Colorism In African American Culture

were created and in order to be admitted other blacks would be admitted only if their skin tone was light enough that their veins were visible. The brown paper bag test was also developed in which certain African organization such as churches and historically black colleges would take a brown paper bag and hold it against a person's skin, if the person was lighter or the same color as the bag they would pass the test and if their skin was not lighter than a brown paper bag they failed the test (Pilgrim,2014)3. As the civil rights era began to bloom African Americans realized that regardless of their skin tones they would be subjected to discrimination, belittling, and being treated like second-class citizens, so the tension that existed between …show more content…
Colorism affects the African American community psychologically, financially, and educationally. Phycological issues that occur from colorism stems from the media and what is considered “beautiful”. Colorism can be seen on a day to day basis in the media with simple things such as magazines using Photoshop, and filters to lighten the skin tone of darker skin people in order to make them seem more appealing to the public. African American women in the media often depict lighter skinned black women as a representation of what a pretty black woman is supposed to look like, adding to the idea that lighter is prettier is the depiction of African American women in Rap and hip-hop videos. Due to the fact that Rap and hip-hop are extremely prevalent in the African American community the portrayal of a pretty black woman in the videos was that of a light skin woman with a thin nose, thin lips, and straight and long hair. The result of the media portrayal of what a pretty black woman should look like often leads those with darker skin tones to feel inferior, and less than and in order to fit in with what is considered beautiful a phenomenon known as