Colorism is not a popularity contest

Dr. Sarah L. Webb is the founder of Colorism Healing and the author of Colorism: The Politics of Skin Tone and How We Get Free, out now from Legacy Lit. Below, she discusses the far-reaching consequences of colorism and how it is misrepresented in pop culture. (Photo courtesy of the author.)

On its surface, colorism appears to be a simple issue of who we find physically attractive or not.

In pop culture news, the biggest headlines related to colorism feature a dark-skinned celebrity confessing that she had to learn to embrace her own beauty after growing up being told that she was “pretty for a dark girl.”

On the more controversial end, we see heated debates about how or if colorism plays out in reality TV shows.

Outside of this arena, it’s less common to find more informative discussions on the issue. This was especially true when I began studying and writing about colorism in 2011. Because I hadn’t heard others addressing this topic, I was initially surprised to discover that significant academic research and other thought leadership had existed on the topic for decades.

As it turns out, colorism is far more than a vain popularity contest. It is the social marginalization of individuals and groups with darker skin tones and the privileging of those with lighter skin tones. It happens both within and across many racial and ethnic groups around the world.

Earlier works like Marita Golden’s Don’t Play in the Sun (nonfiction, 2004), Alice Walker’s In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens (essays, 1983), Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry (fiction, 1929), and Zora Neal Hurston’s Color Struck (drama, 1926) were each groundbreaking works during their respective times and continue to provide valuable insight on the history and trajectory of colorism for those of us navigating its modern-day context.

While the academic research is less accessible, often behind a paywall and not written for general audiences, they are essential in how our understanding of colorism and its systemic impact continues to advance. This research shows that for nearly every racial inequality, there is a similar and parallel color inequality that exists amongst people of the same race.

These inequalities based on relative skin tone span all areas of social life, from school suspension rates, wage gaps, healthcare disparities, racial profiling, and police brutality.

My new book, Colorism: The Politics of Skin Tone and How We Get Free, carries the torch of colorism awareness into this modern era, taking a global and cross-cultural look at how colorism impacts lives, and how every individual can empower themselves to create change.

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