I have blogged on white racism and colorism but one subject that is also of concern is a form of “lite” supremacy, in which fairer-skin people perpetuate a modified anti-Blackness rather than eliminating.
Without doubt, America is experiencing a browning of America, white supremacy could simply be replaced by — or buffeted by — lite supremacy.
My husband sums up this concept by this expression: “light, bright, damp near white.”
In too many societies across the globe, where a difference in skin tone exists, the darker people are often assigned a lower caste. And, when people migrate to this country from those societies, they can bring those biases with them, underscoring that you don’t have to be white to contribute to anti-blackness.
The idea of colorism doesn’t stop with Blacks . It’s widespread across all genders and groups of color. And, colorism is prevalent in all communities of color but it is often considered taboo to discuss internal strife while also fighting against racial injustice.
For example, here in the States, Pew Research finds that 64% of Hispanics with darker skin colors report they have experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly regularly or from time to time, compared with half of those with a lighter skin tone.
In Los Angeles, in a secret recording, the LA Council president, Nury Martinez insulted people in the crudest, most racially offensive ways, comparing a colleague’s Black son to a monkey.
She also appeared to insult Oaxacans — people from the Indigenous Oaxaca region of Mexico — by calling them “little short dark people” who are “ugly.” This, even as she supported an end to racism in public, perpetuated it in private.
Research has linked colorism to smaller incomes, lower marriage rates, longer prison terms, and fewer job prospects for darker-skinned people. Colorism has existed for centuries.
Enslavers were partial to light-skinned enslaved people because they often were family members. Enslavers frequently forced enslaved women into sex, and the light-skinned children of enslaved people were the telltale signs of these sexual assaults.
While enslavers didn’t officially recognize their mixed-race children, they gave them privileges that dark-skinned enslaved people didn’t enjoy. Accordingly, light skin came to be viewed as an asset in the community of enslaved people.
Colorism is a persistent form of discrimination that should be fought with the same urgency as racism.