Colorism

hi

my name is jordan baker and i’m a

sacramento resident this city is where i

lived all my life this is where my

parents were born where they met where

they grew up and they had my sister and

i

when i was younger my favorite part of

the city was

the park across the street from my house

as well as thunderland and the zoo

and now i’m 17 and as much as i like the

zoo it’s not at the top of my

list what i’ve come to appreciate the

most about the city is

the diversity i see in our city and all

the cultures

i’ve experienced while growing up not

every city has kids that look like me or

my sister

it’s not in every city in california

where you can run errands and hear three

different languages

at the grocery store it’s not in every

city where there’s families from all

over

like el salvador or iran it’s not in

every city

where there’s first generation americans

and newly immigrant families i’ve

experienced

so much growing up here i’ve learned so

much about other

cultures and walks of life and family

when i was in first grade i had a best

friend named fatima

and we would always eat lunch together

and she was arabic and so she brought

food that i’ve never seen before and i

was always so interested in it and she’d

always let me try some and i’m really

grateful that she did

when i was eight i didn’t really

appreciate that but now that i’m older

and i look back on it

i’m so lucky to have experienced

different cultures and it was just a

part of growing up i didn’t have to go

out seeking it it just

was there but i’ve learned from my own

experiences and conversations with

family and friends

that growing up in a racially and

ethnically diverse city does not

completely dissolve the issues of racism

in fact most people of color

in california or in america in general

have some memorable experience with

racism

now in the era of george floyd the trump

administration and black lives matter

protests more people

especially young people are learning

about social injustice specifically

systemic racism

but today i don’t want to talk about

systemic racism instead i want to talk

about something

that a lot of us may not know about and

that is colorism

there are so many topics within the

definition of colorism and so many

avenues you can take when talking about

it

but i think just learning the basics

just learning a little bit about it

and its definition can help anybody

understand just a little more

about how deep race prejudice and social

har social hierarchy go

colorism was coined by alice walker in

the 1960s and since that is still fairly

recent

many might not know the true definition

of colorism or that experiences they’ve

had resemble colorism

so the definition of colorism according

to merriam-webster

is prejudice or discrimination

especially within an ethnic or racial

group favoring those with lighter skin

over those with darker skin

so for some background i wanted to share

a couple pictures with my fam

of my family so on the right we have a

picture of my dad on the left

and my uncle on the right when they were

younger like in high school

and on the left we have a picture of my

family about eight or nine years ago

with my dad and my mom and my little

sister so i’m biracial

my dad is black and my mom is mexican

and white and growing up biracial

it comes with different feelings and its

own

kind of internal struggles with identity

and stuff like that

but when i was younger i didn’t really

think about that i kind of more

thought that i wanted darker skin like

my dad’s side of the family

so as you can see my dad does have way

darker skin than me and my sister does

have a little darker skin than me

but whenever i’d go visit his family in

los angeles and i’d

hang out with them i’d kind of feel a

little left out because

everyone kind of didn’t really look like

me and i was a little sad about that i

would get teased a little bit

and that was kind of always just my

feeling

until i got older especially when i got

to high school and i started getting

more

involved in social justice issues and

learning about things like racism and

colorism

and what i’ve learned was that younger

kids

especially at the time when i was

thinking these things i was wanting

lighter skin but a lot of kids kids that

look like my sister

or kids with way darker skin might have

wanted my skin tone and i never really

thought of that until i was older

if you know anything about american

history you might recognize the term

mulatto which was used during the

colonization of the americas to describe

a person with african or slave ancestry

and white european ancestry

so these people had lighter skin than

slaves but darker skin than white

europeans and because of that they were

kind of in the middle of the social

hierarchy

they weren’t treated as inhumanely as

slaves but they still did not get the

same respect that white europeans got

white passing was considered good

because

the root of colorism and racism is that

lighter skin equals good and darker skin

equals bad so these people had a lot

more opportunity when it came to owning

land

even owning slaves at some point and

getting access to education and so i

like to think

about this when i think about colorism

because my lighter skin

gives me more access to opportunities

and

advantages over people that don’t have

as light as skin as me so those who have

darker skin than it’s me

so like i mentioned the root of colorism

is lighter skin equals good and

darker skin equals bad and so that

beauty standards are also affected by

this notion so

when i was in middle school

i straightened my hair every day this

started in sixth grade

when people would frequently comment on

my hair it wasn’t it wasn’t even that

curly

i would get comments like your hair is

so frizzy or how many times a day do you

brush your hair

and things like that and it hurt me so

much that i decided to get up 45 minutes

earlier every day for two years to

straighten my hair

and as you can see from this picture my

hair was so

fried and so damaged because i would not

stop straightening my hair

my mom would always tell me to stop but

i wouldn’t because i thought i looked

prettier with straight hair

and this goes back to the preference for

people with lighter skin

over those with darker skin this is also

an issue that we see in hollywood this

is a huge issue and zendaya has talked

about it

a lot where darker skinned black actors

who

would be perfect for roles that showcase

someone with darker skin

those roles are given to those with

lighter skin either biracial actors and

actresses or just those with lighter

skin

so an example that i have heard

referenced many times is the case with

the hate u gif

where the cover of the book clearly

shows the main character having way

darker skin

than the character casted in the film a

man the steinberg has

much lighter skin than was depicted in

the book so this is an example

lots of people like to bring up when

they talk about colorism in hollywood

outside of hollywood colorism is still a

very big

issue especially in post-colonial

countries where lighter skin

is still considered superior to darker

skin

so so far i’ve only talked about

colorism when it affects

me and my family and those experiences

but i think that having tangible

evidence

like statistics is really beneficial to

anybody who wants to understand just a

little bit more about how colorism can

impact people’s entire

lives so some of the statistics i

presented here

are in regards to employment and overall

quality of life

so for instance darker skinned black men

are less preferred than lighter skinned

black men no matter the qualifications

and education experience to employers

and

on average lighter skinned mexican

americans have an overall better quality

of life when it comes to

mental health education and

income furthermore darker skinned

defendants in court cases are more

likely to be convicted and receive the

death penalty than those with lighter

skin

also india’s skin lightening cream fair

and lovely has 38 million users

worldwide

and also a vanderbilt study of 2 000

immigrants showed that on

average the lighter-skinned immigrants

earn between 8 and 15 percent

more yearly income colorism is more than

just statistics and facts there are real

world examples and this can happen in

our own backyard

for example on my sister’s first first

week of her freshman year in high school

she experienced an example of racism and

when i think about it i think of it as

an example of colorism

the school’s website was hacked and

there were

terrible racial slurs and other

sentences

referencing the kkk and other awful

things on the website

and when she explained it to me i kind

of thought of the privilege i have

i don’t go to that school but if i did

i would feel so uncomfortable but

because of my lighter skin

i might not come across as biracial or

black to anybody who was walking in the

hallways

this goes to show that colorism and

racism are alive and well

and i think that the best way to combat

this is just education

um so these are some instagram accounts

that i found i’m not affiliated with

these instagram accounts

i just found them while i was doing a

little bit more research

and i think that even just following an

instagram account which is super simple

can help anybody understand a little

more and be able to do their own

research it’s super duper helpful

so the first instagram account i wanted

to mention was colorism healing

i found this doing a little more

research on colorism and seeing people’s

opinions

and she posts her quotes she posts

information

about other people that she works with

and she frequently

goes on live and her instagram stories

and talks about

her opinions on colorism the second

instagram account i wanted to mention

was black and embodied

i really like this account

i think that it’s just important to lift

black voices up

especially at a time like this and she

always provides her insight

and talks about just everything going on

right now in the world and she always

reposts things that are super beneficial

in learning about colorism and racism

and social injustice

these are just resources that i found

helpful but if you don’t have instagram

or want to do a little more online

research

nccj.org page on colorism is super

helpful it’s where i got these

statistics

but the main point i want to emphasize

is that education

and advocating for black youth and black

adults and

educating yourself on colorism and

racism is super duper important

and all you have to do is be an advocate

thank you