Blog Post On The African American Experience With Colorism

By Georgina Paez 

Colorism is defined as discrimination or prejudice against any type of skin color. It is a huge problem in America that has been around for a long time and it has had a lot of impacts in many communities, specifically the African American one. Darker African Americans tend to be the group mainly targeted by this problem. This inequality dates back to the past, to slavery.

The seeds of colorism in America were first planted by Caucasian people. The moment Caucasians began enslaving Africans in America, it marked the beginning of their long term power and superiority over the African race. Everything that belonged to the African was made to be inferior to everything of the Caucasian, from their identity to their culture. This meant skin color too. Everything of the Caucasian was perceived as superior and beautiful in the American society, while everything of the Africans became associated with negative connotations. The blackness that was once beautiful and filled with integrity for Africans, became the symbol of slavery. From this point in history, the labels placed on the skin colors black and white were now engraved in American society. Future generations of Caucasians continued upholding the perception that the African’s darker skin was dirty, animal like, ugly, and inhuman, while lighter skin was elegant, good, pure, and beautiful. The impact of the ideologies were strong that today colorism is still a very big issue in our society, that has only created division between darker African Americans and lighter African Americans, as well as Caucasians.

A cultural artifact that focuses on colorism is Kendrick Lamar’s song “Complexion (A Zulu Love)” ft. Rapsody. In the song Lamar raps about how complexion doesn’t define who we are as people. He believes we’re all equal, and that we should all be treated with love regardless of our complexions. Throughout the song he mentions many verses related to colorism, and the way that darker skin has been oppressed in history, and still today. “Sneak me through the back window, I’m a good field nigga. I made a flower for you outta cotton just to chill with you.” (Lamar) In the song, Lamar represents a darker slave who likes a lighter skinned slave. He calls himself a “field nigga”, because Caucasians believed that darker slaves were more animal-like, so they’d put them to work in the fields picking cotton. He states having to sneak through a back window to see the lighter girl. This is because slaves who were lighter in complexion were mixed with half Caucasian and were given more privileges, like working in the master’s house instead of the fields where conditions were terrible. This played a huge role in society. Throughout time lighter African Americans were continued to be given more privileges than their darker peers. Many lighter African Americans were allowed to get an education and own more property. This created a huge division within the African American community that still exists today. Today, lighter African Americans are praised more when it comes to beauty standards, as they’re deemed more attractive by society, and are even more privileged when it comes to being hired in jobs. Today, African Americans even have a toxic term called “Dark Skins vs. Light skins” where they compete to say who’s better than who. “12 years of age, thinkin’ my shade too dark. I love myself, I no longer need Cupid…Light don’t mean you smart, bein’ dark don’t make you stupid.” (Rapsody) In this verse Rapsody, who’s a dark skin man mentions how growing up he used to feel insecure with his skin color. This is an effect of colorism, as darker skin tends to be oppressed and made fun of. He also raps against the stereotype that deems darker people as dumb, while lighter people are deemed smart. This reflects back to ideologies from slavery and segregation, where African Americans were considered savages and like animals. They were thought to have a lack of knowledge in many aspects, like being able to think for themselves. 

Sonia Delgado-Tall mentions colorism and the labels it places on skin colors in her piece “The Negro Movement and the African Heritage In a Pan-Africanist Perspective.” She states, “Wallace Thurman,Countee Cullen,Claude Mckay, and Marcus Garvey experienced alienation and rejection due to their dark skin. An extremely rich palette of formal and slang terms developed in their novels and poetry to describe shades of complexion, with the lighter shades being associated with the most positive value (material or moral. Light-skinned Blacks range from “high-yaller,” “honey,” “lemon colored, and “pink” to “olive”; middle shades of skin color went from “Cocoa brown,” “Coffee-colored,” “Vaseline brown” and “chestnut” to “Nut brown”; and the darker skinned were described as “blue,” “inky-dink,” “eightball,” “damn black,” “low black,” and “dark black.” (Tall-Delgado, 295) This highlights a very important quote as Delgado mentions an important concept when it comes to colorism. Labels play an important role in skin colors as they depict people’s belief of the skin color. Through the label we can see the discriminatory way darker skin is referred to, while lighter skins are labeled in a more positive way, which only highlights just how real Colorism is. This quote relates to “Marcus Garvey and The Universal Negro Improvement Association” in the “Let Nobody Turn Us Around” book by Manning Marable and Leith Mullings. Delgado had mentioned Marcus Garvey as one of the leaders who wrote about his experiences with his darker skin, and colorism. “We are discriminated against and denied an equal chance to earn wages for the support of our families, and in many instances are refused admission into labor unions, and nearly everywhere are paid smaller wages than white men…We believe all men entitled to common human respect, and that our race should in no way tolerate any insults that may be interpreted to mean. disrespect to our color…We believe that the Negro should adopt every means to protect himself against barbarous practices inflicted upon him because of color.” (Marable and Mullings, 243-244) In his writing, Marcus Garvey refers to skin color a lot as a form of discrimination in his time. He doesn’t just mention race, he mentions color as well. Garvey is aware of the way colorism play a big role in the discrimination African Americans face. What Caucasians would always oppress African Americans for, always went back to skin color. From the name callings to Black face, where Caucasians would paint their face black and mock African Americans, they always downgraded the darker skin color.  

Drawing:

Brown-Holloway, Brittany. Drawing of a brown skin girl. Racked. Sánchez, Erika L. “Learning to Love My Brown Skin.”7 Jan.2016. www.racked.com/2016/1/7/10723424/colorism-discrimination-mexico-beauty-skin-lightening.

This illustration by Brittany Holloway-Brown demonstrates an African American woman with dark skin. She looks distressed while looking in the mirror, with three lighter shades of makeup on her face. This symbolizes one huge effect of colorism in society. It depicts how darker people tend to often feel insecure about their skin color, just like Rapsody’s verse in “Complexion” by Kendrick Lamar, where he mentioned being 12 and insecure about his blackness. Many struggle with low self esteem knowing that they don’t fit the beauty standard and are considered unattractive or unpleasant based on the negative experiences they’ve had with their skin color. It goes back to the quote from “The Negro Movement and the African Heritage In a Pan-Africanist Perspective” by Sonia Delgado-Tall, where she mentions how darker skin is always correlated to negative attributes in society. As lighter skin is always praised in Caucasian people and many times in lighter African Americans, darker skin seems to always be the butt of the joke and has always been heavily criticised.

                                                                            Works Cited 

Lamar, Kendrick. “Kendrick Lamar (Ft. Rapsody) – Complexion (A Zulu Love).” Genius, 15 Mar.      2015, genius.com/Kendrick-lamar-complexion-a-zulu-love-lyrics. 

Delgado-Tall, Sonia. “The New Negro Movement and the African Heritage in a Pan-Africanist Perspective.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 31, no. 3, 2001, pp. 288–310. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2668034. Accessed 16 Dec. 2020.

Garvey, Marcus. “Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World.” Marable, Manning, and Leith Mullings. Let Nobody Turn Us around: Voices of Resistance, Reform, and Renewal: an African American Anthology, pp. 243-244. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.

Sánchez, Erika L. “Learning to Love My Brown Skin.” Racked, Racked, 7 Jan. 2016, www.racked.com/2016/1/7/10723424/colorism-discrimination-mexico-beauty-skin-lightening.

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