Colorism And The Common Struggle Of Black Girls

If a black woman had dark skin she would resemble a man, therefore making her ugly in society’s standards. This pressures black women to constantly be "compatible with the white female standard of beauty" (Ashe 580) in order to be socially accepted in society. Intuitively black women understood that in order to be considered desirable, the less black they had to look. This unfortunate perception of beauty stems from a long pattern of "sociohistorical racial injustices" (Bealer 312) towards darker skinned African Americans. Maria Racine states in her review that since slavery black people who approximated closer to whites were sexually sought after by black slave men and white plantation owners and were considered to live a somewhat "easy coexistence" because of their appearance (Racine 283). Since it’s start, colorism laid the pathway of racial prejudice towards dark skinned individuals. The result of treating dark African Americans as subhuman beings led to the altering of the black psyche by creating a "pervasive hierarchy" of beauty that black woman constantly combated or were forced to accept. (Bealer 312).

Colorism is an issue amongst African Americans that is slowly disunifying the culture. The idea that is constantly reiterated in the African American community is that if you are light skinned you have a better job with more income, more successful, have more relationships, and are deemed less of a threat, essentially living the “best of both worlds”. If are darker skinned you are jobless or at a job that is not moving you into the future, less successful, passed by a potential mate, and is labeled as a common crook. The ideas about color pigmentation in the African American community all goes back to the original argument made numerous of times: “White is good, Black is bad”. Slavery is a primary reason why African Americans have this

Near the middle of her article, Perry argues that even though statistics show black girls having the highest self-esteem of their physical appearances, the rate will fall as they “move into adolescence and their bodies come under scrutiny” (138).

The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans is one of the text used. This book was written by Kathy Russell, Midge Wilson, Ronald E. Hall in 1993 to inform readers of the color gap in how lighter skinned people of the black community are treated differently than those of a darker skin tone. It further explains how African Americans have been taught to see themselves based on their skin tone. This book was a valuable resource that it assisted in the understanding of the Black color line; its inception and how it created an environment of self segregation. While this text was helpful, it like many other text had limitations. One limitation was that the text does not present a counter argument to support another point

Since the early 1900s, Black women have had a fascination with their hair. More explicitly, they have had a fascination with straightening their hair. The need to be accepted by the majority class has caused them to do so. Though the image of straight hair as being better than coarse hair still hasn’t left the Black community, there has been a surge of non straight hairstyles since the nineteen sixties. Wearing more natural hairstyles, which ironically enough include ‘weaves’ and ‘hair extensions’ has been considered to be more empowered and more enlightened. However, this image comes with a price, and though it appears the ‘natural’ hairstyle movement has advanced Black women, it has actually set

“For Colored Girls” is comprised of seven women who represented a different shade of the rainbow. The colors are brown, red, yellow, white, green, orange and blue. Their costumes and make-up transformed each of them and were symbolic of the color their character embodied. The ensemble acting made all of their roles of equal importance, without one dominating the other. These women together formed a bond through their various adversities, gradually taking them from strangers to acquaintances. From an objective view, the audience is allowed to simply observe the events as they take place (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2011, pg. 82) chronologically. Throughout the movie during some of the conflicting and traumatic scenes, one of the women recites a

Despite the women in this group that struggle and overcome adversity in a word that’s meant to suffocate them, there are a few black women who fail to realize there magic. Some of my sisters fall short due to negative public perceptions with professionalism which causes them to shy away from investing in their future. These few outsiders who didn’t get the unwritten code/norm of what a black woman must represent allows the degradation of our group to continue.

Colors have a secret power that socially guarantees a better life. A human’s skin color can be a variety from darkest brown to the lightest pinkish-white. Even though all of us are human, the colors make the differences between us. White people are always above black people in society; typically the benefits are given to the white people. As a result, black women started to use skin-lighting creams to have a better life. Limited independence, limited opportunities, and limited privilege affect black women’s abilities to have social status.

Colorism is a discrimination that favors lighter skin more than darker skin. For the black community, these images in the media have a profound effect on women of color because in our society lighter skin is seen as “prettier”. This is why attractive black women are constantly asked if they are mixed, because it is not the “norm” for a darker skin woman to be considered beautiful. There are some mixed women who are born with thicker hair, regular brown eyes, and brown skin, and they receive discrimination because they are not the type of

Many are unaware of the effects that race has played in their lives over the years. Some may not understand its implications, but are very oblivious to it. Race can influence such things like attitude and behavior. Nowadays being white or black means something more than just a Crayola color. No longer are they just colors, they are races with their own rules and regulations. People of color have been inferior to the white race for centuries. In their own way Zora Neale Hurston shows this concept in her story “How it feels to be Colored Me” as does Richard Wright in his autobiographical sketch “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”.

In 1444 Europeans began to kidnap Africans of all social statuses and began to trade them on the west coast of Africa known at the transatlantic slave trade,which had an impact on the african american community that is still evident today.Colorism has been drilled into the psyche of african americans since

“No other group in America has so had their identity socialized out of existence as have Black women… when Black people are talked about the focus tends to be on Black men; and when women are talked about the focus tends to be on white women.” - Bell Hooks

The term “pigmentocracy, or colorism is the practice of interracial groups applying a valuation to lighter skin” (https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/73702) In India this is informed in various ways including, the caste system, media, and cultural practices. Similar to African-Americans, and light skin versus dark skin debates Indians have to deal with the same theory. The theory that those with the lighter skin, are “superior” to those that are darker. Oftentimes those that are darker are seen as inferior, to those with light skin. The media often shows people of a lighter skin tone than those with more pigmented skin. There are usually more light people, and maybe one or two darker people. This all goes into play with how huge of problem colorism is

Film is a series of artistic moving images that make up a story. In every film, the director visually presents the storyline, different characters, the problems they encounter and how they were deal with. There is a wide range of ways to study films of various genres. We focus on film language, genre, mise-en-scene, representation, stereotypes, etc. In Black Girl, it was depicted as an allegory and had a lot of mise-en-scene.

Throughout many decades, African American women have been able to set their own standards of beauty. Lonnae Parker, a writer for The Washington Post, states in her article Black women heavier and happier with their bodies than white women, poll finds, that “Freed from that high-powered media gaze, generations of black women have fashioned their own definitions of beauty with major assists from literature, music, and help from their friends” (Parker, 2012). The importance of this quote is that they were getting help from their culture, the music and literature is essentially the culture that helped them to define their own standards of beauty. By being isolated