Confronting Color

COLOR CONFRONTING

To colorism: We are more than our skin color

Their stares were unapologetically hostile. Blinded by fear, all they saw in the young dark-skinned boy was a “terrorist” and “bomber,” regardless of what his ethnicity or race might have been. It was not the first time he had been singled out for his skin color, yet following the aftermath of 9/11, it would certainly not be the last.

In Alice Walker’s series of essays “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” colorism is defined as “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color.”

Some may confuse it with its cousin term, racism. Colloquially, racism is the discrimination of an individual based on their race. Colorism, on the other hand, uses skin tone as a metric of prejudice instead of racial or ethnic identity. This means that colorism exists even within a race or ethnicity.

This breed of discrimination has been observed in minorities across the world. In the US, colorism plagues African American, Latinx, Hispanic and APIA populations, among others.

For Hiran Gadhavi*, a 27 year-old CEO of a software company in New York, his experience with colorism primarily started after 9/11. “There was a lot of animosity towards ‘brown’ people because those are the people that blew up the towers,” he said. “When I went to the ferry to take the boat, the 8 | spring 2020

police would randomly ask to check my bags like I had a bomb in there.”

Habibi Ting*, a civil engineer in New York, detailed a similar experience. “I was called every name in the book [because of my skin color],” he said. “Terrorist, bomber, everything.”

The origins of colorism dated back even earlier than slavery in America. In certain minority groups, it’s long been ingrained in the culture. which can be seen as colorism,” Gadhavi said. “The darker your skin tone, the less valuable or poorer you are.”

Ancy Jose, a 22-year-old humanities and creative writing major at Florida State University, experienced colorist ideas ever since she was young from her family, the Indian community, and the world.

“At home, my parents criticized and punished me if I went outside for too long because I tan very quickly,” Jose said. “To them, their lighter skin tone was a point of prestige, especially in the South Indian community which is historically darker compared to North Indian groups.”

In Jose’s community, skin color was greatly attributed to marriageability. “[A woman] could have the best education, career, accomplishments, but if she was dark, she was undesirable and thus openly worthless,” Jose said.

Rafael Amezcua, a 20 year old male, described his experiences with colorism. While others were looked down upon for being darker-skinned, he was discriminated against for his lighter-skin.

“For myself, I am a guero, a light skinned Mexican. All my life, I have been labeled as a white boy and I get it, I’m American,” he said, “but when I speak fluent Spanish everybody [is surprised and] trips out.”

“I traveled to Mexico on a family trip,” Amezcua said. “The neighborhood boys were playing soccer. I was bored so I decided to join them and they stared at me saying no. They said that I couldn’t play because I was a gringo and that I probably didn’t even know how to play.”

Amezcua said he ended up intercepting the ball and “showed them up, not letting their comments get to me.”

It isn’t always easy to identify colorism. “If it comes from [someone’s] own family, it’s probably something deeply embedded into their mind,” Jose explained. However, that does not make it any less oppressing.

“People are very much aware of colorism within my community, but very few of the older generation think it’s an issue,” Jose explained. “Arranged marriages are a popular tool to push for lighter skin colors in families,” Jose said. “It is instilled in children that colorism is a good thing because it gives families more privilege.”

With a new generation rising in tune with western culture, more individuals are opposing the colorist ideals, choosing to marry “outside of the community or disregarding these ‘traditions’ altogether,” Jose said. Once again, the barriers of discrimination were beginning to break down.

To those struggling with colorism or their skin color, Jose gave her words of wisdom. “Your worth comes from so much more than the color of your skin,” she said. “The ones mistreating you are relying on archaic attributes to take your power and voice away from you.”

“Me personally, I feel you can’t really control what people say,” Ting said, offering his own advice. “They have their own thoughts and their way of conducting themselves. I’d say you as an individual do what you have to do. Try to ignore it because it can cause you problems you don’t need. There are so many other problems like your health and finances.”

It is clear that the color of one’s skin is more than an identifier of status. As Jose succinctly summarized, “Brown is beautiful, dark is beautiful, black is beautiful, all skin tones are beautiful. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

*names have been changed.