Colonization and Colorism
Colorism was first "coined" by Alice Walker in the 1980s [1]. It's defined as a "type of skin-color bias that involves systematic discrimintation against the darker-skinned members"[2] "within a single race" [3]. Unlike racism, colorism is "concerned with actual skin tone, as opposed to racial and ethinic identity." [4]. There is not only a "preference" [5] for lighter skin, but there is also a privilege that is affored to those with lighter skin tones over those with darker skin tones [6].
This privilege that exists within these societies can be traced back to when they were first colonized by the Europeans. All of the countries in this study, except for India, were affecting by the colonization that occurred during the colonial times. During this time, European countries colonized countries in order to gain access to more natural resources, as well as expand [7]. This led to the people of those countries not only being stripped away of their own natural resources, but it also led to them being ruled by a new group of people.
This group that had ruled over them, the Europeans, were naturally seen as more powerful.
This is seen in not only countries that were colonized during the colonial period, but also countries that were impacted by the slave trade that occurred during the colonial period as well. Countries, such as Jamaica, can trace back the colorism within their society to the favoritism of the Mulattoes [8] -the offspring of White men and captive African women- [9] on the plantations.” [10].
Even in India, a country that was not colonized by the British until after the period of colonization, the presence of colorism can still be attributed to the time they were colonized. To this day, “…the English as representing the highest culture and embodying the optimum physical type” [11].
Those with lighter skin ruling over those with darker skin, instilled the idea that those with lighter skin are superior. This phenomenon is described in Mubaya and Mawere's research as an "inferiority complex"[12]. Today, this can still be seen in both professional and sexual settings across the globe.
[1] Sandeep K. Sambhi, All is Not Fair: The Cosmetics War on Women in India, (University of Oregon, 2016), 5.
[2] Nina G. Jablonski, Aspiring to Lightness, (Living Color: The biological and social meaning of skin color, 2012), 172.
[3] Sandeep K. Sambhi, All is Not Fair: The Cosmetics War on Women in India, 6.
[4] Christopher A.D. Charles, Skin Bleaching and the Prestige Complexion of Sexual Attraction, (Sexuality and Culture, no. 15, 2011), 376.
[5] Evelyn N. Glenn, Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners, (Gender and Society, no. 3, 2008), 281.
[6] Becky L. Choma and Kathryn Harper. Internalised White Ideal, Skin Tone Surveillance, and Hair Surveillance Predict Skin and Hair Dissatisfaction and Skin Bleaching among African American and Indian Women. (Sex Roles, no. 80, 2019), 735.
[7] theOpenBook, Colonization and Imperialism, (YouTube, 2018). 3:33.
[8] Evelyn N. Glenn, Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners", 286.
[9] Christopher A.D. Charles, Skin Bleaching and the Prestige Complexion of Sexual Attraction, 377.
[10] Evelyn N. Glenn, Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners, 286.
[11] Evelyn N. Glenn, Yearning for Lightness: Transnational Circuits in the Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners, 289.
[12] Tapuwa R. Mubaya and Munyaradzi Mawere, Mental Colonialism, Skin Bleaching, and the African Denial of the Self: Interrogating Skin Bleaching and Make-up among African Women, (GMOs, Consumerism and the Global Politics of Biotechnology: Rethinking Food, Bodies and Identities in Africa's 21st Century, 2017), 237.