Hi I'm doing my final on colorism and was wondering if you could give me some valuable stuff that you thought should be in it. It's a human rights violation final and I thought I should ask you for help bc you helped me realize what colorism is. Thank you ❤️❤️❤️
I would love to help with this!
Colorism is everywhere within Black and Non-Black POC communities. We’re talking from courtrooms to pornos. It’s everywhere. There was a restaurant in Atlanta that was hiring lightskinned Black women only at one point (I had a screenshot of the ad but I have no idea where it is on my external hard drive.) An interesting research point is the crimes of Black women and how darker Black women are sentenced harsher than lightskinned Black women (I was once in court for a speeding ticket, going 7mph OVER the limit, they put me on drug testing probation for a year and I got slapped with a $2500 fine. This lightskinned girl had a 2nd DUI and caused a bodily injury accident, they gave her a $200 fine with no probation. Can I call colorism here? Not quite but what else could it be??) The prosecutor was flirting with her and everything.
https://thegrio.com/2011/06/23/is-justice-colorblind-in-post-racial-america/
https://www.theroot.com/the-lighter-the-skin-the-shorter-the-prison-term-1790864659
That link discusses the colorism in the courtroom and scans the research that lightskinned women are more likely to get married.
I got dragged on here for saying this but I’ll say it again. Look at our Civil Rights movement. Fighting racism with colorism. Look at the wives of our leaders from that era. Rosa Parks RECREATED the bus movement because leaders of the movement did not want a dark skinned poor girl (She got pregnant AFTER the incident so y’all can shut the fuck up) as the face of the bus movement. Her name is Claudette Colvin. She was the first Black girl to not give up her seat. Rosa was chosen to recreate it because they felt White people would relate to her more because she was “middle” class, lightskinned and pretty. (Source: https://www.npr.org/2009/03/15/101719889/before-rosa-parks-there-was-claudette-colvin) cause I don’t say anything I can’t back up.
Black Media? Whewwwww. Black people love to bring up the “Willie Lynch” letter and how colorism is a distraction tactic by White people:
Of course, Essence has had plenty of dark skinned women on the cover but look at the majority of our representation; dark skinned men and lightskinned women. Let’s dive into film and television.
Typing this I just noticed, that in Girl’s Trip, the only woman that was darker than a paper bag was the homewrecker. What is that? Dark skinned women are portrayed as anger, bitter and jealous. Thank God for Issa Rae and Black Panther because until this VERY recent era, all we saw was (after the 70s-90s):
Looks just like Martin and Gina.
Black film whether consciously or subconsciously has taught the Black community that lightskinned women are made to be lovers, wives, crushes and the ultimate goal. While dark skinned women are angry, masculine and unfriendly.
How many Black shows and movies between 2007-2015 had a dark skinned Black woman as the lead?? Think about that.
Look at our music industry; Beyonce, Rihanna, Cardi B, Nicki Minaj (if you say any of these women are “brown”, you will be blocked. No questions asked.)
Last point: the general public’s perspective of dark skinned women (including other Black women, SMH):
I have a lot of post on colorism. You can check out my colorism tag (#colorism).
I also have a post about my personal experiences as well under that tag.
yousharknotpass
jbbartram-illu
tangentwithtanner
annaxmalina
vaporwave
izzy806
blakekathryn
discoholicmusic
janainaart
