Dark Skin Women Research Paper

2026 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How colorism affects the black community

The world we live in doesn't accept us, the question I find myself thinking about the most is, why don't we accept ourselves? Is it really a misfortune to be born with a darker skin complexion? Colorism have been living in our community since slavery. It was back then were the lighter skinned black people got the privilege of working in the house completing jobs like cooking and cleaning as a house slave and the darker skinned slaves had to work out in the harsh fields. During the Jim Crow era churches, fraternities, sororities and more used the “Brown paper bag test”. This infamous test involved placing a brown paper bag next to your face and if you were any darker than that bag you were not accepted, these are examples of colorism in that …show more content…

The stereotypes about darker skin women were insulting, but the stereotype regarding the lighter skin black woman was not an insult in fact, the meaning behind the joke is that lighter skin women have so many people texting us and a bunch of guys trying to get at us that we never have time to text back. This common “light skin” joke implies that lighter skin women are more desirable than darker skin woman. When it comes to perceptions we live in a world that perceives dark skin as evil, threatening, foreign,unattractive, angry, and objectified. But because my lightness is associated with whiteness I'm perceived as more beautiful, educated, and less threatening. “Colorism is institutional” (@MyBlackMatters, Taylor Lamb). Darkskin women have a less likely chance of getting hired over a lighter skinned girl. Dark skinned women who commit the same crime as light skinned women serve longer prison sentences. Being the age I am now and observing the way the world interacts with each other i see just because of my skin color I have the privilege that my sisters around me don't because of the systematic oppression they experience and in my light skin, and even in the way I speak I represent whiteness the oppressor. Because of how we perceive people based off of their skin color, it is evident the lighter you are the more opportunities you …show more content…

“I just prefer light skin woman”. “Dark skin women just look wrong next to me”. These are one of many excuses black men use of why they are not with darker skinned woman and why they have white women as wives. Many celebrities we see today that are black men are married to white woman including: Tiger woods, Reggie Bush,Sidney Poitier, Kid Cudi, Hank Baskett, Kanye West and many more. The documentary told stories from darkskin black women who say black men would lust after them in private but pick a light skin woman to show off in

Show More
Related

  • Dark Girls Summary

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning they laid a solid foundation of how color played a large part in African-American history back to the days of slavery. Giving that history is critical to understanding how colorism started within the culture. Continuing on, the documentary build a story line of the impact in society to how the issue is dealt with within the family structure. They spoke to men on their views of dark women and women on their views of dark men. One of the interesting segments was the global impact of colorism. The director’s ability to show examples of colorism in the Korean and Thai culture shed an additional perspective on the

    Read More

  • Personal Narrative: Being African American Guyanese Immigrants

    424 Words  | 1 Pages

    My parents were proud of being African American Guyanese immigrants, and they often speak about their grandparents who were Portuguese, British, and from St. Vincent. My parent’s sibling didn’t all look alike and their ancestors didn’t either and I never once heard them speak badly about them being lighter or darker. In fact, my father would boast about having ancestors that are White, Spanish and Indian. Gaining a sense of ethnic and racialized self both worked in my favor and against me. I live in a neighborhood surrounded by many different ethnicity, nationalities, and race. Along the years it changed, less and less Caucasian people lived in the neighborhood. I was raised around people of many different racial identity and ethnicities, this allowed me to accept them because I was exposed as an adolescent. My parents shared friends of various races in which they spoke highly about and they never instilled in me that I shouldn’t accept a certain race. However, I wish they taught me how to deal with those that are not so accepting of African

    Read More

  • Couloruism in American in 1800´s: The Paper Bag test

    1634 Words  | 4 Pages

    Back in the early 1800’s, the color of one’s skin mattered amongst African Americans and Caucasian people. There was infidelity between the Caucasian slave owners and the African American slaves. Of course, the outcome of that produced a fairer toned child. In most cases the child could pass as white. The mixed toned kids got to be inside doing housework, while the dark Negroes worked in the fields, under extraneous work conditions,”their dark-toned peers toiled in the fields”(Maxwell). From the early 1800’s to modern day, there is controversy that light or bi-racial African Americans are better than dark colored African Americans. African Americans had to go through tests to see if they were able to receive priviledges that white people received,”light-skinned African Amerians receive special priviledges based off of their skin shade”(Maxwell). If an African American did not receive the priviledges similar to white people then they would try to change themselves to fit in,”African Americans are using bleaching creams so that they can make their skin lighter , just to achieve the standard beauty”(Brooke). As much as one will not one to discuss this topic, statistics shows how people are more lenient towards light and fair skin tones.Light oor fair coloredAmericans that poseess Caucasian features are prefiebly preffered.

    Read More

  • Colorism In School Daze

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    It’s not as apparent as it was in the twentieth century, but it’s still surfaced. For example, in the journal The Persistent Problem of Colorism: Skin Tone, Status, and Inequality by Margaret Hunter, she really analyzed what colorism means in difference ethnicities. With Africans Americans Hunter says “lighter-skinned people of color enjoy substantial privileges that are still unattainable to their darker-skinned brothers and sisters. In fact, light-skinned people earn more money, complete more years of schooling, live in better neighborhoods, and marry higher-status people than darker-skinned people of the same race or ethnicity (Hunter 237). Hunter goes on to explain more in depth about how colorism works and what it is as well as the stereotypes that go with it. For example many people think that colorism is only a ‘black or Latino problem’ when it all started with whites and people with similar color (Hunter 238). As an African American myself and being a part of the “darker skinned” category I have always had struggles since I was a young age. I have always noticed other girls were like me, but of a lighter tone, but it’s never changed the way I think about them or was never really apparent when I was young. Things started to change when was in middle and high school. I noticed a difference in the way males looked at African American women of darker tone. There was already an issue with

    Read More

  • The Brown Paper Bag Test

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    Brown Paper Bag Test was a discriminatory act within the African-American community in the United States that was based on skin color. The brown paper bag was used as a measurement to determine whether or not an individual could receive access to certain privileges. Individuals were given preference if having a skin tone lighter than a brown paper bag. The test used to take place in the 20th century in many social institutions such as African-American sororities, fraternities, and churches. In addition, Brown Paper Bags were used in multi-racial social events, at which only individuals with complexions at least as light as the color of a brown paper bag were admitted.

    Read More

  • Research on Women of Color

    1978 Words  | 4 Pages

    Overarching research on women of color (African American, Native American, Latina/Hispanic, Pacific Islander American, and Asian American) and the impact of racism and sexism as interrelated constructs on their academic aspirations is limited. A few scholarly pieces that explore racism and sexism as intersecting constructs, primarily focus on understanding the relationship between these isms and the mental health of women of color (DeBlaere & Bertsch, 2013; DeBlaere, Brewster, Bertsch, DeCarlo, Kegel, & Presseau, 2013;Martin, Boadi, Fernandes,Watt, & Robinson-Wood, 2013).More specifically, extant literature suggests one of the major consequences women of color experience in relation to racist and sexist events is psychological distress, which can be understood as concerns including depression, low self-esteem, and self-hatred, among others (King, 2003; Hipolito-Delgado, 2010).

    Read More

  • The Dark Girls Documentary

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    Your skin pigment or the amount of melanin in you skin has the ability to change your whole outlook on life and determines if you will possibly have fewer or more challenges to face during your lifespan. The amount for melanin that an individual has according to society can determine if you are either the ugly duckling through societies eyes or if you are a beautiful swan. In this short paper I will be discussing the Dark Girls documentary.

    Read More

  • Black Male Stereotypes

    1538 Words  | 4 Pages

    In The Black Male: Handbook: A Blueprint for life. Kevin Powell says “Images of black men in the media have been distorted for long in the country that many of us don’t even recognize dangerous images when we see them. We are desensitized to them because we them so much in popular culture, and because they’ve...

    Read More

  • The Role of Social Movements in Fighting Racism

    1326 Words  | 3 Pages

    Discrimination has always been there between blacks and whites. Since the 1800s where racial issues and differences started flourishing till today, we can still find people of different colors treated unequally. “[R]acial differences are more in the mind than in the genes. Thus we conclude superiority and inferiority associated with racial differences are often socially constructed to satisfy the socio-political agenda of the dominant group”(Heewon Chang,Timothy Dodd;2001;1).

    Read More

  • Colorism in the Black Community

    2707 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Racism Within The Black Community

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Terror Management Theory

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many may agree with the old saying that “beauty is only skin deep,” but does beauty come in a particular shade of color? This question is very debatable for many, but the fact of the matter is that human beings are born in array of skin tones. These differences in skin tone are used to categorize people into different ethnic groups. Lopez proposes that“ethnic identity is a type of group identity that is related to a better outcome because it provides a sense of belonging or cultural embeddedness.”(p.102) Dr. Ronald Hall (2006) suggests that in America minorities or people of color are called black in relative terms to the majority who are of European descent i.e. white. Some studies have discovered that a more “ethnic appearance” is usually assessed by a darker skin color i.e, black and is associated with a worse outcome in life (Lopez, 2008) In contrast, beauty, wealth and overall appeal are associated with physiological proximity to the white power structure i.e., light skin. (Hall, 2006) It appears as though desirable skin complexions are culturally relative.

    Read More

  • Movie Crash Theme

    1832 Words  | 4 Pages

    In actuality, both people are black, one just happens to be of a lighter complexion. Race and racism, the film shows limits one’s ability to experience new individuals and ideas. The first being to not race to judgment because most likely they are not true. By not taking the time to get to know the person, one is only looking at a person at face value.

    Read More

  • Essay On Colorism And Racism

    895 Words  | 2 Pages

    The four different types of racism that exist today are the “aware/blatant, the aware/covert, the unaware/unintentional, and lastly the unaware/self-righteous” (Yamato 66). Colorism is prejudice and discrimination against individuals with darker skin tone. Colorism typically happens between individuals of the same ethnic and racial groups. In society today, colorism exists due to the accumulated experiences of racism, “which can generate questions and doubts in the minds of people of color about their place in a predominately white society” (Osajima141). Throughout this semester, one question that has come to mind was, “Why does colorism exist within the black community?”

    Read More

  • Colorism Essay

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some people may think that colorism is not an issue because everyone should be allowed to have their own opinion of beauty, and that’s true. What’s not true, is that colorism is the right way to approach society. I know colorism is an issue because we are teaching society a form of racism within our own race. America tries to be the place where everyone feels like we belong, in the land of the free, How are people supposed to feel as if they belong in a place where we are taught that one shade of black is bad, and one shade of black is good? Colorism is an issue, because we are teaching kids that they cannot be comfortable in their own skin just because there is someone lighter than them. Light skin should not be a symbol of beauty. Colorism is an issue because we are discriminating against our own race, just because we want to be the best, but what determines who is the best or not? Skin does not determine that someone is better than someone else, so yes, colorism is an issue. Colorism is an issue because people of the same race are given different jail sentences for the same exact crime. Colorism is an issue because we are teaching society that we have a preference of skin tone within an ethnic

    Read More

More about Dark Skin Women Research Paper

Open Document