NOTE: this is coming from a dark skinned mun of color.
Colorism, while not as commonly talked about as racism, is still very very apparent within the community. There is this subtle ignorance with darker toned Original characters ( even some fandom characters ), that affects us in each aspect of our lives, INCLUDING THIS COMMUNITY.
Now, Lighter skinned poc will always experience some form of racism, But hardly experience colorism. Why? well, colorism is really a internalized poc thing. When representing cultural media, 90% of the time they use actors of a lighter skin tone, hardly giving any darker toned poc a chance to shine. All in all, in order to shine as a dark skinned poc, you must have an incredibly gorgeous face, and propped up as a supporting actor/actress. ( Before “18 years a slave”, or your local Oscar award news, did you ever even hear of Lupita Nyongo? Before Thor II, did you ever hear of Idris Elba? because im p sure he’s had several roles before. ) Which is why Viola Davis [how to get away with murder] is a game changer for us, while beautiful, she does not have the idealized incredibly attractive face the media constantly uses. Growing up, I was constantly pushed aside for my lighter skinned sisters, my large nose and lips were often made fun of. the boys of my school would pick and chose which girl to date, because she was light skinned with 2c hair: curly but easily tamed with a hot iron. She was their idealized sense of beauty, perhaps sporting the same features as us, but because she was lighter and therefore much more “innocent and sexy” than us, she would be the perfect match to carry home to his parents. Us darker skinned girls? Not even mentioned once in their conversations.
Going back to the community, the major race that makes up the community’s muses are white, as well as east asian. While i have to let the east asian animated community slide, because the majority of cartoons are made by japan, for japan. But: there are darker toned east asians? Black & latinx asians? Mixed raced asians, known as “hafu” in Japanese society, are often in a awkward situation because they almost feel like they’re never truly one race or the other. A really popular woman known as Ariana Miyamoto, Became the first African american Japanese person to win Miss Japan, this year. ( source ) There are several interviews with many local Japanese people who are highly uncomfortable with her winning because she sported a darker tone. Others? they applauded her for adding diversity and breaking the colorist cultural binds that many east asian countries still have. Yook Ji dam ( source ) as well. Now to white fcs. There’s no doubt that there’s thousands of white muses in our community with Incredibly attractive faces. the most common muse description in our communities are white actresses with dark brown hair/black hair, sporting blue eyes. hell, we got a tag for them on nearly every face claim blog there is! Black? Filipina? Middle eastern women? a post at best, with the same repetitive actresses. Forget about it if they’re darker than a paper bag.
Now onto the pale aesthetic. ( which ill probably make a post abt later aha;; ) The pale aesthetic is a common aesthetic on tumblr, featuring skin lighter than chalk in contrast with black or pink or blue clothes. Have you ever seen a dark skinned person within the pale aesthetic tag? try scrolling for 30 minutes. It almost always features bruised hands ( probably indicating your muse is a fighter or a warrior ) pale arms ( maybe your muse is the fairest of their city? ) and blood, topped off with leather boots. It’s colorist, because it indicates that a darker toned poc is inherently tough, without a sense of purity, that they wont even deserve a damn post. I mean, we hardly see them in churches, paintings etc etc, why put them in a aesthetic post? They probably wont even notice it!
TLDR; What i’m asking is, Take notice around you, please stop pretending this is a “sjw thing” to grab you by the bridges and ruin your fun ( I mean most of yall dont even take notice in your own communities ) and give your darker skinned poc muses a chance. Follow them!! you got an oc, but no dark skinned fcs?? demand them from your local fc blogs! Because even though you believe your not racist, you are contributing to the sticky colorism that’s in this community.
More posts about colorism: [one] [two] [three]
