Skip to main content

PREVALENCE OF COLORISM IN BLACK AMERICAN MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS



By: Cailey Griffin

    It would be extremely difficult to make the argument that the media doesn’t have power. The media has the power to foster a sense of community amongst people by bringing friends and family together to view a television show. The media has the power to regulate the emotions of individuals by creating fictional characters the average viewer will become attached to. The media also has the power to serve as a representation of the different “types” of people in society. In media platforms there’s usually a clear representation of what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a person of color, and what it means to be a person from a particular socioeconomic background. These media representations of different groups and types of people are not always incorrect or negative. In fact, I would argue that media representations are largely positive for certain people. However, the group that seems to consistently get the short end of the stick in media representations are people of color in general, and more specifically Black Americans.
    Media seems to operate as a reflection of the values and opinions of the society around it. Many White Americans tend to view Black women as being “loud” and “ghetto”, so that’s how many Black women are represented in the media. Many White Americans also tend to view Black men as violent and dangerous, so that’s what leads to the depiction of Black men as “thugs” and “gangsters” in many media depictions. Black Americans have also been represented in media through the lens of colorism for a long time even though conversations surrounding the issue have just begun.
     In the article Pride and Prejudice: Pervasiveness of Colorism and the Animated Series Proud Family, Catherine Knight Steele addresses the fact that even within a popular cartoon that depicts the strong and positive bond of an African American family, like The Proud Family, colorism still makes its way into character representations in the show (Steele, 2016, p. 53). Steele defines colorism as “a worldwide phenomenon of discrimination wherein people are given certain status and privilege based on the physical features of skin color, facial features, and hair textures” (Steele, 2016, p. 53). The people receiving a particular status and privilege are often people with lighter skin (Steele, 2016, p. 53). This preference towards things like lighter skin, more European features, and a looser hair texture stems from the fact that people view those traits as factors that make a person closer to European ancestry, and in turn superior.

    Steele first addresses the presence of colorism in the characters “The Gross Sisters” from the show The Proud Family (Steele, 2016, p. 60). The Gross Sisters are Penny Proud’s classmates who are considered bullies and all have very deep dark skin that appears to be a shade of blue (Steel, 2016, p. 60). The Gross Sisters also wear their hair in natural styling, specifically cornrows, and they all have a body type not in alignment with the traditional European beauty standard of being thin (Steele, 2016, p. 60). Steele shares that at one point Penny even refers to them as “monsters” when making the point she does not consider them to be one of her friends (Steele, 2016, p. 60).
    The Gross Sisters are a perfect representation of colorism in the show because their role supports the narrative that dark skin Black women are somehow less than their lighter skin counterparts. In the media, dark skin women are often portrayed as being less attractive and more aggressive than light skin women. The Gross Sisters fit this role by being characterized as the school bully and even being considered less than human by Penny.
    Ultimately, the depiction of The Gross Sisters in the show was most harmful to the darker skin black children who watched it. Narratives such as the one depicted by The Gross Sisters leads dark skin Black children to believe that their skin is less than, having the hair that grows out of their head in its natural state is wrong, and being a body type other than thin makes them less attractive. When children feed into these ideals presented by the media, they grow up internalizing this idea and then cause the cycle to keep continue by intentionally or unintentionally instilling the same ideas in their own children.
    To combat this narrative of darker skin black women, without European presenting features, their needs to be an alternative depiction to the one presented of The Gross Sisters in The Proud Family. If The Gross Sisters storyline is absolutely essential to the functioning of the show, fine; however, there should also be a depiction of darker skin black women, who look like The Gross Sisters, and who are also kind, generally considered attractive, and educated to combat the negative narrative in the show.


Words: 813
Keywords: #Colorism #The Proud Family #darkskin #light skin #beauty #european beauty standards #Media
References:
Steele, C. K. (2016). Pride and Prejudice: Pervasiveness of Colorism and the Animated Series Proud Family. Howard Journal of Communications, 27(1), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2015.1117028
“The Gross Sisters.” Wickedpedia. Photo [JPG]. disneyvillains.wikia.com/wiki/The_Gross_Sisters.

Labels:

Comments

  1. KHNovember 28, 2018 at 3:56 AM

    Cailey,

    Bit of a mixed bag here. On the one hand, you've located a provocative bit of media/cultural criticism and offered some additional insight into this Disney produced TV show. Recall our brief conversation on Giroux's critique of Disney in terms of film & television as "teaching machines."

    On the other hand, at over 800 words, this runs much longer than required. The give away is the "set up" in your first couple of paragraphs. While those generalizations are well taken, it's best to take a page from Hollywood with these posts and "cut to the chase."

    In other words, open your essay with a brief introduction to either the show or the concept of colorism. Then run with it!

    Equally important, while you do a fine job summarizing Steele's critique, its time to take the next step and begin deploying the literature to inform a more original analysis. For instance, Steele's analysis has profound implications given the target demographic of this program. You might consider this at some length here.

    Finally, your formatting doesn't follow our "house style" and I note a few errors of punctuation throughout.

    25 pts.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

POLITICAL COMEDY: A DETERRENT IN THE ELECTION

By Griffin Spurgin Late night talk shows play a big role in today’s society. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart are two reasons why the outcome of the 2016 election came out with the results landing in favor of Republican Donald Trump. Both these shows are a great watch for those that love comedy, but they also provide as good news sources for politics and elections. However, they can pose a negative satirical threat to their viewers. The past election was a heated and important one to say the least. The two candidates, to most, were unqualified for the job. Dean Flannery writes in his research article, “How Satire Failed,” that, “Just 24 hours before Donald Trump was elected the next president of the United States, Americans were still in the mood to laugh about their volatile political climate—or rather, late-night hosts were still trying to make them laugh about it”(Flannery, 2016). Elections should not be laughing mat...
4 comments
Read more

ARTISTRY WITHIN ACTIVISM

By: Sarah Selzer When armchair theorizing political activism, pop-culture has been noted as the driving force of political change. However, this notion truly comes to life when we look at the history of how hip-hop could be considered the voice of our generation, specifically containing the critical area for the emergence of hip-hop feminism. Concerning political movements that stemming from the base of hip-hop music influence, female artists not only used their platform as a form of sexual and artistic expression but to highlight problems within Grassroots- Black Community politics (Collins, 2014). Primarily Black and Latino youth were denied access to basic education, decent housing, recreational activities, and music lessons stemming from the early to mid-1900’s (Collins, 2014). Instead of feeling defeated, young-female black youths took the time to create new art forms of music that challenged the stereotypes of being born into poverty which ultimately gave them opportunit...
4 comments
Read more

NO MORE DAISY DUKES

By Colleen Kelly This thematic series has begun to establish that female sexuality is an aspect of the music industry capable of crossing genre barriers. Country music has traditionally been labeled the genre with the least emphasis on female sexuality because of its socially conservative themes (Aubrey & Frisby, 2011, p. 477). I challenge this notion with my assertion that sexuality has always been present in country music but has undergone a change from a form of feminist liberation to a tool to objectify women. In the history of country music, particularly visible in the 1990s, there is a long-standing tradition of female artists using their music to advance feminist ideals and reclaim their sexuality (Berlatsky, 2014). Let me be clear that I am not asserting that these musicians are the long-awaited saviors of women. Rather, these female artists utilized the media to challenge societal norms surrounding gender and sexuality. Shania Twain was not only one of the biggest ...
6 comments
Read more