Episode 06: How Colorism Is A Systemic Issue Around The World
Across the globe, darker skin puts millions of people at a disadvantage. Within communities of color, lighter skin often bestows better access, privilege, and better mental and physical health.
Let’s talk Colorism:
To boil colorism down to a simple explanation, it is discrimination, prejudice, and bigotry, based on skin tone and color. We have seen colorism exist within the Black American community for centuries and it continues to rear it’s nasty head within the Black American community today. However, Black Americans are not the only people obsessed with how light or dark a person’s skin is. In Asian, Black, and LatinX communities, colorism is the elephant in the room, sitting at the family dinner table, the group photoshoot, meeting strangers for the first time, or even playing in your kindergarten classroom. This phenomenon is so deeply rooted within communities of color that it is almost taboo to talk about. Colorism is a societal toxin felt in many places all around the world, including Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Africa. According to Clinical psychologist and professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, “The similarities in colorism across Asian, Black, and Latino communities are specifically related to the adoration and glorification of whiteness and the perception that anything that's European and of lighter skin is better.”
Historically and even today, studies show that lighter skinned people often receive better treatment and representation than darker skinned people in criminal justice, business, the economy, housing, health care, media, the education system, and politics in the United States and Europe. In fact, a 2006 University of Georgia study found that employers of any race preferred light skinned Black men to dark skinned Black men regardless of their qualifications. In the U.S., it has been repeatedly proven that skin tone plays a role in who gets ahead and who does not, which is why colorism is a systemic issue and is directly linked to white supremacy. Lighter skin is preferred in many countries in Africa, Latin and Central America, Asia, and the Caribbean.
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