Kiazhane Chavez

SCO 3425

Critical Analysis

Light Skin Vs. Dark skin in African American Women

. . . Colorism operates sometimes to confound and sometimes to restructure racial hierarchy.

Meanwhile, the circulating meanings attached to color shape the meaning of race. . . (Angela

P. Harris. Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters, Stanford University Press, p.2)

It is no secret that there is a problem with colorism among many races around the

world. There are issues with colorism in different countries like Asia and Mexico. But I will

be going into depth about issues in the US dealing with African Americans. It seems as if

people with a darker hue comes with more stigma in their own race. So my main focus is

going to be dealing with colorism with black females with light skin, and black females with

dark skin using the Symbolic Interaction Theory with three corresponding assumptions. My

first assumption is; dark skin women are objectively less attractive than other women from

there race using socialization. The next assumption will be; judgments of dark skin women

negatively affect their self – perceptions using social construction of reality. Lastly the third

assumption is; lighter skin women are more privileged (in all aspects) using labeling.

These assumptions are placed in an order to shows what other people in the black

community feel about darker skin women and their physical appearance. How stereotypes of

the dark skin women affect them. Lastly how the lighter skin women have advantages and is

seen to be more acceptable by society. The separation of the two started among the black

race in times of slavery. Going a little in depth, it is not a hidden fact that slavery was a

horrific period for blacks and people today still struggle with the reality of it. Many people

still carry the burden and hurt by their ancestors that had to go through slavery.

During slavery the black community was broken apart because some slaves were

more favored by the slave owners, a rift between the two levels of slaves, and hurt. This is

something the black community still has not recovered from. If you had dark skin you were

known and a field worker, hard worker, and did all their free labor outside. If your skin was

light you were known as the house slave, always doing manual labor inside. There were

many ways to distinguish where you were placed but the one most people know is the paper

bag test. The shade of the bag was in the middle of the two, so if you were lighter than the

bag you worked inside and if you were darker than the bag you stayed outside. I believe this

is what brought the separation and dislike of the all the shades of black. As if the only thing

that gave you an ounce of credibility was your skin tone. The racial frame is now the lighter

skin tones and good hair makes them more acceptable to the dominate group (Light Skin

Girls Documentary, 2015). Even though majority of the time the lighter skin child came out

of rape between the slave and slave owner.

1. Dark skin women are objectively less attractive than women from their race

(socialization)

Socialization refers to the lifelong process of inheriting and spreading norms, values

and ideologies, providing an individual with learned habits. Parents are the primary agents

of socialization during the first several years of life (Lander, 2013). In 2011 there was a

documentary called Dark Girls directed by Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry, exploring

colorism and bias in the everyday dark skin women’s life. It was perceived that darker skin

women’s physical appearance to the back male was not precious enough to be taken

seriously, they were seen as ugly, and only good for sex. In a recent Dove study, it was found

that 7/10 girls ages 8-17 feel they are not good enough or do not measure up in appearance

(Dark Girls Documentary, 2011). The feeling of not being good enough can last a lifetime.

So why do young women feel so beneath their true worth? Where does it start? School

seemed to be the place 90% of the taunting began. Being called names like tar baby,

darkness, ugly, monkey etc. When this behavior is learned from the home and its inflicted on

the dark skin child the spirt is broken at a young age. The child who is bullying the dark skin

girl believes what he or she is saying about them. In return the dark girl starts to believe what

she hears to be true. And the dislike and ugliness is carried on into adulthood keeping them

lonely and not loved by the opposite sex. To have the opposite sex find them attractive some

women so as far as bleaching their skin. African-American women choose to literally

decolorize their bodies, and ultimately themselves just to feel accepted (Mathews, 2013).

2. Judgments of dark skin women negatively affect their self – perceptions

(social construction of reality)

Social construction of reality is the development of jointly constructed understandings

of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality. These assumptions

about what people think, what they know, and the truth are all components to one’s reality.

People who make pre-conceived notions and judgments are the ones hurting the spirts of

black women. So there is really no true reality only stereotypes, stigma, prejudice, and

discrimination that hurts the women personally. Women with the darker hue compared to

some lighter black women, get pre judged in the most harmful way. The “angry black

women” come with a long list of stereotypes that people tend to believe and then judge all

darker skin women as a whole. Making the women feel less about herself and damaging her

self-esteem. To generalize the darker skin women is ghetto, loud, aggressive, demanding,

uncivilized, a bitch, ugly, nappy headed, and overall hard to deal with. Is this true? No. With

little to no representation of "Black beauty," women of color will continue to live by far

reaching norms (Mathews, 2013). African-American women remain ashamed of their

complexion and physiognomy, an obvious sign of shattered self-concept (Mathews, 2013).

3. Lighter skin women are more privileged (in all aspects) (labeling)

Labeling theory is the view of deviance and behavior change. For instance, when you

labeled as a "deviant" leads a person to engage in deviant behavior. Just being a member of

the black community you are labeled no matter what skin tone you are. Society has a way of

putting people in a box. But within our communities we label ourselves, the labels assigned

to light skin ("red, red-bone, high yellow, and light bright"") take on completely different

imagery than the labels assigned to dark skin (“coal black, tar baby, and blue-black")

(Mathews, 2013). Those labels alone give the lighter skin more privilege inside and outside

of their communities. Historically, African Americans with lighter skin have contributed to

colorism because they have benefited from the privilege of having a skin color closer to that

of Whites and have embraced the notion that privilege comes with having light skin in

America (Marry, 2011). These “privileges” are being accepted by society, wanted by black

men, highest standard of beauty, create prettier babies, and higher education. Being a lighter

skin black women the only extra attention I receive is from black men but outside of that I

have to work just as hard as anyone else. But if you’re going to label me and say that I’m

prettier than a darker skin woman, that I’m conceded, and that I have good curly hair

eventually that is what I will believe. And if I am watching the world label dark skin women

with no positive image, who’s always angry, who you call ugly, who it beneath me. Then in

return I will engage in believe those terms and she will begin to act in such a way.

In the documentary of Dark Skin Girls, they showed a video of a beautiful young girl.

Relating to the topic her skin was a beautiful dark brown. She was asked multiple

generalized questions with cards of children with different shades of color from light to dark.

She was asked “what child is the pretty one” “what child is the smart one” etc. She pointed to

the card with the lightest child for each answer. Then she was asked “what child is bad”

“which child is dumb” she pointed to the card that had the darkest child for each answer. The

socialization, concept of reality, and labeling all come into play before adulthood. Black

children need to come together and not label and tear another down.

In modern society black women as whole have to work extra hard to be recognized

for their being and accomplishments. Darker skin women have to work four times as hard to

live a peaceful life without being torn down by their own race and society. This is because

dark skin has been deemed "as 'mark of oppression'" or blackness as consequence (Mathew,

2013). And many people don’t want to deal with that issues or make excuses to not help

uplift our beautiful dark skin women. Lighter skin women are still of the race hierarchy when

it comes to men, acceptance and education. There is a significant relationship between the

high self-esteem of African-American women with light skin complexions and the low self-

esteem of women with darker complexions (Mathews, 2013). It’s sad just surprising that the

color of their skin determines their worth. It is a social norm for darker skin women to feel

less than, and the lighter skin women glorified but if they know their true self what everyone

has to say shouldn’t matter. No one should engage in extremities like bleaching of the skin or

excessive tanning because one feels guilty about the skin they have (Light Skin Girls

Documentary, 2015). All shades of black is beautiful and needs to be accepted, the light skin

vs dark skin needs to come to an end.

Sources

Duke, B., & Berry, D. (Directors). (2011). Dark Skin Girls [Motion picture on

Documetary]. USA

Duke, B. (Director). (2015). Light Skin Girls [Motion picture on Documentary].

USA.

Landor, A. M., Simons, L. G., & Simons, R. L. (2013). Exploring the Impact of Skin

Tone on Family Dynamics and Race-Related Outcomes. Retrieved from

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3970169/

Marry. (2011, March). African Americans Still Victims of Colorism -. Retrieved from

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2011/03/26/african-americans-still-victims-of-

colorism/

Mathews, T. J. (2013, May 1). The relationship between skin complexion and social

outcomes: How colorism affects the lives of African-American women. Retrieved

from http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?

article=2286&context=dissertations