Colorism Research Paper

Colorism is a racialized system that is closely intertwined with racism, mirrors white supremacy, and for African-Americans, it is a lingering artifact from slavery (Hunter, 2007). Slave masters stratified slaves and allocated status upon their skinned color, which created a hierarchy and, in some instances, tension among slaves. The purpose of this stratification was for the slave master to prevent an alliance among slaves which had potential to lead to rebellions (Lynch, 1712). Light-skinned slaves were usually the product of African-American women being raped by their white slave master, therefore multiracial slaves shared similar physical features to that of their white slave masters (Hill, 2002). Offspring’s of rape were more likely to

be a house slave whereas the dark-skinned slaves mainly worked from dawn to dust on the plantation fields. Although light skinned slaves were not doing as much of the physical labor, they were still a slave under the pertinent eye of whites and were highly susceptible to beatings, rape, and racism. Multiracial slaves spent more time around the slave master, therefore, they were they were perceived as more beautiful, intelligent, ethical, kind, and civilized than dark-skinned slaves because light-skinned slaves were more like Whites than African-Americans (Myrdall,1944). The ideals of the slave master to separate slaves based on skin complexion are now coined to be colorism today.
The intent of colorism, detailed in the 1712 William Lynch speech, was to maintain domination over slaves by creating distrust, envy, and stratification based on minute differences, such as skinned color, age, gender, and hair type.

Lynch’s tactic was to replace the physical chains and whips of slavery with psychological tethers of oppression that had the possibility to last for 300 years (Lynch, 1712). Colorism operates in contemporary African-American community today through the perpetuation of the standards of beauty, superiority, and identity established during European colonialism. In reference to beauty, lighter skinned Black women are often perceived as more attractive than darker skinned African-American women (Hill, 2002). In addition, there is often an assumption that lighter skinned African-American women must be interracial due to their physical features (i.e. green eyes, loose texture hair) resembling that of a White person. However, people fail to realize that by making this assumption, it is suggesting that African-American women are beautiful only if they are mixed with another race that is not of African descent. From slavery until now, the identity of African-American women has been suppressed by those who see her as a subordinate to themselves, which cripples African-American women’s ability to know, accept, and love herself as fulfillment of her

dignity.