Colorism in the Black community

[Race Jones]

I posted this on twitter and received so many responses from people saying they heard this all of their life and it really affected their self-esteem growing up.

Alice Walker defined colourism (also spelled colorism) as “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color” in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. Colourism prevails intraracially and interracially for Black people because of the same reasons; the dominance of Eurocentric beauty myths via White supremacy, external racism by Whites and internalized racism by Blacks, and rigid notions of femininity and masculinity as it pertains to race and complexion.

Professors at San Francisco State University released a study titled “When an ‘Educated’ Black Man Becomes Lighter in the Mind’s Eye” on Tuesday exploring a concept they call “skin tone memory bias.”

The study claims to provide evidence for the subconscious bias where educated black men are remembered as having lighter skin. The claim adds fervor to the implication that successful black people are thought of as exceptions to their race rather than examples of what people within that race are capable of.

In the experiments, students were subliminally shown one of two words -– “ignorant” or “educated” — followed by a photo of a black man’s face. They were then shown seven photos with the same face with varying skin tones ranging from light to dark. The original photo they were shown was also included in the selection. Three photos were darker to varying degrees and three photos were lighter to varying degrees. After being shown these photos, participants were asked to identify the original photo they were shown.




The results showed participants who were shown the word “educated” had more memory errors and often chose the photos with a lighter skin-tone when asked to recall the face they originally saw.

The authors of the study explain this by stating that the findings are: “consistent with the mind’s striving for cognitive consistency or the tendency to attempt to resolve an incompatible cognition in the direction of a stereotype.”

what are your thoughts on colorism?

have you ever experienced hatred from other Black people because of the complexion of your skin?

what are some stereotypes people associate with your complexion?

 

[shutupGabi]

My skin tone is kinda in the middle - not dark, not light. So I personally never experienced it. My mom was a yella bone with "good hair" in a family full of darkies (her dad had Indian in him lmao) so she got that shit alllllll the time throughout her life. Even I make fun of her for it but moreso her hair cuz ain't nothing nigga about them locs lolololol

With that said, I only deal with niggas that fail the paper bag test.


But uhhh yea colorism is wrong and dumb yall
:word?:

 

[Duwop]

Yo, I swear on everything I'm not trying to be difficult....

But this always baffled me...

I'm dark skin.....My mom is much lighter than me, and the kids I played with the majority of my child hood were light brights..And other than jokes cuz we were kids,, no real hurtful shit went down....

No real scars.....I'm always confused as to how this subject has such a strong influence on so many...

My mom dealt with it heavy, but she was born in the 50's so I mean, it comes with the times...

But I just ain't see it like that in the 80s and 90s...

However i must've been sleep cuz it's been terrorizing everyone else

 

[Duwop]

I be thinking like,, what kind of jerks did y'all grow up around that are still obsessed with complexion in the recent decades...

I think the European standard of beauty has been extinct since like the late 70s Pam Grier was chocolate and voluptuous and undeniably gorgeous to a degree where shit just didn't stand up anymore...

I just don't buy it....I'm sorry

 

[Duwop]

I'm also drunk. But I'll still defend my opinion sober

 

[shutupGabi]

Du has a lot to say on this topic

 

[Duwop]

Du has a lot to say on this topic

I mean when it comes to personal preference with dating....get over yourself

If it is dealing with a job, a discrimination lawyer and get your money...

As far as movies and media....look.......we ain't going to hate on any brothers or sisters cuz they beautiful. If your beauty intrigues Hollywood, and that puts money in your pocket, that's black excellence pissing in the eye of the European standard of beauty no matter how you look at it....

Man y'all know I keep it personal....I know a light skin chick with dreads who only fuck with white boys.....And her locks long and luxurious as fuck......there may be a lot of opinions to accompany that, but them dreads prolly came up in convo mad times.......Yet She still got them, and I don't think she switching crowds anytime soon...

My point from that is this......we needa let that colorism shit die.....it's a fruitless argument....

Bury the horse so we can't beat his dead ass no more

 

[SeaSnake]

Colorism is real when i was a little kid we all wanted light skin girls over anything else. I dont consider myself no light skin nigga but ive been called one and be legit offended. Light skin dudes are always viewed as soft in comparison to darkskin brothers. But being considered soft is much easier than being considered dumb and dangerous. I think colorism has a much larger impact on women because women are judged harder on looks.

 

[Golden]

I mean when it comes to personal preference with dating....get over yourself

If it is dealing with a job, a discrimination lawyer and get your money...

As far as movies and media....look.......we ain't going to hate on any brothers or sisters cuz they beautiful. If your beauty intrigues Hollywood, and that puts money in your pocket, that's black excellence pissing in the eye of the European standard of beauty no matter how you look at it....

Man y'all know I keep it personal....I know a light skin chick with dreads who only fuck with white boys.....And her locks long and luxurious as fuck......there may be a lot of opinions to accompany that, but them dreads prolly came up in convo mad times.......Yet She still got them, and I don't think she switching crowds anytime soon...

My point from that is this......we needa let that colorism shit die.....it's a fruitless argument....

Bury the horse so we can't beat his dead ass no more

I agree it's a horse that needs to be buried but u talkin like it's already had funeral arrangements, when that ain't the case.

I recently came across an Asian who became a millionaire selling bleaching creams in his chain of beauty supply stores in a major, cosmopolitan city. Now who do u think is buying that and why? Nobody wakes up n hates their skin. Years of work went into that.

Even in predominately black areas where white ppl ain't around, kids r still told shit like don't stay out in the sun too long. Then they go to school n they gravitate toward throwing around insults like burnt . Where do u think they even learned that dark skin could be insulting? They're innocent kids but they're also sponges n reflections of their environment.

Sometimes color ain't even mentioned, like one sis being lauded as the pretty one n the darker one noticing n wanting to look more like her. Same with a high school friend group where the light skin one gets more attention from juvenile boys or something. Or being told "you're pretty for a dark skin girl".

Beauty standards impact women more than men so that might be why you're in a position to downplay it. U say colorism ain't been an active thing in recent decades, but HellCzar is still in his 20s n honest about his experiences on both sides of colorism, both placing light skin on a pedestal @ one point n perceiving light skin to be soft on men.

Colorism is real when i was a little kid we all wanted light skin girls over anything else. I dont consider myself no light skin nigga but ive been called one and be legit offended. Light skin dudes are always viewed as soft in comparison to darkskin brothers. But being considered soft is much easier than being considered dumb and dangerous. I think colorism has a much larger impact on women because women are judged harder on looks.

Also, it used to be common for wome to say they want dark skin men bcuz they're more masculine n light skin guys look soft or are "pretty boys". What do u think that implies for dark skin women within earshot?

It's even embedded in linguistics. Light being substituted with fair. Cleansing cream ads showing the after as lighter than the before.

It isn't as rife or as open as it used to be but it is very much alive.

Downplaying it or acting like it isn't alive anymore isn't gonna make it go away.

 

[Old Man Cain]

Yo, I swear on everything I'm not trying to be difficult....

But this always baffled me...

I'm dark skin.....My mom is much lighter than me, and the kids I played with the majority of my child hood were light brights..And other than jokes cuz we were kids,, no real hurtful shit went down....

No real scars.....I'm always confused as to how this subject has such a strong influence on so many...

My mom dealt with it heavy, but she was born in the 50's so I mean, it comes with the times...

But I just ain't see it like that in the 80s and 90s...

However i must've been sleep cuz it's been terrorizing everyone else

It's mostly fake outrage per usual

 

[SeaSnake]

What is fake outrage?

 

[JUDAH]

This is real. My wife is dark skinned and tells me stories about it all the time. She loves her complexion now, but as a child she used to get teased about it all the time. She loves to swim, but It got so bad that she stopped going to the pool to swim because she didn't want to get "darker" when she was like 11.

 

[Goldie]

Even as a kid I always fuck with dark and light skin chicks, I never viewed light>> dark. It might be cuz I grew up in a very black area so there were always bad ass dark skin chicks around.

 

[Old Man Cain]

What is fake outrage?

Fake outrage is when something minute as this is made larger than it really is. For every 5 stories of "I was teased because I was darker/lighter than so and so" there's a 10 more stories of people never ever dealing with this issue. It's systematic ways of breaking ourselves down by falling into this trap of that a skin tone is better or worse. Yet all the while WE(people of color) are quick to fall for the okie doke over the stupidest of things BUT not knowing or not paying attention that our whiter skinned counterparts are doing their best to emulate us.

These type of stories should not even see the light of day IMO WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS. I grew up being called red my entire and not one iota of a fuck was given because I knew my worth I loved me (a whole lot) so I don't ever feel any type of sympathy for silly shit like this. Our skin is a blessing act accordingly

 

[SeaSnake]

I see what you saying dont give it life. But denying it that its a real thing and impacts people isnt going to help much. Plus being lightskin is an advantage in this world believe it or not.

 

[Old Man Cain]

I see what you saying dont give it life. But denying it that its a real thing and impacts people isnt going to help much. Plus being lightskin is an advantage in this world believe it or not.

Ask a lightskin person and watch the answer you get.

Again that's the "Lynch Mentality"

 

[SeaSnake]

I dont gotta ask them the advantage can be seen from outside. If i ask a white person do they get privilege for beimg white of course they would deny it. Anybody with privilege does. Lynch mentality would be wanting war wiyh light skin and darkskin niggas. Admitting a privilege isnt division

 

[Goldie]

Great debate taking place. Waiting on @Cain rebuttal.

 

[Old Man Cain]

I dont gotta ask them the advantage can be seen from outside. If i ask a white person do they get privilege for beimg white of course they would deny it. Anybody with privilege does. Lynch mentality would be wanting war wiyh light skin and darkskin niggas. Admitting a privilege isnt division

White people still see US ALL as niggas though and we're just all giddy to fall in line with it and let it trickle down in to our mindsets even today. If you give negative thoughts(in this case topics) power they become a reality. Do you really think you're less than then next man because he has lighter shade of nigga than you do? Things like lightskin feelings, black is ugly, paper bag test are all used to break US but we rather fall in the trap and say that lighter shaded nigga had privilege over my black ass.

HE/SHE didn't

This is just like the house nigga and the field nigga issue no matter what you're still deemed a NIGGA but our dumbasses is arguing over which nigga we'd rather be the nigga who gets to eat in the house or the nigga who gets to outside. You're getting your ass beat, mind beat just the same, and your children are looked at as not as worthy. We all dying for acceptance from others and not looking in the mirror accepting ourselves first

 

[Golden]

White people still see US ALL as niggas though and we're just all giddy to fall in line with it and let it trickle down in to our mindsets even today. If you give negative thoughts(in this case topics) power they become a reality. Do you really think you're less than then next man because he has lighter shade of nigga than you do? Things like lightskin feelings, black is ugly, paper bag test are all used to break US but we rather fall in the trap and say that lighter shaded nigga had privilege over my black ass.

HE/SHE didn't

This is just like the house nigga and the field nigga issue no matter what you're still deemed a NIGGA but our dumbasses is arguing over which nigga we'd rather be the nigga who gets to eat in the house or the nigga who gets to outside. You're getting your ass beat, mind beat just the same, and your children are looked at as not as worthy. We all dying for acceptance from others and not looking in the mirror accepting ourselves first

all of what ur saying is right in theory but in reality, colorism does exist. it's an element of self hate and a holdover from divide and rule. just because it isn't openly discussed doesn't mean it isn't an issue. the proof is in the pudding, whitening creams n papaya soap n shit wouldn't be a million/billion dollar industry were colorism not a reality. if all black people (n people of color at large) embraced and accepted ourselves/others of that race, it wld be a thing of the past. burying the topic from discussions n dismissing it as fake outrage won't change the realities of colorism.

when I was younger natural hair wasn't a topic of discussion. women didn't talk about being talked down to or conditioned to hate their hair in its natural state. fast forward to the present day n now I hear people in the workplace talking about going natural n discussing the moments their moms started relaxing their hair because it was "too nappy". ur colorism argument could be applied to black hair n the lack of open dialogue that existed for a long time about it.

u r right that white people see us all as niggas ending in an r. however, there is plenty of evidence to show that there r still biases. did u not see the examples race jones dropped? there's a brilliant black psychologist at Stanford who is known for her work on colorism. I need to find her name again, but I recall reading that lighter skin leads to lighter prison sentences. still more likely to catch one than a white person, but not as likely to be punished to the extent of a dark skinned black person. so white people being complexion-blind isn't wholly the truth.

lets take a non-black example. India has huge colorism problems n a thriving bleaching industry. colonialism ended in the late 40s, they have a fast growing middle class n manufacturing industry, n they have at least a couple generations who never experienced white rule. n they're still dealing with self hate n complexion issues. do u think acting like it aint a reality undoes all that? cuz that is simplistic af.