Colorism

Identity is a fact of being. It is a belief in which throughout the year I have been discovering the full meaning to.

The social norms that I was surrounded by during my childhood vastly shaped my perspective of beauty. In Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago, the population is majority white. Wealthy individuals paid for superficial tans to darken their skin via spray tans or U.V booths. This is a phenomenon that was very prominent in the pop culture. Jersey Shore, The Real World, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and other reality shows framed a dark skin color as the ideal look.

Racism and Colorism in the New Century by Angela Harris redefined my perspective of current racial problems. What I perceived beauty to be was the complete opposite of my cousins who live in Northern Africa. The first time I was exposed to extreme colorism was when I visited them in Tunisia. On a scouring hot day, there was an abundance of females who covered every inch of their body. Future brides wear mittens, scarfs, long dresses, and hats to hide from the sun. A bride is viewed as more pure if she is ghost like white. Very dark skinned Tunisians are treated like second class citizens. They are less likely to be employed, and they face unregistered segregation in public programs such as the bus system. “Colorism is in fact global, and it is not clear that it is always and everywhere purely an ideological or material product of the African slave trade” (Harris, 56). The reality is women who are naturally dark have not been experiencing benefits from the shift of dark skin in the media. Instead they have been neglected from the real issue at hand.

“The hierarchy employed in colorism, is usually the same one that governs racism: light skin is prized over dark skin, and European facial features and body shapes are prized over African features” (Harris, 54). Once I went out of my way to educate myself on the experience of modern day segregation I learned I was a byproduct of it. I looked back and reflected everyone around me continuing to devalue the seriousness of colorism. Personally I began feeling guilty of feeding into the appropriation. Ever since then I have refused to pay money to darken my skin. It was my choice to recognize the experience of racism that is seen today. The only way a massive change will occur is if white privilege humans who are the forefront of the media trend changes their behavior. Kim Kardashian and Snookie are under a microscope of racism. They are called upon to vocalize how they have framed color to mask the true female black experience.

Harris, Angela p. From Color Line to Color Chart: Racism and Colorism in the New Century.

Berkeley Journal of African-American Law & Policy, Jan. 2018