Dark People In American Culture

“Across cultures, darker people suffer most. Why?” This question was on one of the the 47 jumpsuits Andre 3000 wore during the Outkast Festival Tour at Art Basel Miami Beach near the end of last year. To this day I still think of it. I have never really come across a quote that struck me as so true yet so absolutely heartbreaking.

In thinking about the history of the world and the present you could easily find truth in that quote. It is especially true in the culture of today. The treatment of black people in America or any other country is a great example but even within other ethnic groups the darker people will suffer. Look at India, a place that is flooded with beautiful brown skin in many different shades much like black people. One of the best selling items and major aspect of their culture is the product “ Fair in Lovely”. Just as it sounds this product is used to lighten the skin. The self esteem of many darker skinned Indian women were tarnished by the product's popularity. It now seemed that

In Latin and South America, light-skin is seen as more attractive. In Mexico and in Brazil, light-skin represents power. Even in Hispanic American culture people of the darker skin complexion seem to be a minority with a minority. This is because those hispanic people are considered to be “ white-passing”. This means that even if the ethnic background holds no difference one person will still be treated differently based on their facial structure and the lightness of their skin. This can take effect on their culture because the people who are considered “white-passing” could more than likely develop a superiority complex of some degree. This is something called colorism and, like race, it is a social construct based on nothing but appearance. In black culture colorism is even more prominent and is still a problem not only within the black society, but within society as a