By: Annum Shehryar
What is Colorism? What does it look like? Why is the preference for fair skin a form of internalized racism and discrimination? To answer these, we must acknowledge that globally, especially in Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Korea, China, Malaysia, and more have made it a norm to prefer fair skin over dark skin. They also believe fair skin is the epitome of beauty, civility, and sophistication which is why they have Eurocentric beauty standards. Colorism is a practice of discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. Colorism promotes the ideology that people with white skin are superior, beautiful, have better opportunities in life, are respectable, pure, and belong to a certain class, etc. The deeply entrenched racism has led to dark skin being demonized and considered inferior.
If we look into the history of what sparked this deeply ingrained illness, in the United States, Colorism has roots in slavery, as slave owners gave preferential treatment to those slaves who have fairer skin. Dark-skinned slaves had to work in the fields and outdoors whereas the lighter-skinned ones were able to work indoors and had far less tiresome and overwhelming tasks. Outside the U.S., the color could be more class-related than white supremacy. Although European colonialism has certainly left its mark worldwide, colorism is said to predate contact in Asian countries with the Europeans. There, the belief that white skin is superior to dark skin may be derived from ruling classes who usually have lighter complexions than peasant classes. The rulers of India, the Mughals, the British, all were fair-skinned. The latter much fairer to the former. This had reinforced the thought process that fairness leads to power and seizing control from the former. This cycle was led to continue. Another major factor was the success of First World countries. Most people in European countries, the US, Japan, Australia, Singapore, etc are fair-skinned. Because of globalization, their brands had become a status symbol among people from all economic sectors.
Growing up in an Asian community it is common that we hear offhand racist and colorist remarks. We hear statements such as “Don’t be out in the sun for too long, you will get dark!” or “What happened to you? Your skin has gotten so dark” or “How do you expect to marry with that dark complexion of yours?”. Colorism is so deeply ingrained in these countries’ fabric that its presence makes us all involved and infected. The sad thing is, the lessons of color bias begin at home for many people. In Desi households, instead of shaming this ideology and discouraging others to promote such derogatory beliefs, they often fail to recognize how problematic their mindset can be thus, dark-skinned people’s dissatisfaction with their color leads to full-blown insecurities and this illness known as colorism continues to spread. When it comes to Rishta (marriage) culture in desi households, aunties will be searching for a light-skinned daughter in law for their sons and vice versa, the theory that having fair-skinned grandchildren is a matter of pride and honor. This leads to society having no room for the darker-skinned ones, them being rejected and devalued, no matter how good willed they are as a person.
(Photo from here.)
There is an old children’s rhyme that plays out the inner workings of colorism:
“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.”
No one can be born racist or colorist, these ideologies are learned through experience. Colorism has been integrated into our lives, both subtly and not so subtly, there are many examples which show clear proof. The cosmetics industries relied on convincing people that you need a beauty product to complete you. The media has also championed ethnic dominance for the "beautifiers." Cosmetic agent advertisements such as the fairness cream called ‘’Fair and lovely’’ have had a great influence on people. In our popular music and traditional poetry, countless examples exalt a fair complexion over other skin colors. In reality, it has also been noticed that a large number of dark-skinned villains are cast in film. Few people with dark skin get catapulted into the media limelight, movies such as ‘’Black panther’’ and ‘’Akeelah and the bee’’.
There is an online movement called ‘Dark is Beautiful’’ and ‘Dark is Divine’’ which has drawn attention to unjust effects of skin color discrimination and establishes steps in the right direction. Such movements help eradicate the belief that one’s success, value, identity, status, and beauty is connected to having fair skin. In modern society, such insensitive and conservative ideas about colorism are totally incompatible. Discrimination among colors breeds hatred that ultimately drives conflict in our society. Every color has its own beauty and deserves recognition without being compared to the other. We must take responsibility as a society and raise awareness on these issues and help encourage people to be comfortable in their skin.
‘’Beauty may lie in the eyes of the beholder, its just time to kick racial prejudice out of the beholder’s eyes.’’
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