Colorism At Its Peak (ii)

The preceding article was all about colorism being at its peak and how it has its own root and there wouldn't have been colorism in our communities if not for racism and I partially discussed how racism has brought up this idea of colorism even in the African and Asian communities, you can check the complete article here.

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Concerning colorism, Alisa ( Giac- Thao) tran noted in one of her interview: historically, a lot of communities have held “blackness" as a bad thing and have culturally transmitted these negative connotations across time both within and outside their groups.... this definitely explain the fact that colorism has existed as long as racism and we just have to speak out on it just like any other form of discrimination.... in America dates back to slavery when when lighter skinned enslaved people were given preferential treatment by being made to work in the house rather than in the fields.

Why are they not working on the field?.... This is due to the fact that they were frequently the illegitimate children of slave masters. Working at home increases the likelihood that light-skinned, black, or mixed-race people will be literate and trained in a certain way and with some certain thing , and so over time light skin came to be viewed as an asset and we're given higher priority in the enslaved community.... sadly this didn't disappear after emancipation (when slavery ended).

As a result of Colorism, the light skin black people continued receiving opportunities that were off limits to dark skin black people as such, many upper class families in black society were light skin, which in further linked light skin with this notion of privilege within the black community.... in Africa, the concept of colorism came with European colonisers who established class structures that sadly still exist till today and the mixed race offspring are often products of male European coloniser and African women, were deemed superior to fully blooded Africans.

I mean, south Africa apartheid system went so far as to legally classify mixed race people into a category called “coloureds" in other to impose supremacy and maintain racial divisions but although european colonialism left it's mark everywhere, colorism in Asia countries predates European contact rather, it has ties to the class system and social inequality particularly within the south Asian community.

Rulling classes had lighter complexions that the lower class because they didn't work outdoor or do they do any manual labor and as such, darker skin came to be associated with lower classes and fairness with the higher castes....

But What Effect Does Colorism have On Us Today?... That would be discussed in the concluding part.

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