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