“Acting like it doesn’t exist, doesn’t heal. America as a family, this is our taboo issue that brings up so much. It triggers a lot of black girl pain. It triggers a lot of secrets. It triggers a lot of bias. It triggers a lot of emotional things. And like any family, when we go into our history and say this horrible thing created this characteristic, people don’t want to look at it. But this is the road to healing, right. This is the only way we’re going to feel whole: is if we talk about where we’re fractured. This is it. Having this conversation, this is the solution.” - Michaela Angela Davis, Who is Black in America Panel on Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien, 2012
Hey, TCW community! Last month, I wrote an article for Message Magazine titled “Critical Conversation: Addressing the Colorism Within”. A part of the content below is adapted from that piece. As the conversations surrounding colorism have only increased since then, I invite you to this space to reflect, inquire and contribute your perspectives.
By focusing on colorism as one of many significant subsets of both an anti-Black and white supremacist nation, addressing the conversational discomfort around skin shade will only allow for particularly darker-skinned women to live full lives within our community.
Colorism causes us to suffer and experience undue conflict on both the individual and communal level. To internalize colorist and anti-blackness is to internalize white supremacist ideals. In part three of Alice Walker’s “In Search of Our Mothers Gardens,” she notes that “colorism, like colonialism, sexism, and racism, impedes us.”
On phenotypical Blackness and its complications
As race is the system of identity and power structures that categorize people based on their ancestry and phenotype, the phenotype is the set of observable characteristics. Violence occurs when Black people exhibiting white-passing or lighter-skin privilege or appearing as racially ambiguous serve as the voice for all - without considering their ability to transcend spaces darker-skinned Black people cannot. Colorism is a symptom of a white supremacist racial/ethnic caste system. Though genetically and racially, we (Black people) are the same, based on our phenotype, our external experiences are systematically subjugated. In her 1982 profound work, “In Search of Our Mothers Gardens,” Alice Walker coined the term colorism as “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color.”
“If you’re black, stay back; If you’re brown, stick around; If you’re yellow, you’re mellow; If you’re white, you’re all right.”
On proximity and misogynoir
Proximity often derails headway in the eradication of colorist actions. Just like a non-Black person’s proximity to a Black person does not exempt them from being racist, or a man/woman/non-binary person’s proximity to a woman does not exempt them from being sexist, so is the same for colorism. We have a present need to be actively anti-colorist. Darker-skinned women experiencing misogynoir as part of the existing colorist society is real. Darker-skinned women are less likely to be married than lighter-skinned women. Darker-skinned girls are three-times more likely to be suspended from grade school than their peers, and darker-skinned women have longer prison sentences than their lighter-skinned counterparts.
On toxic positivity, gaslighting and the insufficient calls for self-love
Colorism does not only relate to one’s beauty or self-esteem. Nor should it be regarded as only that. When conversations around colorism come up, and there are ample responses that women, particularly darker-skinned women, should simply love themselves better, it does not solve the issue. Instead, such comments gaslight, minimize, and blame the individual who has expressed their lived experience.
Our society gorges over overt positivity (or toxic positivity - think, colorblind racism, a post-racial society, etc.). Choosing to rush towards a resolution without unpacking the uncomfortable and challenging realities only masks the conflict.
On moving forward
It’s high time, especially for women of color, who are also of darker complexion, to no longer give leeway for societies (people groups and individuals you encounter) colorist actions. Moving forward means that we no longer bear the brunt of others' unresolved trauma – especially when they cause us pain. We go where we are appreciated and will no longer put our lives on pause to “convince” another of our inherent worth. We do this because our lives are at stake.
Centering our dark-skinned Black sister's voices and experiences is vital for the salve to be in and over our community. There must be a personal and collective reflection in our experiences. We must assess if our actions are rooted knowingly or unknowingly in anti-blackness/colorism.
The process of decolonizing our minds and actions may challenge the very identities we find comfort in. However, suppose we are serious about having ensuring colorism and internalized white supremacy ideals no longer take hold of our community. In that case, we must wrestle with the uncomfortable, address the confliction of realities within, and listen intently with active action to what our darker-skinned Black family members have to say.
How does colorism impact you or your community?
Until next week,
Chi
Colorism definitely is a problem in our community. Being Nigeria, you hear so many crazy comments in regards to skin color. I just had a conversation with my mother and cousin and my mother gave us various examples of colorism that happens in Nigeria. She explained how in school some people would choose their friends based off what they believed to be better (lighter skinned) Many men would choose their wives because they are lighter skinned. It's so sad that this European standard of beauty has negatively impacted our community so so much. My prayer is that our community as well as others can break away from all of this.