By Ryan Scott
The world is tough enough to navigate but when you factor in sex, politics, religion, and race it is even more combative and not a level playing field. For African-Americans within media, and even the world that views them, there has been a long-standing debate about colorism: Do dark skinned people have it worse than lighter skinned? It has been well documented for decades and even longer, that the misconception or perhaps the belief in beauty lies in the pigmentation of skin color or lack thereof.
The Abstract by Ashraf Esmail and Jas M. Sullivan emphasizes their research based on family heritage and the skin colorism of their parents. It was said that partners will choose spouses or life partners based not just on light or dark skinned but; specifically, men will choose marriage partners based on the color of their father and women will choose a skin color of a spouse suitable to a complexion based on their mother. This was the finding of the study.
Are we conditioned by society, friendships, social media and the ideal of what the perfect skin tone is? Perhaps.
From a male’s perspective, light skin women are glorified in a way. Although they are seen as superior, light skin women are still minoritized. They are a given sense of privilege. The common misconception of only light skinned women being predominantly beautiful needs to be dismantled. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, expresses the male perspective on light skin women quite frequently. I notice for myself occasional tweets that depict and show negativity towards dark skin females, and praise light skin females.
The entire light skin vs. dark skin could be seen as origin back in 1712 in the Colony of Virginia with the Willie Lynch Plan. The black community overall needs to be glorified too, and unified, like before our enslavement. Focusing and exemplifying on shades of color is a small difference that is continuing to break unity. Educating the youth on breaking this reoccurring chain is crucial forthcoming. Teaching adolescents the true beauty behind shades of skin color will promote positivity, self confidence and acceptance, perspectives, race enlightenment, and inequality divisions, and even more.
In the media we are shown reality stars, musicians, actors, and everyday people of different skin tones. The media even openly promotes lighter skinned people as more attractive and successful simply the amount of press they give. Beyoncé’s dad, Matthew Knowles claimed “his daughter was more successful because of her skin tone and said virtually no black pop stars with darker skin had broken through in the past decade.” Many fashion models and icons are seen and used as more fitting and more attractive with lighter skin complexions. The media simply promotes that.
There was an incident with rapper Kodak Black that made comments about darker skinned women being less beautiful. He stated that dark skin is “too gutter and light skin are more sensitive.” He had made prior comments about darker skinned women on other occasions, and he held his position in this belief stating, “he was conditioned to have that mindset.”
Are we saying that you need to bleach your skin to be looked on as more beautiful or more accomplished? Is that what the beauty industry, media, and society is telling the black population? I would beg to differ. The admiration and acceptance of darker skin is becoming more enlightened. Gabrielle Union caught an abundance of criticism for emphasizing the beauty of dark skin women simply because she saw that all her sons liked light skinned women. She is an empowering woman who is working against that and trying to change those views similar to Kodak’s. Her moving campaign, along with the “Dark is Beautiful” campaign, is hopefully going to reshape the views and acceptance on skin tone preferences.
Though lighter skin is still the ‘alright’ first glance in society and even the launch pad for some, it is by no means the measure of one’s character or worth in the world.
References:
Esmail, A., & Sullivan, J. (2006). African American College Males and Females: A Look at Color Mating Preferences. Race, Gender & Class, 13(1/2), 201-220.
Joseph-Dottin, T. (2018). Dark Skin Women vs Light Skin Women: Colorism Within Our Community. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://pinkprods.com/the-pink-press/2017/8/8/dark-skin-women-vs-light-skin-women-colorism-within-our-community
Word Count: 667
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you taking up the issue of colorism. However, the material you cite (journal article not abstract) may not be the most productive starting point. In large part because it doesn't have much to say, directly at any rate, in media and representation.
That's not to say you couldn't use this as a source. However, you don't leverage this study in very effective fashion. And the insights afforded by this article haven't been integrated into your more direct discussion of media.
Once you get to a discussion of media, you are on firmer ground, but again, without more explicit reference to the relevant scholarship, the post comes off as editorializing rather than critical-cultural criticism.
Persistent trouble with formatting (font size, APA reference) further undermine your efforts.
25 pts.