1. Kiazhane Chavez
SCO 3425
Critical Analysis
Light SkinVs. Dark skininAfrican AmericanWomen
. . . Colorism operates sometimesto confoundand sometimesto restructureracial hierarchy.
Meanwhile, the circulatingmeanings attached to color shape the meaning of race. . . (Angela
P. Harris. Shades of Difference:Why Skin Color Matters, Stanford UniversityPress, p.2)
It is no secret that there is a problem with colorism amongmany races around the
world. There are issues with colorism in different countries like Asiaand Mexico. But I will
be going into depth about issues inthe US dealing with African Americans. It seems as if
people with a darker hue comes with more stigmain their own race. So my main focus is
going to be dealing with colorism withblack females with light skin, and black females with
dark skin using the Symbolic InteractionTheory with three correspondingassumptions. My
first assumption is;dark skin women are objectivelyless attractive than other women from
there race using socialization. The next assumption will be; judgments of dark skin women
negatively affect their self – perceptions usingsocial constructionof reality. Lastlythe third
assumption is; lighter skin women are more privileged (inall aspects) usinglabeling.
These assumptions are placed in an order to shows what other people inthe black
communityfeel about darker skin women and their physical appearance. How stereotypes of
the dark skin women affect them. Lastlyhow the lighter skinwomen have advantages and is
seento be more acceptable by society. The separationof the two startedamong the black

2. race in times of slavery. Going a little indepth, it is not a hidden fact that slavery was a
horrific periodfor blacks and people todaystill struggle with the realityof it. Many people
still carrythe burden and hurt by their ancestors that had to go through slavery.
During slavery the black communitywas brokenapart because some slaves were
more favored by the slave owners, a rift between the two levels of slaves, and hurt. This is
something the black community still has not recoveredfrom. If you had dark skin you were
known and a fieldworker, hard worker, and did all their free labor outside. If your skin was
light you were known as the house slave, always doing manual labor inside. There were
many ways to distinguishwhere you were placedbut the one most people know is the paper
bag test. The shade of the bag was in the middle of the two, so if you were lighter than the
bag you worked inside and if you were darker than the bag you stayedoutside. I believe this
is what brought the separationand dislike of the all the shades of black. As if the only thing
that gave you an ounce of credibilitywas your skin tone. The racial frame is now the lighter
skin tones and goodhair makes them more acceptable to the dominate group (Light Skin
Girls Documentary, 2015). Eventhough majorityof the time the lighter skin child came out
of rape between the slave and slave owner.
1. Dark skinwomenare objectivelyless attractive thanwomenfrom their race
(socialization)
Socializationrefersto the lifelongprocessof inheritingand spreading norms, values
and ideologies, providingan individual with learnedhabits. Parents are the primaryagents
of socializationduringthe first several years of life (Lander, 2013). In2011 there was a
documentarycalled Dark Girls directedby Bill Duke and D. Channsin Berry, exploring

3. colorism and bias in the everyday dark skin women’s life. It was perceived that darker skin
women’s physical appearance to the back male was not precious enoughto be taken
seriously, theywere seenas ugly, and only goodfor sex. In a recent Dove study, it was found
that 7/10 girls ages 8-17 feeltheyare not good enough or do not measure up in appearance
(Dark Girls Documentary, 2011). The feelingof not being good enough can last a lifetime.
So why do young women feel so beneaththeir true worth? Where does it start? School
seemedto be the place 90% of the taunting began. Being called names like tar baby,
darkness, ugly, monkey etc. Whenthis behavior is learned from the home and its inflictedon
the dark skin child the spirt is broken at a young age. The child who is bullying the dark skin
girl believes what he or she is saying about them. In returnthe dark girl starts to believe what
she hears to be true. And the dislike and ugliness is carriedon into adulthood keeping them
lonelyand not loved by the opposite sex. To have the opposite sexfindthem attractive some
women so as far as bleaching their skin. African-Americanwomen choose to literally
decolorize theirbodies, andultimatelythemselves just to feel accepted(Mathews, 2013).
2. Judgments ofdark skinwomennegativelyaffect their self – perceptions
(social constructionofreality)
Social constructionof realityis the development of jointlyconstructedunderstandings
of the world that form the basis for shared assumptions about reality. These assumptions
about what people think, what theyknow, and the truthare all components to one’s reality.
People who make pre-conceivednotions and judgments are the ones hurting the spirts of
black women. So there is reallyno true realityonly stereotypes, stigma, prejudice, and
discriminationthat hurts the women personally. Womenwith the darker hue comparedto

4. some lighter blackwomen, get pre judged in the most harmful way. The “angry black
women” come with a long list of stereotypes that people tendto believe and then judge all
darker skin women as a whole. Making the women feel less about herself anddamaging her
self-esteem. To generalize the darker skin women is ghetto, loud, aggressive, demanding,
uncivilized, a bitch, ugly, nappy headed, and overall hard to deal with. Is this true? No. With
little to no representationof "Black beauty," women of color will continue to live by far
reaching norms (Mathews, 2013). African-Americanwomenremain ashamed of their
complexionand physiognomy, an obvious sign of shatteredself-concept (Mathews, 2013).
3. Lighter skinwomenare more privileged(inall aspects) (labeling)
Labeling theoryis the view of deviance and behavior change. For instance, when you
labeledas a "deviant" leads a person to engage in deviant behavior. Just being a member of
the black communityyou are labeledno matter what skin tone you are. Societyhas a way of
putting people in a box. But within our communities we label ourselves, the labels assigned
to light skin ("red, red-bone, high yellow, and light bright"") take on completelydifferent
imagery than the labels assigned to dark skin (“coal black, tar baby, and blue-black")
(Mathews, 2013). Those labels alone give the lighter skin more privilege inside and outside
of their communities. Historically, AfricanAmericans with lighter skinhave contributedto
colorism because theyhave benefitedfrom the privilege of having a skin color closerto that
of Whites and have embracedthe notionthat privilege comes with having light skin in
America (Marry, 2011). These “privileges” are being acceptedby society, wanted by black
men, highest standard of beauty, create prettier babies, and higher education. Being a lighter
skin black women the only extraattentionI receive is from blackmen but outside of that I

5. have to work just as hard as anyone else. But if you’re going to label me and say that I’m
prettier thana darker skinwoman, that I’m conceded, and that I have good curlyhair
eventually that is what I will believe. And if I am watching the world label dark skin women
with no positive image, who’s always angry, who you call ugly, who it beneath me. Then in
returnI will engage in believe those terms andshe will begin to act in such a way.
In the documentaryof Dark Skin Girls, they showed a video of a beautiful young girl.
Relating to the topic her skin was a beautiful dark brown. She was asked multiple
generalizedquestions with cards of childrenwith different shades of color from light to dark.
She was asked “what child is the prettyone”“what child is the smart one” etc. She pointedto
the cardwith the lightest child for eachanswer. Then she was asked “what child is bad”
“which child is dumb” she pointedto the card that had the darkest child for eachanswer. The
socialization, concept of reality, and labeling all come into play before adulthood. Black
childrenneedto come together andnot label and tear another down.
In modernsocietyblackwomen as whole have to work extra hard to be recognized
for their being and accomplishments. Darker skinwomen have to work four times as hard to
live a peaceful life without being torndown by their own race and society. This is because
dark skin has been deemed"as 'mark of oppression'"or blackness as consequence (Mathew,
2013). And many people don’t want to deal with that issues or make excuses to not help
uplift our beautiful dark skin women. Lighter skin women are still of the race hierarchywhen
it comes to men, acceptance and education. There is a significant relationshipbetween the
high self-esteem of African-Americanwomen with light skin complexions and the low self-
esteem of womenwith darker complexions (Mathews, 2013). It’s sad just surprisingthat the

6. color of their skindetermines their worth. It is a social norm for darker skinwomen to feel
less than, and the lighter skin women glorifiedbut if they know their true self what everyone
has to say shouldn’t matter. No one shouldengage in extremitieslike bleachingof the skin or
excessive tanning because one feels guiltyabout the skin they have (Light Skin Girls
Documentary, 2015). All shades of black is beautiful and needs to be accepted, the light skin
vs dark skin needs to come to an end.

7. Sources
 Duke, B., & Berry, D. (Directors). (2011). DarkSkin Girls [Motionpicture on
Documetary]. USA
 Duke, B. (Director). (2015). Light Skin Girls [Motionpicture onDocumentary].
USA.
 Landor, A. M., Simons, L. G., & Simons, R. L. (2013). Exploringthe Impact of Skin
Tone on Family Dynamics and Race-RelatedOutcomes. Retrievedfrom
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3970169/
 Marry. (2011, March). AfricanAmericans Still Victims of Colorism -. Retrievedfrom
http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2011/03/26/african-americans-still-victims-of-
colorism/
 Mathews, T. J. (2013, May1). The relationshipbetweenskin complexionand social
outcomes: Howcolorism affectsthe lives of African-Americanwomen. Retrieved
from
http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2286&context=dissertati
ons