications) can be used as a positive way to enlighten black women about the ramifications of colorism.
By the twentieth century, slavery had damaged black pride, and made it known that black features were inferior. When it came to black women and their hair, black women desperately wanted to match the standard of “white” beauty. Walker’s solution to this was to create a look that was Afro-American without trying to imitate whites. Walker spoke about beauty emphasizing that to be beautiful does not refer to the complexion of your skin, or the texture of your hair, but having a beautiful mind, soul, and character.
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).
How does one embrace the message and soul of artwork when you can’t get passed the color of skin in the portraits? Two barrier breaking retrospective artists born with more than 2,899 miles between them have beat down the walls in the art world opening up endless opportunities for female artist today. Carrie Mae Weems and Lorna Simpson specialize in catching the viewer’s eye and penetrating their feelings towards issues of culture, politics, equality, and feminism. It is well established that these woman specialize in identifying problems in their artwork, both artists seem to struggle with not being able to avoid the ignorant eye of stereotyping because they use African American Models in their artwork. Carrie Mae Weems doesn’t see her artwork
Within the Black Community there are a myriad of stigmas. In Mary Mebane’s essay, “Shades of Black”, she explores her experiences with and opinions of intraracial discrimination, namely the stigmas attached to women, darker skinned women, and blacks of the working class. From her experiences Mebane asserts that the younger generation, those that flourished under and after the Civil Rights Movement, would be free from discriminating attitudes that ruled the earlier generations. Mebane’s opinion of a younger generation was based on the attitudes of many college students during the 1960’s (pars.22), a time where embracing the African culture and promoting the equality of all people were popular ideals among many young people. However, intraracial discrimination has not completely vanished. Many Blacks do not identify the subtle discriminatory undertones attached to the stigmas associated with certain types of Black people, such as poor black people, lighter/darker complexion black people, and the “stereotypical” black man/woman. For many black Americans aged eighteen to twenty-five, discrimination based on skin color, social class, and gender can be blatant.
The history of slavery has shaped colorism to what it is today. For example, in the article Art Exhibition Exposes Racism by Bernadette Steward there was something known as the “Paper Bag” test which was part of the start to the African American discrimination, “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 1). This test came about in the late twentieth century after slaves were “supposedly free”. This problem goes back to the early 1700’s when “a slave master from the Virgin Islands came at the invitation of some southern slave owners to teach the how to better control their slaves” (Steward 1). The slave master only cared about the stock they were gaining and told the slave owners that killing the slaves was no good for their stock and told the slave owners to turn one group against the other. In other words, make a group believe that they are superior over the other group. The slave master ended up taking African women and produced an offspring that looked incomparably different from the Africans. Because of this, there was a lighter offspring and a change of their features such as straighter hair,
Marita Bonner starts her short essay by describing the joys and innocence of youth. She depicts the carefree fancies of a cheerful and intelligent child. She compares the feelings of such abandonment and gaiety to that of a kitten in a field of catnip. Where the future is opened to endless opportunities and filled with all the dream and promises that only a youth can know. There are so many things in the world to see, learn, and experience that your mind in split into many directions of interest. This is a memorable time in life filled with bliss and lack of hardships.
I believe the best place to start this essay would be with an explanation of Black Power. Black Power according to James H. Cone “is an emotionally charged term that can evoke either angry rejection or passionate acceptance.” Critics see it as blacks hating whites, while advocates see Black Power as the only viable option for black people. Advocates see Black Power meaning black people are taking a dominate role in deciding what the black-white relationship should be in American Society. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. is preaching this right now. He sees that blacks need to go back to their blackness and no longer live their lives as the white society wants them to.
Being a woman is hard work. We many have pressures on us from society to marry, bear children, be an upstanding citizen, and maintain some sort of career, all the while trying to understand our bodies and its changes; being a woman of color, or black woman, it’s even harder. Not only do we have to deal with everything a White woman does, and we also have the added pressure of defying stigmas and stereotypes within our own group of people. What stigma’s you ask? How about not being perceived as ignorant, uneducated, and or “ghetto”. The stereotypical misrepresentations of African-American women and men in popular culture have influenced societal views of Blacks for centuries. The typical stereotypes about Black women range from the smiling, asexual and often-obese Mammy to the promiscuous and the loud, smart mouthed, neck-rolling Black welfare mother is the popular image on reality television. These images portrayed in media and popular culture creates powerful ideology about race and gender, which affects every day experiences of Black women in America.
Cox’s work is exactly the type of discussion that is needed to move the discourse on black women’s bodies from being regarded as part of a stereotype to being regarded as individuals with beautiful differences. This is not a ‘re-mirroring’ of the ‘un-mirrored,’ but rather a creation of a new image, void of previous misconceptions but filled with individuality. The stereotypes concerning black women’s bodies needs to be abolished, not reinvented like Hobson suggests in “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture.”
Racism and discrimination continue to be a prevalent problem in American society. Although minorities have made significant strides toward autonomy and equality, the images in media, specifically television, continue to misrepresent and manipulate the public opinion of blacks. It is no longer a blatant practice upheld by the law and celebrated with hangings and beatings, but instead it is a subtle practice that is perceived in the entertainment and media industries. Whether it’s appearing in disparaging roles or being negatively portrayed in newscasts, blacks continue to be the victims of an industry that relies on old ideas to appeal to the majority. The viscous cycle that is the unconscious racism of the media continues to not only be detrimental to the white consumers, who base what they know about blacks on what is represented on television, but also the black consumers, who grow up with a false sense of identity.
I wasn’t afforded the same opportunities as those who were of fairer skin; I would have to prove myself constantly, often producing exceptionally just to be considered on par with the average work of my peers. For years, the same sentiments haunted me. “You’re pretty for a black girl”, “You talk like a white girl”, or the ever popular “I’m surprised that you’re not ghetto like the other black girls that I know” would play over and over in my mind. In the black community, such remarks have been tolerat...
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.
Racism within the black community is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. In the black community, African-Americans are discriminating against each other, putting those with lighter skin complexions against those whose skin is darker. In the African American community, it’s like a battle of the skin tones. This type of racism is also known as colorism, the belief that those with lighter, fairer skin are treated with a higher respect than those with darker skin, this issue has been happening for a long time within the African American community. This form of racism is more offensive, severe, and different than the common traditional racism.
I say this because of the shift the African American culture has taken especially in the natural hair movement. Today you see more and more African American wearing their natural hair. There are fewer number of people processing/straightening their hair. The beauty of blackness is a topic that is going to receive different viewpoints and explanations. Viewpoints of this topic for various reason the ideas and concepts of the past will come into play when deciding if black is beautiful or not. One’s up brings and family traditions along with personal opinions will be key factors when trying to explain this question. In my opinion black is beautiful because “black” is a part of me. I am a darker skin African American woman who prefers darker skin over lighter skin. I also prefer kinky curl natural hair over processed or straightened hair. The way I live and the way I was raised are all ideas and concepts of what I know to be the meaning of “black”. I believe the slavery/segregation are the gateways and reasons as to why black is seen as beautiful. I say this because African American people never gave up the fight or stop fighting to what they wanted and what they believed which made them beautiful. I also say black is beautiful because from a personal perspective I seen many other races who try to “be/act black” by doing things such as dressing like black people, talking like