An Essay on the destructive impact colorism has on Women in the African Diasporic Community
Skin colour has always been a prevalent issue amongst society. The recent increase of police-related murders has only further solidified the existence of this issue. As a result, movements such as “#BlackLivesMatter” have been formed to provide solace for people of colour worldwide as well as bringing awareness to society’s pigmentocracy. A simpler way of describing this issue is with the term “colorism”.
Originally coined in 1982 by Alice Walker, colorism occurs when people receive different treatment based on societal assumptions attached with a particular hue of skin colour.The origins of colorism date all the way back to the slave era, like most forms of discrimination. During the slave era, masters would often allow the lighter skinned black slaves work within their homes whilst dark skinned slaves were forced to work outdoors. After the slave era had ended, the paper bag test was created. With the use of a brown paper bag, your skin complexion would be compared to the colour of the bag. If your colour was similar to or lighter than the bag, you would then be awarded certain privileges, commonly entrance to churches or fraternities and sororities. The paper bag test also determined your worth and beauty. A common misconception is that colorism is not prevalent within the African Diasporic community, more commonly referred to as the black community.On the contrary, Colorism does exist within the community and these worth indicators influenced it heavily and continue to destructively impact the community, specifically the women of the community. The destructive pattern of colorism has and continues to affect black women’s level of self esteem by altering their perceptions of beauty and self worth , affect their health and form a divide between black women all because of the hue of their skin. An issue such as this will continue to hinder the success of the African Diaspora if not changed.
Forms of exclusion and pigmentocracy, such as the paper bag test, have imbedded a sense of lower self worth among darker skinned women who do not conform to these standards. In 1995, Tracey Robinson and Janie Ward conducted a study on 123 black teenagers between the ages of eleven and nineteen. The study examined the impact of skin colour on African American adolescent and revealed that complexion was influentially to one’s self esteem. Another study by Gina Wingood (2002) showed that black girls who found themselves aesthetically unpleasing felt that they wouldn’t have control over condom use during sexual interactions or even control over who their sexual partners would be. And Tiffany Townsend’s 2010 study highlighted that young black women tend to adopt risky behaviors to be seen as sexually desirable due to their preconceived standards related to colorism. Typically, appearance is the main evaluation of women. Therefore, the effect of colorism destructs the self-esteem and alter self-worth of females quite significantly.
Along with low self worth, colorism also carries some negative health effects on black women. Relating to low self worth, many black women within the african diaspora result in the use of pigment altering products and skin bleaching. Typically the words “lightening” or “whitening” can be found on the labels and come in various forms such as soaps, lotions, creams and gels. Like the labels say, these products lighten your skin by reducing the pigment, also referred to as melanin, in your skin.Unfortunately, skin bleaching is a popular tool amongst the black community with 77% of Nigerian women admitting to using bleaching creams, according to the World Health Organization. This process is extremely harsh on the skin and is known to cause premature aging in the skin mercury poisoning, permanently make your skin thinner, and increase the chances of developing skin cancer and a variety of other skin disorders. This research proves that the impact of colorism affects the health of women in the black community destructively.
Colorism has a destructive impact between the relationships of black women on a female to female basis. With the media continuously praising the light skinned black women over the dark-skinned black women, a divide between the two comes as no surprise. A solidifier of the female to female relationship conflict would be an interview of a dark-skinned black woman conducted by Margaret Hunter in 2005. The woman, named Belinda, said:
In terms of female–female relationships, I think color affects how we treat each other. Like if you’re lighter and I think you’re better, and I think the guys want you, then I won’t treat you nicely. I’ll take every opportunity to ignore you, or not tell you something, or keep you out of my little group of friends, because really I feel threatened, so I want to punish you because you have it better than me.
As she stated, Belinda’s assumption is that if someone is lighter than her, they are better than her and automatically, she does not want to associate with them. This is because colorism grants lighter skinned people advantages in society, such as being more favorable to males, like Belinda mentioned. This causes a divide between black women and causes them to develop certain stereotypes making them want to exclude each other due to the destructive impact of colorism.
In conclusion, due to the historical past of the black community, colorism is quite prevalent within it. Colorisms destructive nature has affected black people, particularly black women, for centuries and must be stopped for the community to thrive and succeed. There are a variety of ways to “unlearn” and destroy the system of colorism. Recently, the issue of colorism has been brought to light by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry in the documentary Dark Girls. With the help of a variety of darker skinned female celebrities, colorism is further explained and the film also provided ways to combat colorism. These colorism combatting devices, per se, focus on ridding our society of derogatory terms that are commonly attach to different skin tones such as “redbone” or “yellow bone”, as well as using uplifting terms when referring to one another. Colorism can be dismantled by teaching these colorism combatting devices to our children and generations to come.
Forms of exclusion and pigmentocracy, such as the paper bag test, have imbedded a sense of lower self worth among darker skinned women who do not conform to these standards. In 1995, Tracey Robinson and Janie Ward conducted a study on 123 black teenagers between the ages of eleven and nineteen. The study examined the impact of skin colour on African American adolescent and revealed that complexion was influentially to one’s self esteem. Another study by Gina Wingood (2002) showed that black girls who found themselves aesthetically unpleasing felt that they wouldn’t have control over condom use during sexual interactions or even control over who their sexual partners would be. And Tiffany Townsend’s 2010 study highlighted that young black women tend to adopt risky behaviors to be seen as sexually desirable due to their preconceived standards related to colorism. Typically, appearance is the main evaluation of women. Therefore, the effect of colorism destructs the self-esteem and alter self-worth of females quite significantly.
Along with low self worth, colorism also carries some negative health effects on black women. Relating to low self worth, many black women within the african diaspora result in the use of pigment altering products and skin bleaching. Typically the words “lightening” or “whitening” can be found on the labels and come in various forms such as soaps, lotions, creams and gels. Like the labels say, these products lighten your skin by reducing the pigment, also referred to as melanin, in your skin.Unfortunately, skin bleaching is a popular tool amongst the black community with 77% of Nigerian women admitting to using bleaching creams, according to the World Health Organization. This process is extremely harsh on the skin and is known to cause premature aging in the skin mercury poisoning, permanently make your skin thinner, and increase the chances of developing skin cancer and a variety of other skin disorders. This research proves that the impact of colorism affects the health of women in the black community destructively.
Colorism has a destructive impact between the relationships of black women on a female to female basis. With the media continuously praising the light skinned black women over the dark-skinned black women, a divide between the two comes as no surprise. A solidifier of the female to female relationship conflict would be an interview of a dark-skinned black woman conducted by Margaret Hunter in 2005. The woman, named Belinda, said:
In terms of female–female relationships, I think color affects how we treat each other. Like if you’re lighter and I think you’re better, and I think the guys want you, then I won’t treat you nicely. I’ll take every opportunity to ignore you, or not tell you something, or keep you out of my little group of friends, because really I feel threatened, so I want to punish you because you have it better than me.
As she stated, Belinda’s assumption is that if someone is lighter than her, they are better than her and automatically, she does not want to associate with them. This is because colorism grants lighter skinned people advantages in society, such as being more favorable to males, like Belinda mentioned. This causes a divide between black women and causes them to develop certain stereotypes making them want to exclude each other due to the destructive impact of colorism.
In conclusion, due to the historical past of the black community, colorism is quite prevalent within it. Colorisms destructive nature has affected black people, particularly black women, for centuries and must be stopped for the community to thrive and succeed. There are a variety of ways to “unlearn” and destroy the system of colorism. Recently, the issue of colorism has been brought to light by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry in the documentary Dark Girls. With the help of a variety of darker skinned female celebrities, colorism is further explained and the film also provided ways to combat colorism. These colorism combatting devices, per se, focus on ridding our society of derogatory terms that are commonly attach to different skin tones such as “redbone” or “yellow bone”, as well as using uplifting terms when referring to one another. Colorism can be dismantled by teaching these colorism combatting devices to our children and generations to come.