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This is defined as the negative thoughts and attitudes towards  individuals of a darker complexion. It usually affects the dark-skin men and women in the black community. Individuals who portray these attitudes and have these thoughts about the dark-skinned individuals are called colorist and they usually favour the light-skins over the dark-skins (Colourism).

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- During the period of colonial slavery, the colonials divided the slaves based on their skin tone and assigned them to different jobs (i.e. light-skins do domestic work and the dark-skins do hard labor). (The Peopling of New York Final Project, n.d.).

- As a result of this the light-skin individuals received more opportunities and benefits such as education as compared to the dark-skin individuals.

- In order to receive these benefits (education) some mothers used to 'persuade' their daughters to go with the plantation owner son. This was to get a light-skin child which will continue in generations. This would result in a mulatto child (ShadesofNoir, n.d.).

*Mulatto- an individual who is half white and half black. In slavery this mainly resulted from the maters raping the black female slaves.
They were seen as beautiful  because they had similar features as the whites and their complexion was also close.

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- Similar to the slaves being separated due to their skin tone, they were also placed on a hierarchy. It goes as follows:

- The whites were always at the apex, the mulattoes in the middle and the Africans were at the base (Henriques, 207).

- When the East Indians (indentured laborers) arrived in 1838. After the planters noticed their hard work they were placed above the Africans. In terms of colourism, the East Indians did not attempt to fit in with the White Standards of beauty (Henriques, 210).

- It doesn't matter who came, they Africans were always at the base.

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-As a result of slavery many individuals with dark-skin are usually psychologically controlled and tend to have thoughts that they are ugly, unattractive and will not be given any 'major' opportunities in life.

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Skin Bleaching In Jamaica THE SHAME OF DARK SKIN

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Jamaican dancehall singer Vybz Kartel is well known for bleaching his skin using cake soap.

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Although colourism occurs all over the Caribbean, it mainly happens in Jamaica and apart from all the different races it does goes after individuals of an African descent.

Other countries such a Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana and Barbados normally look at individuals features and hair type in order to determine their beauty.
Therefore individuals try to achieve the European look by straightening their hair and bleaching their skin by using different types of chemicals.

This 'white bias' mainly goes towards members of the African community.

However, in Jamaica a dark skin individual with 'good hair' will be 'higher' than a light skin individual with 'bad hair'. Good hair is usually considered loosely curled (such as 3A, 3B and 3C). Other hair types such as 4C is considered bad hair and 'nappy' (Henriques, 218).

* In the Caribbean , the dark-skins are called 'darkie' and the light-skins are called 'reds' which defines their closeness of complexion as compared to the Whites.

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Natural hair and Relaxed (straightened) hair

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- Although it may seem that only the dark skin individuals receive harsh words from others, even from their own people. The light skin individuals also get bullied but not as much.

-Many get told that they think they're better than others because of their light skin or they are laughed at for being light skinned.

- They may not receive harsh comments as the dark-skin individuals but they are still getting hateful words.

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Not everyone in the Black community is against dark-skin individuals. There are many forms of sources mainly songs used to uplift them.

Songs such as 'redemption song' by Jamaican reggae singer Bob Marley provided lyrics such as "emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind" which was originally said by Marcus Garvey states that although one's body is physically free of slavery doesn't mean they are psychologically free. They can still have negative thoughts about themselves or others because of the impact of slavery. Therefore one needs to ignore what others say and focus on their own thoughts and abilities to see the beauty within themselves.

Other songs include: Spice- Black Hypocrisy, Tupac- Keep Ya Head Up and Nardo Ranks- Dem A Bleach.

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Tupac - Keep Ya Head Up (Official Video)

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Spice - Black Hypocrisy (Official Music Video)

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Colourism is an ongoing phenomenon in the Caribbean which happened because of colonial slavery which mainly affect Africans. Although the slaves were Africans alike,  the colonials separated them by the colour of their skin to complete different labor. The light-skin slaves did domestic work which was cleaning their master's house, cooking etc while the dark skin did all the hard labor for long hours. Although the slaves were freed physically, they weren't psychologically which was passed down onto other generations until this day.

Colourism can come in other forms apart from music such as television shows. Some shows include The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where Aunt Vivian character was changed from a dark-skin woman to a light-skin woman many said this was a form of colourism. Another is The Proud Family where the dark-skin female character is portrayed as loud and obnoxious whom always seem to get her friend Penny in trouble. Penny is the light-skin female character that is portrayed as cute, bubbly and smart.

Having light-skin is still at the top of the beauty standard in the African community and many men choose light-skin wife for status from others and to also receive a 'better life.' This has connections to the saying, "Mary gone raise de colour" which means the greater the colour is to white the more the opportunities given (Henriques, 208). Light-skin is still equal to beauty while the dark-sin is still equal to unattractive.  Colourism will end when individuals stop say things such as "you're really pretty for a dark-skin girl," why did the dark skin girl part has to be involved? Also, not because someone is light-skin does not means they are 'stuck up' or thinks they're higher than everyone else, no one chooses their own complexion.

The actions and words towards another based on their skin complexion can either be conscious or subconscious. The actions are usually conscious while the thoughts are subconscious. For example, a light-skin individual and a dark-skin individual applies for the same job. They both are experienced workers with the same qualities, but the manager puts the lighter-skinned individual in a higher position than the dark-skinned individual. The decision for the placement of the individuals was made consciously.

Everyone is beautiful regardless of their skin complexion, the colour of one skin does not determine their intelligence or beauty. Individuals of the black community should not try to change their appearance to fit in or look like members of the White community because whether you are brown-skin, light-skin or dark-skin white people still see you as Black because all "ah we is one."

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The Proud Family
- Characters Dijonay (left) and Penny (right).

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Aunt Vivan from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air change from left to right.