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Blackmon, M. 2013. https://www.buzzfeed.com
DeMello, Margo. 2014. Body Studies: An Introduction. Routledge, Oxford.
Laurie, V. 2011. http://www.abc.net.au
TED. 2016. https://www.ted.com
Leeds Craig, Maxine (2012) ‘Racialized Bodies’, in Turner, B.S., Pitts, V. & Whang, S. (Ed’s) Routledge Handbook of Body Studies. Taylor & Francis, Florence. 321-331

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A visual used to raise awareness of white privilege.

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Fashion's Blind spot.
The fashion industry is dominated by white models.

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Shannon Murdoch, who emigrated to Australia from the U.S, regularly encounters racism from "white" Australians, because of her skin colour. Despite being highly intelligent, beautiful, clean and well-presented, some people are still unwilling to sit next to her, or they feel threatened by her. Why is this? Is it because of the way 'black' people have been portrayed throughout history, that they are criminals, more animalistic, not civilised, not trustworthy
"It's about the skin I'm in and no matter what you do, you are still always black first."

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"It's about the skin I'm in and no matter what you do, whether you have a PhD, whether you are well-spoken or friendly, you are still always black first."

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"White privilege means not being affected by negative stereotypes that have been perpetuated and ingrained so much into society that people believe them  to be fact. Black men are (often portrayed as) angry, primitive beasts with insatiable sexual appetites" (Blackmon 2013)

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The Australian media's portrayal of Australia day, very distinctly "white".

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This is the image displayed by Google on Australia day 2016, created by a Canberra High School Student. Google featured the image to draw attention to reconcilliation issues in Australia. It is a stark contrast to images published in the Australian media. Why is it that so many Australians can not see the celebration of Australia day as offensive to the indigenous community.

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This is the image displayed by Google on Australia day 2016, created by a Canberra High School Student. Google featured the image to draw attention to reconcilliation issues in Australia. It is a stark contrast to images published in the Australian media. Why is it that so many Australians can not see the celebration of Australia day as offensive to the indigenous community.

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Image from Australia day 2016

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17 year old Jasirah Bin Hitam, undertook a social experiment to try and change popular misconceptions surrounding Indigenous Australians. She stood on a beach with a sign inviting strangers to hug her, in an effort to increase trust between 'white' Australians and Aboriginal people. This experiment has since been replicated in other parts of the world.

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LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Recently a 17-year-old Aboriginal girl in the Kimberley decided she wanted to try something. She wanted to see if the colour of somebody's skin would influence whether or not a stranger would be willing to give them a hug. The result was a viral video. Here's our reporter, Bronwyn Herbert.

BRONWYN HERBERT, REPORTER: On a crowded afternoon at Perth's Cottesloe Beach, teenager Jasirah Bin Hitam gets ready for a nerve-racking test of trust.

JASIRAH BIN HITAM: I set up everything, I put my blindfold on, put my arms out and I think it was like five minutes of waiting and I was just like, "What if no-one hugs me?," all these thoughts in my head.

BRONWYN HERBERT: As the minutes tick by, she stands alone, seeking hugs from strangers.

Finally, a breakthrough.

WOMAN: I trust you, do you trust me? Let's hug. I trust you. I trust you. I trust you. Good girl.

JASIRAH BIN HITAM: It was pretty confronting to learn that only 13 per cent of Australians trusted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and that stat' really motivated me to move towards change and encourage people to trust more rather than judge people by how they look or their race or their background.

BRONWYN HERBERT: The first-year Marine Science student considers herself lucky she hasn't been unfairly treated because of the colour of her skin.

JASIRAH BIN HITAM: I wouldn't know what it feels like, but, yeah, my friends and everyone I've met, they treat me exactly the same as they would anyone else, but I feel like there are other Indigenous people out there that are disadvantaged and aren't being treated equally. So I feel like, yeah, doing this would make people more aware of how much, like, people are not being treated right.

BRONWYN HERBERT: The blind trust test is part of Jasirah's work with grassroots Aboriginal reconciliation group ICEA.

LOCKIE COOKE, CEO, ICEA FOUNDATION: We have a lot of racial issues in our society and we thought we'd address it in a real positive light with a real powerful, dynamic, energetic, passionate young person such as Jasirah to step up and be - embody that.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Jasirah's from the tiny community of One Arm Point in WA's far north. She's just returned to her coastal home because more than anything, she wanted to share the campaign with her grandmother.

VIOLET CARTER, JASIRAH'S GRANDMOTHER: What on Earth is she doing standing like that with her eyes blindfolded like that? But everybody really liked it, loved it, what she was doing. All the people were talking about it.

BRONWYN HERBERT: At One Arm Point they had their own special screening.

DONNA EDGAR, ONE ARM POINT ELDER: (Inaudible). But, you know, her standing up like that and then the thing open, that's like, goodness. That's brave. Like, and you can see that there is people out there that do respect and trust us, you know. So, yeah.

JASIRAH BIN HITAM: I feel like doing this, I gave my people a voice and I was able to speak up, not just for myself, but the whole Indigenous people of Australia.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Jasirah's not the only one who's taken the blind trust test. The social experiment has spilled onto streets around the world.

In the end, Jasirah received around a hundred hugs, something she's incredibly proud of.

JASIRAH BIN HITAM: Having, like, my coloured skin, it's pretty hard for people to get out there, 'cause a lot of people have that negative stereotype of what Indigenous people are like. But I think once they get to know us and get on that personal level with us, they'll - like, we're really trustworthy people and I feel like that'll change how they think about us.

LEIGH SALES: I want to give her a hug now. Bronwyn Herbert reporting.

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Would you hug a blindfolded stranger? Welcome to the blind trust experiment

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LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: Recently a 17-year-old Aboriginal girl in the Kimberley decided she wanted to try something. She wanted to see if the colour of somebody's skin would influence whether or not a stranger would be willing to give them a hug. The result was a viral video.

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The recent publishing of a Bill Leak cartoon, in The Australian newspaper, which depicted Aboriginal fathers as drunk and irresponsible, has reignited discussion regarding racism in Australia. It's astonishing that the publication of such a racially derogatory cartoon was allowed. The cartoon was placing blame, for the over-representation of indigenous youth in the justice system, with parents. Instead of looking at the systemic disadvantage many indigenous people face. In response, a social media campaign #indigenousdads, is trying to dispel some of the stigma that surrounds aboriginal men.

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There are productive ways to address the very important issues of indigenous children in detention and the legacy of family trauma, and then there's Bill Leak cartoons.

Last week Jan Fran and Mark Humphries lampooned him on a special segment called Talking Prejudice, which was in no way inspired by The Insiders' Talking Pictures.

However, an actual indigenous father had a less snotty and more graceful response: Joel Bayliss created the hashtag #indigenousdads, inspiring people to share pictures and stories about their awesome indigenous dads, and fathers to shout their love for their kids.

Joel joined Mark and Jan to talk about its impact.

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There are productive ways to address the very important issues of indigenous children in detention and the legacy of family trauma, and then there's Bill Leak cartoons. Last week Jan Fran and Mark Humphries lampooned him on a special segment called Talking Prejudice, which was in no way inspired by The Insiders' Talking Pictures.

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I recently watched the documentary series "Desperately Seeking Doctors" on ABC and was appalled to see the conditions in which many aboriginal people still live. How can this be allowed to happen in a wealthy country such as Australia? The disparity between the services offered to Aboriginal communities and those available to 'white' Australians is simply shocking. It's a stark reminder of white privilege.
"a program that all Australians, whatever the colour of their skin, should watch." (Lawford Benning, cited in Laurie, V. 2011)

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"White Flight"
This is a term I hadn't heard before, but apparently is being used in reference to the increasing trend of white middle-class parents sending their children to schools outside their local catchment zone, so as their children can attend school with students of a similar race and class.

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Daniel Sim's mother was warned not to send her son to Fitzroy Primary. Credit:Eddie Jim

"White flight" is shaping education in Melbourne's inner city state schools, leading to unofficial segregation along race and class.

In the Greens-voting socially liberal enclaves of the inner north, white middle class families have deserted the schools closest to the remaining commission housing towers, while competing for spots in a handful of schools seen to have greater prestige.

Schools such as Fitzroy Primary, Carlton Primary School and Mount Alexander College in Flemington have become catchments for poor students of African heritage, many of whom live in the flats. Between 71 to 94 per cent of students attending these schools speak a language other than English at home.

The average median house price in some of these school's suburbs teeters around $1 million, yet about 60 to 80 per cent of students at these schools are among the poorest in the state.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

They've been called "sink schools" - schools drained of affluent families and high achieving students.

White families with higher incomes are opting to enrol their children in over-subscribed schools a few suburbs away.

They favour Clifton Hill, Princes Hill and Merri Creek primary schools, where 79 to 84 per cent of families are among the state's richest.

These schools - with just 10 to 30 per cent of students speaking a language other than English at home - offer accelerated programs, overseas trips and boast above-average NAPLAN scores.

Abeselom Nega, an Ethiopian refugee and community leader, is alarmed by this trend.

"The white parents don't send their kids to these schools because all they see is black kids," says Mr Nega, who sits on the board of the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.

"They may not view it as racism, but it is ... you can sugar coat it, and put it differently, but I won't."

The great school divide

You can see the disparity between the schools in the map below of Fitzroy and Fitzroy North. At Sacred Heart School - located on one of the suburb's wealthiest streets ( median weekly wage of about $2700) - 74 per cent of its students are among the poorest in the state and 94 per cent of students speak a language other than English at home.

South on Johnston Street is St Joseph's School, across the street from the Wellington Street commission flats - 76 per cent of its families are among the state's poorest, and 85 per cent speak a language other than English at home.

Over in Carlton and Carlton North, we see a similar pattern. Carlton Primary, in a block where the median house price is nudging $1 million, most of the students have Eritrean and Ethiopian backgrounds, and live in the Rathdowne Street flats.

White middle class families in this area send their children to Carlton North Primary, Princes Hill Primary School and Princes Hill Secondary College.

In Kensington and Flemington, two schools - Debney Meadows Primary School and Mount Alexander College - have become de-facto schools for migrant families living in the surrounding towers. Both schools have the capacity for twice their current enrolments. Yet University High is comparatively wealthier and is oversubscribed.

The lens of whiteness

These are not isolated examples.

It is common for white parents to choose schools through a "lens of whiteness", said University of Cambridge's senior lecturer, Dr Arathi Sriprakash​, who is researching racial politics in Australian schooling.

"We don't have the White Australia policy any more, we are not talking about explicit or overt racism that you might recognise from the past, but racism exists in more coded ways. It occurs in school choice, in the way parents decide what is a good, bad or risky school."

According to Victoria University adjunct Professor Richard Teese​, wealthy families have the privilege of being more selective with their children's schooling.

Yet newly arrived migrant families find it harder to navigate the complex school system, and often send their children to the closest local school.

"If we start educating people separately, we run the risk of creating ghettos, and the formation of hostile social attitudes."

Abselom Nega Credit:Jason South

Hiba Shanino, 16, is a fiery advocate for her school, Mount Alexander College.

The 16-year-old, whose parents moved to Australia from Eritrea before she was born, is articulate, enthusiastic and ambitious - she plans to study law.

She leads her own organisation supporting African youth, and is thriving at a school colloquially known as "the refo school".

"They are looking from the outside, it's all external observation from the kerb. At Mount Alexander College you learn so much, especially because it is a multicultural school."

"You learn so much from the kids. You hear these amazing stories about war, about loss ... and it makes you appreciate what you have."

About three quarters of the school's student body are migrants or refugees, mostly from Ethiopia, Afghanistan and Vietnam.

The school has 319 enrolments, but the capacity for twice the number, while schools nearby such as University High are over-subscribed.

But Mount Alexander is improving, thanks to new principal Wayne Haworth.

Mr Haworth joined the school a year ago with a vision to "rebirth" the college.

He believes it's his job to modernise the curriculum, so that it caters for students excelling in certain areas and supports those whose learning has been interrupted by migration.

He has abolished year levels, enabling students to learn subjects according to their ability rather than their age. He's introduced an accelerated learning program.

If a Year 8 student is capable, they will learn alongside VCE students.

"A lot of the families in the Flemington and Kensington area are highly aspirational," Mr Haworth says. "They should know that so are we."
Do you know more? timna.jacks@fairfaxmedia.com.au
Timna Jacks is Transport Reporter at The Age

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White flight: race segregation in Melbourne state schools

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"White flight" is shaping education in Melbourne's inner city state schools, leading to unofficial segregation along race and class. In the Greens-voting socially liberal enclaves of the inner north, white middle class families have deserted the schools closest to the remaining commission housing towers, while competing for spots in a handful of schools seen to have greater prestige.

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"Colorism is an extension of racism in which people of color are discriminated against based on their proximity to whiteness. The closer to white a person is, the more social advantages he or she experiences." (Biakolo, K. 2016)
Despite evidence that skin bleaching agents can be carcinogenic many people continue to use them in order to obtain lighter skin. This is a symptom of white privilege, and the portrayal of white skin as beautiful and desirable.

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Rapper Azealia Banks seems as comfortable at the center of a controversy as she is in the studio. Just this year alone, Sarah Palin threatened to sue her over some tweets. She endorsed Donald Trump, via Twitter: "I think Donald trump is evil like America." A series of homophobic tweets in May finally got her suspended from the platform altogether. Banks was back in the mix this month on Facebook, with a 21-minute live video in which she defended her use of skin-bleaching. It was, she said, no different from wearing hair extensions or a weave.

It was quite a reveal for a performer who relentlessly puts pride in black womanhood at the center of her celebrity. Her fans and much of Black Twitter - the social community concerned mainly with political, social, and cultural issues that affect black people - were not amused. "Never would've guessed that Azealia Banks hated Azealia Banks more than we do," one commenter wrote.

Skin-lightening, using chemical products to achieve a lighter skin tone, is far too nuanced an issue for explanations like racism or sexism, commercialism or self-loathing to suffice. It is a global phenomenon currently worth about $10 billion and is expected soon to reach $23 billion. The practice of whitening is prevalent in places where slavery and racism have deep roots, like Africa and the Caribbean. And it also thrives in places bedeviled by other troubling melanin legacies, including Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America

Everywhere it is marketed, the proposition is the same: Darker skin is a problem and fairer skin the solution. Yet the uncomfortable truth across the world is that darker skin is a problem - not in and of itself, but as a matter of the legacy of racism and our collective ideas of what is considered beautiful and even good. In order to understand why some people bleach, why lighter is considered preferable and more desirable, we need to understand why so many humans are uncomfortable in the skin they're in.

The chemical hydroquinone, or benzene-1, is used as a central component in the development and printing of black and white film. But when used in a cream, it can also have the effect of lightening the color of human skin. The chemical has been banned in many countries, including the United States and the European Union, because of its potential as a carcinogen, but its manufacture is still legal. Thus, some Western companies produce skin-bleaching products for markets where demand is high and there are no limits on human applications: Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and the Caribbean. A prime example is Unilever, which owns the popular "real beauty" brand Dove but also owns Fair & Lovely, a popular skin-bleaching cream in Southeast Asia that "treats skin fairness problems."

The market for hydroquinone and other agents of whitening is strongest where colorism thrives. Colorism is an extension of racism in which people of color are discriminated against (by other people of color, as well as white people) based on their proximity to whiteness. The closer to white a person is, the more social advantages he or she experiences. Two of the most visible aspects of colorism include beauty and desirability, which tend to dominate the conversation with regards to skin-bleaching and women. But there are a whole host of documented ways in which colorism negatively affects the political, social, and cultural experiences of dark-skinned people.

Economic research, for example, has shown that there is a wage gap between darker-skinned and lighter-skinned African-Americans in favor of the latter. A 2010 study on sentencing revealed that lighter-skinned black women convicted of crimes receive shorter sentences in comparison to their dark-skinned counterparts. Then there's the media, where the majority of people of color that tend to be represented are also people who benefit from light skin privilege. Hardly a month goes by without a magazine coming under fire time and again for lightening the skin of people of color.

In 2010, then Senate majority leader Harry Reid was criticized for suggesting that President Obama's proximity to whiteness gave him an advantage over darker-skinned African-Americans. Despite his lack of tact, Reid was not incorrect. In one compelling 2009 study, self-described liberals viewed an artificially lightened picture of Obama as more representative, while self-described conservatives viewed an artificially darkened picture of the president the same way. While researchers said that there were a limited number of black people in the study and that the findings should not be viewed through a dichotomous good/bad lens, it does show that depending on one's politics, Obama can be viewed favorably or unfavorably, and such perception is tied to colorist ideology.

The urge to lighten is a global phenomenon, but it should not be taken for granted that any and all cultures' manifestations of colorism have parallel histories. For instance, during the trans-Atlantic slave trade, there was a common myth that dark-skinned black people were stronger and more suitable for manual labor and thus were put in the fields, as opposed to light-skinned people who did more domestic work. This form of discrimination, which became known as the Brown Paper Bag Test, whereby if you were lighter than a brown paper bag you obtained light-skin privileges, and if you were darker, bore the social disadvantages of being darker-skinned, has left behind a cultural legacy that is specific to black Americans and how they interact with colorism and racism.

One complicated but insightful example of the interaction of colorism and racism was the reaction to the movie "Nina," a biographical film about the multitalented Nina Simone. Simone, whose dark skin was central to her identity both personally and publicly, was played by the much lighter-skinned Zoe Saldana, whose color had to be darkened for the role. Some people termed this darkening " blacker face." The backlash to Saldana playing Simone was widespread. It demonstrated an act of privilege in which a lighter-skinned black woman (among other criticisms) was given a role that ought to have gone to a dark-skinned black actress. In his criticism of the casting, Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, "No one on the team seems to understand the absurdity at hand - making a movie about Nina Simone while operating within the very same machinery that caused Simone so much agony in the first place."

There are other parts of the world, however, where colorism exists not as a consequence of Eurocentric imperialism but as a class and/or status marker. This is particularly true of East Asia in countries such as China and Japan, the latter of which leads the global market for skin-lightening products. In these cultures, whiter skin is historically associated with a high social status as it indicates that one did not work in the fields. "As the Chinese saying goes, 'a white complexion is powerful enough to hide three faults,' " one young Chinese woman recently told a reporter.

For whatever the origins, the reason to favor fairness is universal: to experience greater social desirability in societies that afford greater privileges to people with light skin. Even at the risk of some of the negative consequences of skin-bleaching, which include cancer at worst and itchy, flaky skin at best, some dark-skinned people believe lightening is worth it.

While revulsion to whitening is common enough - as the Banks episode illustrates - that's not universal. In Lagos, Nigeria, one survey found that more than 75 percent of residents use skin-lightening creams. India used 258 tons of skin-bleaching cream in 2012, and up to 65 percent of women and an increasing number of men use skin-lightening creams, according to a report in 2013. The report also found that men buy some 10 percent of skin-lightening creams. Companies have introduced products like L'Oreal's Garnier PowerLight for men due to their confidence in this market. The combination of India as a former colonial space that had Eurocentric beliefs imposed on it and a cultural belief of fairer skin's association with a higher caste feeds into the rampant demand for skin-bleaching.

Another curious case of a nation where skin-bleaching is rampant is Jamaica. In 2012, Vice took its cameras to the Caribbean country for Fashion Week and demonstrated bleaching's popularity. In the film, while bleaching is still considered mostly a woman's affair, a young boy whose age wasn't stated but could not have been older than 12 or 13, confesses to having bleached for the previous two years. Prior to his life sentence for murder in 2014, the famous dance hall musician Adidja Azim Palmer, better known by his stage name Vybz Kartel, advocated for skin-bleaching and openly discussed his use in his 2010 song, "Cake Soap," "Cool, like mi wash mi face wit di cake soap." Kartel even started a business venture for a soap under his brand and had planned to release it both in local and international markets.

For all of the broadening of the market though, it is significant how the pressure to be lighter-skinned has historically fallen on women. Way ahead of its time, Wallace Thurman's 1929 novel, "The Blacker the Berry," exposed the effects of colorism in the most personal aspect of a woman's life - family. In the novel, Emma Lou Morgan is a dark-skinned African-American girl whose mother believes her skin tone will negatively affect her marriageability. Her mother aptly comments, "A black boy could get along but a black girl would never know anything but sorrow and disappointment." While this is no longer completely accurate as skin-lightening definitely has a growing men's market, it is telling of how beauty as a concept is always part of the prism through which women are viewed.

So, is Banks right in claiming that bleaching is simply another kind of body modification like weaves? While hair and skin are political and oftentimes for the same reasons, they must be considered separately and within the historical context of each. Some argue against weaves (and perms) for the reason that, much like lighter skin, they represent a nonblack standard of beauty. Indeed, there is ample evidence that corporate America, for example, views natural black hair as unprofessional. Non-natural hair attachments, therefore, are just a means of survival. Then again, Africans have long decorated hair with temporary attachments or decorations, but the same cannot be said for skin-bleaching products.

What separates skin-bleaching is the permanence. You can always remove a weave or take out a piercing. A more fitting analogy is breasts. In order to enhance how a woman looks in a particular outfit, she may choose to wear a push-up bra. But in order to alter the appearance of her body entirely, a woman may get breast implants. While it is an imperfect analogy, think of the weave as the push-up bra, while skin-bleaching is like breast implants.

All of this gets even more complicated - particularly for some white people to understand - by the fact that the darkening of white skin has been in vogue for decades. But context matters. As mentioned earlier, in some East Asian countries and communities, lighter white skin historically represented being in the upper class. Similarly, tanned white skin represents financial resources to vacation in a sunny latitude - or at least regularly visit a salon.

The issue hits close to home for me as a dark-skinned black woman. My childhood memories, among many good things, also involve being made fun of, made to feel ugly, and made to feel less than because of my skin. I have never flirted with skin-lightening products. Yet despite my general comfort with my skin these days, like many other dark-skinned women anywhere in the world, the thought of how easier, perhaps less disadvantaged my life would be if I had lighter skin crossed my mind from time to time.

Telling dark-skinned people in the world that they are good enough, that their skin is not a problem will not stop the booming market. But there's active resistance: Ghana, for example, will ban hydroquinone starting next month. Elsewhere, a backlash is brewing against particularly egregious marketing campaigns. Many more countries - especially those from former colonized areas - may soon consider doing so not only for cultural reasons but for the health risk posed by hydroquinone. Long-term, whitening may find itself delegitimized, as dark-skinned people are presented more often as socially desirable and internationally visible.

Technology has done its part in furthering colorism, but it has also played a role in combating it. Alesha Randolph, who works as a senior designer at Vox Media, just introduced the photo-editing desktop app tonr.co to battle photography's long history of racism in producing quality images of black people. Despite its popularity, even Instagram is not free from catering to lighter skin. (Instagram filters tend to whitewash the images of darker-skinned people.) Randolph's app should help with this problem.

Consider, too, the popular 2011 documentary "Dark Girls," which presented the reality of the experience of being a dark-skinned black woman in the United States. In 2009, Women of Worth, a women's activist group in India, launched the " Dark is Beautiful " campaign to draw attention to the negative effects of the color-struck culture. It is worth noting, too, that even without these recent policy decisions or media advocacy work, colorism has historically faced resistance in the arts. Just as literature can be used to teach colorism, it can also be used to show beauty of all colors, as Langston Hughes did wonderfully in his famous poem "Harlem Sweetie," in which he colorfully describes all the different shades of black women one might encounter. Of course, we cannot forget Tupac's insistence that "the darker the berry, the sweeter the juice," in his 1993 track "Keep Ya Head Up."

We all live in skin. It is the body's largest organ and one of the first things we notice about another person. That we as human beings evolved to harbor such vicious notions about the color of particular skin is testament to our species' capacity for cruelty. But we are not prisoners of our many colors - and, gradually, we may be coming to accept what we cannot easily change.

Kovie Biakolo is a culture writer and editor, and a multiculturalism scholar. She is grateful to live in New York City during the time of Google Maps.

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Bleaching blackness is about more than racism - The Boston Globe

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Rapper Azealia Banks seems as comfortable at the center of a controversy as she is in the studio. Just this year alone, Sarah Palin threatened to sue her over some tweets. She endorsed Donald Trump, via Twitter: "I think Donald trump is evil like America."

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A short video in support of the 'Black lives matter' campaign. It contains some sobering statistics regarding differing opinion on how much race affects privilege.

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People In This Project Were Shot & Survived

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New York Times Premiers John Cougar Mellencamp

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It's time for everyone to understand that racism is a real problem.

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"Angélica Dass's photography challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity" (TED, 2016)
The artist has matched each variation in skin tone to a pantone colour code. She undertook this project to highlight the absurdity of  labels such as- black, white, yellow and red. She wants to challenge the notion that a persons skin colour can be used to form a first or long-lasting impression.

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Angélica Dass: The beauty of human skin in every color

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Angélica Dass's photography challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity. In this personal talk, hear about the inspiration behind her portrait project, Humanæ, and her pursuit to document humanity's true colors rather than the untrue white, red, black and yellow associated with race.

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“Race is a social
construct, rather than a biological fact” (DeMello, 2014. P. 214).
                                                                                                                                                                                 
 Despite
strong scientific evidence to the contrary, many people still regard race to be
a biological feature, rather than a product of society. Many
scientists now believe race to be purely a difference in physical
characteristics, and that it does not therefore equate to different sub-groups of
humans. According to DeMello (2014, P.215) “race is a social, economic, and
political system of division and inequality”. Populations are divided into
groups based on their physical appearances, such as skin colour, and are then
placed into a ranked hierarchy. Those at the top of this hierarchy (in western
societies this equates to people of Northern European descent) are then
afforded privilege. Whilst those at the bottom of the hierarchy (often those
with dark skin) face systemic disadvantage.
                                                                                                                                                                         

Bonilla-Silva
(2006, cited in Turner & Whang, 2012. 314) believes that the United States
has transgressed from simply a society in which ‘whites’ are dominant over ‘blacks’,
to one in which there exists a spectrum of skin tones. Those people whose skin
tone falls closer to the ‘white’ end of the spectrum, are afforded greater privilege
over those who are further towards the ‘black’ end of the spectrum.

# data[].attributes.subject
“Race is a social
construct, rather than a biological fact” (DeMello, 2014. P. 214).
                                                                                                                                                                                 
 Despite
strong scientific evidence to the contrary, many people still regard race to be
a biological feature, rather than a product of society. Many
scientists now believe race to be purely a difference in physical
characteristics, and that it does not therefore equate to different sub-groups of
humans. According to DeMello (2014, P.215) “race is a social, economic, and
political system of division and inequality”. Populations are divided into
groups based on their physical appearances, such as skin colour, and are then
placed into a ranked hierarchy. Those at the top of this hierarchy (in western
societies this equates to people of Northern European descent) are then
afforded privilege. Whilst those at the bottom of the hierarchy (often those
with dark skin) face systemic disadvantage.
                                                                                                                                                                         

Bonilla-Silva
(2006, cited in Turner & Whang, 2012. 314) believes that the United States
has transgressed from simply a society in which ‘whites’ are dominant over ‘blacks’,
to one in which there exists a spectrum of skin tones. Those people whose skin
tone falls closer to the ‘white’ end of the spectrum, are afforded greater privilege
over those who are further towards the ‘black’ end of the spectrum.

# data[].attributes.body
In this collection pad I have gathered together articles, images and videos which explore the idea of 'white privilege' and discrimination based on skin colour.