From the time dark-skinned girls are born, they are at a disadvantage. Young, dark-skinned black girls are bullied and told that they are not beautiful, not good enough or undesirable. They are told that if they had lighter skin they would be more appealing, creating deep-rooted emotions of anger, jealousy and insecurities that form part of who they become. This issue has been reenforced in our culture through multiple forms of media including advertisements, social media, especially Twitter and Instagram, and on television.
Akiah Conliffe is a black female, dark-skinned and 20 years-old. In elementary school, because of where she lived, the students were all white. Conliffe and her cousin were the only black people in the school. The kids would play with her hair because of the different texture. Based on the texture of their hair, black girls would receive different kinds of backlash. “Growing up there’s the different kind of black, people would say, the ones with the mixed hair and the ones with the nappy hair,” she said.
As she got older the experiences intensified. “In high school, most of my friends were lighter skinned. One time, somebody said ‘You’re actually pretty too.’ Even though they tried to make it seem like it was a compliment, it was not a compliment because it’s like it’s expected for me not to be pretty because I’m not the same complexion as the rest of the people who are in my group of friends,” Conliffe said. She believes that there should not be different kinds of black based on skin color, it should just be black without discrimination. With the advancement of social media and different movements including black girl magic, she thinks it’s become easier for girls with darker color to have more confidence in how they look.
Although it manifests itself in different ways, colorism affects men as well. Pete Badger, 28, is a black male who is light-skinned but does not like to be referred to as being light-skinned. “I’m not going to refer to myself as being a light-skinned person,” he said. “My lightness is because Europeans raped my ancestors, they tried to dilute my African heritage, and it won’t work, because I’m from the people of the sun… I’m super pro-black.” Growing up, he noticed that his white friend’s family members embraced him more than they would embrace other friends who were dark-skinned.
White people in general, even Hispanics, feel significantly more comfortable making blatantly racists comments in front of him as opposed to a darker-skinned person.
Badger started realizing that it’s more colorism than racism. People would rather look past the tattoo on his face than accept a person who has a dark complexion. “A lot of radicals, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, who was light-skinned, a lot of lighter black people are more likely to speak up because you’re heard more,” he said. “If I’m darker I can be in a certain situation, but I’ll never hear any of the behind the scenes racism. Because they’re gonna look at you and think ‘I’m not going to say any of this in front of this nigga.’ With me, I can really hear some of the evil shit that someone like my brother would never hear because he’s darker.” This is why Badger always speaks up when racist comments are made in front of him.
Screenshot of tweet discussing colorism. Source: @Chicahua_Yaotl
Doctor Lisa Whitten, associate professor of psychology at SUNY Old Westbury, traces the origins of colorism back to slavery. “Because the people that were brought over from the continent and enslaved were very dark-skinned people, and they were seen as less than human, I think that’s just persistent in systemic ways so that it’s built into the fabric of how we view people,” she said. “During slavery, people who were mixed did get preferential treatment often. People began to hold those individuals in high regards because of the fact that people that we can see, that have most of the power, are white people.” Addressing the perpetuation of these stereotypes in the digital age, Whitten said “I think this is a really critical issue for us as black people in this day and age. I think that if we continue to battle against each other it weakens us. We have to find a way to overcome that.”
