The Pros And Cons Of Colorism

Colorism has been prevalent though out history and even alive today in contemporary situation. Colourism privileges those that are of a lighter skin and disadvantage those who are dark skin. Hill (2002) argues that, “This stratification based on skin complexion originated with the enslavement of Africans by Europeans. Referred to as "White supremacy ideology," Hill explains that the institution of slavery was justified by a belief system that marked whiteness as superior to all”. (p 79). White supremacy have created and normalized this phenomena. What then is colorism? According to Margaret Hunter (2007), “Colorism is the process of discrimination that privileges light-skinned people of color over their dark-skinned counterparts (p. 237). Hunter

The stereotypes associated with dark skin have cause systematic discrimination that has racialized dark skin minorities putting resulting in a decrease of employment opportunities. Dark tone individuals find it very difficult to find jobs worthy of their qualification. The categorization have put dark minorities at risk for opportunities. According to Jennifer Hoshschild & Vesla Weaver (2008) argues, “Racial minorities with dark skin in the United States have been disproportionately disadvantaged for centuries. Relative to their lighter-skinned counterparts, dark-skinned blacks have lower levels of education, income and job status” (p. 644). The authors are reemphasising how rigid those assumption are embedded in society thereby causing the marginalization of dark tone individuals to progress in

This research was based on skin tone using white and non-white student in a predominant white college and their experiences with colorism. Researcher Shane Heckshal (2013) took a, “Sample mix of 12 white and non-white students at a predominantly white college campus. Each participant was given a short questionnaire with six questions and the data was collected on an anonymous basis. Data was analyzed for patterns and implications and the results generally show that 41% experienced colorism, approximately 16% did not experience colorism nor think it was a problem, while approximately 16% were non-white and the majority of respondents were at least “aware” of colorism” (p, 1). In the research 41% of dark skin, which is a little less than 50% recognizes that colorism is a problem and differentiated treatment were