Colorism

L’Oreal, Shiseido, Unilever, and Emami all share a common thread. They each, like many other make-up companies, make a profit off of colorism – prejudice against individuals with a dark skin tone – through the manufacture and sell of skin lighteners. The skin lightening industry is worth millions of dollars and is still growing in many countries around the world. The industry is booming for many reasons, such as: perceived benefits of light skin, the type of advertisements companies use, and a…

understand different aspects of culture. This type of thinking can lead to binaries or thinking in terms of black and white and not seeking any gray area. For instance, the topic of race in certain countries can become binaries which progress to colorism in due time. To begin with, in the Dominican Republic, the ideas behind coloniality still permeate the nation. According to the documentary “Black in Latin America”, Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores how Dominicans and Haitians…

The European Union is an economic, social, and political union of 28 nations in Europe. Created in the aftermath of the Second World War, a union of European states was sought out and was believed to be the solution to the endless bloodshed that, fueled by the nationalist rivalries between its neighbors, had been ravaging the continent for more than a thousand years. Today, with the institution of the Treaties of Rome and Maastricht, the European Union uses the powers it has acquired from its…

down upon was most likely tied to her darker skin along with her legal status. According to the journals, “Beyond “White by Law”: Explaining the Gulf in citizenship Acquisition between Mexican and European Immigrants, 1930”, Census data proved the colorism that ran rampant at the time: Mexicans categorized as white were also more likely to speak English, to be literate, to have higher socioeconomic status, and to own a home. It is possible that their higher socioeconomic status followed from a…

Dr. Aisha Phoenix from London acknowledges this in her article “Colorism and the Politics of Beauty”: “Many of those disadvantaged by colorism (focus on) trying to climb up the hierarchy through skin whitening and body modifications, rather than rejecting it altogether… some people of color seek to sustain its racist and colorist underpinnings” (Davis…

There are a lot of ways to describe people like us. Sometimes, they describe us as “too African for the Westerners, but too Western for the Africans.” As an Ethiopian-Canadian-American attending university in the nation’s capital, one might think navigating my identity would be easy, considering that the DC area contains the highest Ethiopian population outside of East Africa. For me, it is anything but easy. Despite never being given the opportunity to visit Ethiopia, Amharic (Ethiopia’s…

their voices heard. In a number of cases, people of all races and ethnicities can inhabit the same space, take the New York City “Melting Pot” metaphor for example. Race and ethnicity are factors that you cannot change about a person. If racism and colorism could one day be eradicated, we could further appreciate this aspect of cultural diversity. Language It goes without saying that there is not right or wrong way to speak. So many barriers have been broken down with language and we can…

I am a rising senior in high school at Oxford Academy in Cypress, California. I am the Community Outreach Director at Our Climate Story, a non-profit dedicated to sharing the human impact of climate change, where I organize workshops, partnerships, and media. I also coordinate a Take Back the Tap campaign on my campus with the Food and Water Watch, where I utilize skills such as canvassing, event planning, and power mapping to construct a campaign. I also have experience with grant writing as…

For generations, racism and prejudice has caused great carnage throughout the world. It is often assumed that it is simply a part of human nature, or a product societally bad ideas, and can be ceased by the changing of these ideas. However, both of these assumptions are incorrect. Racism isn’t simply an ideology, but an institution. The origin of racism is rooted in the mid-fifteenth century, the beginning of Transatlantic Slave Trade. Prior to this, the concept of slavery existed and prevailed…

seventh grade, I found myself thrust into the world of elite, predominantly white private schools. As a person of color coming into this environment, it seemed as if issues regarding racial diversity, religious diversity, socioeconomic status, and even colorism would be inevitable aspects of my experience. Initially, I did not acknowledge the presence of these issues in my new surroundings as they were topics that I had never encountered before and consequently did not fully understand. Slowly,…