Colorism

Of the several discourse communities that I belong to, the most evident and probably the one that I identify with the most is the black community. Contrary to popular belief in this country, the black community does not exclusively include African Americans, but those who come from African descent such as people from Africa, the United States, Caribbean, and in some cases Europe and Central/South America. From our several shades of brown to our unique culture, this large, widespread group of…

People of Middle Eastern or Asian descent are often described as having “brown” or “yellow” skin, as if these particular shades are variations of a default. Shelley's use of color within her novel further exemplifies this colorism: Elizabeth is described as having hair of “the brightest living gold” and “cloudless” blue eyes–features that reflect an implied purity–whereas the monster's black hair and “watery” eyes contrast Elizabeth's as dark, undesirable traits (Shelley 20)…

black that she is willing the imagine harm to her black body. In addition to thinking about Morrison’s presentation of this theme, I also thought about the documentary Dark Girls and thought back to the way that the way that the manifestation of colorism was shown by the director. The little black girls' choice of dolls was one way that this was shown, therefore, inspiring me to incorporate details about Pecola’s creation of a doll that emulates white beauty standards. I took inspiration from…

of black male incarceration rates increase because the war on drug’s started. The book explains additional legal negative impacts that push forward to keep a constant state on the incarceration rates of black men such as police discretion, racism/colorism, legalized…

The Black Aristocracy is Born While many elite blacks were able to maintain some of their accumulated assets, the country was in a severe state of transition economically and socially. And by the onset of the Civil War, many free black men [and slaves] had enlisted in the army and began receiving federal allotments for their service through the Freedman’s Bank (Frazier Page 35). In 1865, a month before his death, President Abraham Lincoln signed an act passed by Congress that established the…

Sam’s self-published book, Ebony and Ivy, describes Coco as a “nose job”, which is a person of color who tries to blend in with white people, while simultaneously rejecting their own race. Coco’s views of race and class stem from her experiences of colorism, which is discrimination against people with a dark skin tone, typically among those of the same race. This is demonstrated by the black TV producer who would rather create a show based on the biracial Sam than the dark-skinned Coco, who then…

The Third Wave: 1915-1960 The Black Working Class Meets the Aristocracy As the century came to a close, the old black elite was losing their position due to the rapid economic and social changes in America. A newly developing black middle class that excelled based on economic and educational achievement began integrating with the previous black upper class. This new group still consisted of blacks that worked as businessmen, professionals and in white-collar jobs from the…

African American community during this era and how the effects of false media against African Americans led to the slaughter in the streets of downtown Atlanta. Bauerlein discussed how well-off, or “elite” African Americans relied on the beliefs of colorism to keep them safe from the harm of the riots,as well as their social and economic classes would be seen as respectable in the eyes of white supremacy. Instead, the media portrayed African Americans as a generalized evil, causing an outlash…

The Broken Scale Oppression and privilege our broken scale, with one end as light as a feather and the other as dense as a rock. The rock represents an application of tyranny used to rule a group of people, which is known as oppression. The feather is not being chastised or subjected to certain events, which is privilege. In Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee’s book Women’s Voices and Feminist Visions by bell hooks Feminism is For Everybody shows the relationship between oppression and privilege these…

social standing. By contrast, the indigenous population tends to populate agrarian and urban regions as the working class and poor of Mexico. On the other side of the spectrum, those with European ancestry tend to make up the wealthier classes due to colorism and policies that favored the inheritance of…