Confessions from a girl in a color caste system

Originally published 2/27/19 + Shayna Hodge | Culture

“All the boys will like you because you’re light skin.”

My sister said this to me right before I began my freshman year of high school. She said it so confidently that I believed her. She went on to say, “You’re light skin and have long hair. That’s what they like.”

Back then, I didn’t realize that what my sister said to me was rooted in colorism. The term, thought to have been first coined by author Alice Walker in 1982, is a form of prejudice or discrimination in which people are treated differently based on the social meanings attached to skin color.

Resulting from a color caste system created by European colonists, colorism has been ingrained in the ideologies of individuals within and outside of the Black community. Whether light or dark, Melanin contend with the repercussions of their skin complexion everyday.

As a light skinned black woman, I am aware of the privilege that I have. It’s because of that knowledge, I’ve come to  recognize in different instances that my dark skinned sisters women are constantly devalued, ignored, and stigmatized.

Here are just a few ways deeply melanated women are dismissed in America and other societies around the world:

Beauty

“If you is white, you’s alright, if you’s brown, stick around, but if you’s black, get back.”

If you watch the hit comedy show “Black-ish” you might have heard this rhyme on the recent episode “Black Like Us”, which touches on colorism in the black community. In the episode, grandmother Ruby Johnson (Jenifer Lewis) sympathizes with granddaughter Diane Johnson (Marsai Martin), the darkest member of the Johnson family, who reveals that on a daily basis she is reminded of her dark skin.

This rhyme, in addition to the “paper bag test” and the “comb test” of the 20th century, entwined with bleaching creams used by  77% of  African women, are all mechanisms that have been used to degrade dark skin.

Dating & Marriage

Generally black women are the demographic least likely to get married. And in the black community, it is largely thought amongst dark skin women that black men do not desire them. This point was proven in the episode of “Iyanla Fix My Life,” in which four black men explain why they don’t date black women.

One said: "... They like to place that strong personality on you, and sometimes, you’re just kind of like, you know, 'Stay in a woman's place.'"

In the blog post “Darkskinned Women Don’t Get Married”, Dream McClinton expresses her frustration with dating as a dark skin woman. Referring to black men she says, “They sow their seeds of success, not in the skin of women who look like them or birthed them, but in the social height in which they want to climb.”

Lack of Representation

In media, dark skinned women are not represented as much as light skinned women. Think to the original “Aunt Viv” (Janet Hubert-Whitten) from the “Fresh Prince of Bl-Air”) who was replaced by the fair skin Daphne Maxwell Reid. Although rumor has it that her replacement was due to a feud between her and Will Smith, why not replace her with dark skin actress?

Beyond that, consider how in music videos the lead girls are usually light and have long or curly hair. Kanye West once said: “If it wasn’t for race mixing there’d be no video girls. Me and most of our friends like mutts a lot. Yeah, in the hood they call ‘em mutts.”

In a world where “light is right”, opportunities for dark skin woman to not only be represented, but represented correctly instead of as loud, aggressive, or ghetto, are difficult to come by.

Actress Gabrielle Union expressed her struggles in Hollywood as a dark skin woman: “You don’t get a job, and you immediately want to blame it on, if my hair was different, or maybe if my nose…or they just want to go with light-skin girls, and you start to doubt yourself, and the self-doubts and the low self-esteem starts to creep in.”

So now that we’ve been reminded that the reality for black women is not ideal,  what can we can do to improve the perception of dark skin women inside and outside of our community and begin to rewrite the narrative?

Firstly, we need to recognize that colorism is a serious problem in our community. If we can not realize, or choose to ignore that we perpetuate colorism through our own words and actions, how will the issue be solved? We need to collectively understand that we are giving our oppressors, both past and present, the authority to dictate how we perceive ourselves and each other.

Secondly, we must remember the age old rule, “treat others how you want to be treated.” Before we slander anyone because of their skin color, we need to think about how we would feel if the same were done to us.

Next, we need to eliminate colorist language: “Pretty for a dark skin girl”,  “Blackie”, “You’re too dark to wear that.” Instead of saying such things, how about we uplift each other and spread positivity? Personally, I’ve made it a rule to compliment at least one black woman every day.

My point is, the end to colorism and the degradation of dark skin women starts with us. Once we accept ourselves and one another, the black community will be able to stand as a force that when pushed, cannot be knocked down.

Colorism’s end will be a long road to travel, but as a community, we can make it to the end as long as we’re all willing to make the trip.