Colorism In 'The Color Purple' By Alice Walker

Colorism, or Shadeism is defined as discrimination based on skin tone; ultimately colorism privileges lighter skinned people over their dark-skinned counterparts. Colorism is a direct consequence of Chattel Slavery and racism. While racism operates on the basis of race, colorism further perpetuates this discrimination because it influences the degree to which people will be victimized depending on their skin tone. This concept is fairly new; the term colorism was first conceived by Alice Walker in 1982. Alice Walker was born in 1944, in Eaton, GA to two sharecroppers. An interesting fact about Walker, is that she later married a Jewish man named Melvin Rosenman Levynthal; although Walker attended segregated schools in the South, and experienced the brutal nature of racism she married a white man. …show more content…
In the 1980’s Walker cleverly publicized a new component of racism, one which many are eager to deny and overlook. As an esteemed, award-winning author Walker has published many books and essays dedicated to the topic of race and colorism; The Color Purple, an award winning book written by Walker which was also produced into a film, has many examples of colorism. Celie, the main character of the novel is brutally abused by both her father, and her husband. In the 1985 film directed by Steven Spielberg, Celie’s father is approached by a man who wants to marry her sister Nettie, instead her father offers Celie to him: “I can let you have