In a previous post, I hosted guest blogger and indie author Sheridan Davis who shared her inspiration for writing her newest book, Pretty for a Dark-Skin Girl. Some of you, who may read my blog, may not be all that familiar with the concepts and issues she uncovered, so I wanted to provide additional comments to the post to provide a bit more context.
A Brief Context for How Colorism Exists in Our World and History
Skin-color discrimination happens around the world, and not just to those whom society has classified as black. Skin lightning treatments are a huge part of the beauty industries in Africa and Asia, in countries such as Nigeria, India, and Thailand, raking in billions of dollars every year. The message advertisers promote is the whiter the skin the better. In these ads, whiteness is connected to general attractiveness, integrity and goodness, prosperity, career success, romantic love, and all-around happiness and contentment. Women (and men) around the world put themselves at risk of various kinds of skin diseases and disorders by applying these creams and subjecting themselves to damaging dermatology rituals. They are searching for a way to end the hurt and abuse they’ve suffered for having darker skin and to finally be loved and accepted. Isn’t that what we all want?
Within the history of blacks in America, colorism—which, as Sheridan discussed here, is a result of the trauma of American chattel slavery and the hierarchy among slaves related to their varied skin tones resulting from enslaved black females being rape by white slave owners and other racial mixing—formed the basis for a post-slavery discriminatory practice known as the "brown paper bag test." Most popular during the first half of the twentieth century, the test consisted of one brown person holding up a brown paper bag to another brown person’s face and if the person’s skin tone was the same color or lighter than the brown paper bag, then they were allowed into exclusive African American social institutions such as sororities, fraternities, and even churches. If one’s complexion was darker than the brown paper bag, they were denied admittance.
This kind of discrimination, though not as obvious as that test, is still present among the subconscious assessment people of color make of each other and has contributed to substantial resentment and a hurtful hierarchy that comes out in common sayings such as, “Oh, you’re pretty…for a dark-skin girl,” (as if those two attributes cannot coexist) and other judgments that still exist today.
What experiences with colorism have you seen or experienced? How do you feel about discrimination within a racial or ethnic group as opposed to discrimination between racial or ethnic groups? Some have used the dynamics that occur within a racial or ethnic group as an excuse to maintain their own prejudices. Have you heard that kind of reasoning?