{"id":20324,"date":"2020-12-12T22:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T02:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=20324"},"modified":"2020-12-15T15:17:14","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T19:17:14","slug":"what-is-colorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-colorism\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Colorism? Discriminating by Skin Color"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is colorism and what are some colorism examples? How do racism and colorism interact?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many people and cultures, light skin is considered better than dark skin. So, what is colorism? It is a type of skin-based discrimination and is related to racism because it builds on the perception that White people are better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on for the answer to the question, “what is colorism?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What Is Colorism?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLight\u201d and \u201cDark\u201d refer to the varying skin colors of people of color. Light people have straighter hair and lighter skin, but they aren\u2019t White. Dark people have bigger noses and lips, kinky hair, and darker skin. These two groups are made up of people from many nationalities, ethnicities, and races\u2014membership is assigned based on physical appearance. So, what is colorism?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colorism<\/strong> is a combination of racist policies and ideas that causes and maintains racial inequities between Light and Dark people, the main idea being the belief Light people are superior to Dark people. <\/strong>Sometimes Light people are lumped in with White people when needed to maintain a majority. Here are two colorism examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example #1: In 2007, sports commentator Don Imus said that Tennesse\u2019s Light basketball players were cute while Rutger\u2019s Dark ones were \u201cnappy-headed hos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example #2: White female students are half as likely to be suspended as Dark ones, but White and Light female students have the same likelihood of suspension. This is a colorist perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is colorism and does it have merit? The truth is, there is no hierarchy of skin color.<\/strong> No color is better, worse, or more or less beautiful than any other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racism and Colorism<\/strong>: Historical Context<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In 1680, Morgan Godwyn wrote that Black people think as well of themselves as Europeans think of themselves. Enlightenment intellectuals tried to change this\u2014Johan Joachim Winckelmann wrote that African Americans need to get it into their heads that beauty is White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is colorism’s origin? In the US, it was popularized by Samual Stanhope Smith.<\/strong> In 1787, he spoke to the American Philosophical Society about color. He said that domestic servants who worked closer to White people became more attractive\u2014Lighter\u2014and the people who worked in the fields and were farthest away had strange bodies and hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slaveholders agreed that there was a color hierarchy. They thought that the Lighter an enslaved person was, the better they were, and the more they paid for them. Light people often worked in the house, while Dark people worked outside in the fields because slaveholders thought that Light people were more skilled. The hierarchy was White, Light, Dark, and then Animal. (However, some enslavers thought that \u201cmulattos\u201d\u2014mixed-race people\u2014were worse than Dark people.) This was furthering the combination of racism and colorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After emancipation in 1865, colorism lived on. White communities tried to keep Black people, both Light and Dark, away from them, and Light people tried to keep Dark people away from them.<\/strong> For example, in the 19th century, \u201cBlue Vein\u201d societies came into existence. These societies excluded anyone whose skin was too dark to see the blue of their veins through it. Light was a privilege that people wanted to keep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dark people didn\u2019t want to associate with Light people either. Three rules came into effect:<\/p>\n\n\n\n