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https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/19/opinion/19vedantam.html

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Op-Ed Contributor

Cambridge, Mass.

LAST week, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, found himself in trouble for once suggesting that Barack Obama had a political edge over other African-American candidates because he was "light-skinned" and had "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one." Mr. Reid was not expressing sadness but a gleeful opportunism that Americans were still judging one another by the color of their skin, rather than — as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy we commemorated on Monday, dreamed — by the content of their character.

The Senate leader's choice of words was flawed, but positing that black candidates who look "less black" have a leg up is hardly more controversial than saying wealthy people have an advantage in elections. Dozens of research studies have shown that skin tone and other racial features play powerful roles in who gets ahead and who does not. These factors regularly determine who gets hired, who gets convicted and who gets elected.

Consider: Lighter-skinned Latinos in the United States make $5,000 more on average than darker-skinned Latinos. The education test-score gap between light-skinned and dark-skinned African-Americans is nearly as large as the gap between whites and blacks.

The Harvard neuroscientist Allen Counter has found that in Arizona, California and Texas, hundreds of Mexican-American women have suffered mercury poisoning as a result of the use of skin-whitening creams. In India, where I was born, a best-selling line of women's cosmetics called Fair and Lovely has recently been supplemented by a product aimed at men called Fair and Handsome.

This isn't racism, per se: it's colorism, an unconscious prejudice that isn't focused on a single group like blacks so much as on blackness itself. Our brains, shaped by culture and history, create intricate caste hierarchies that privilege those who are physically and culturally whiter and punish those who are darker.

Colorism is an intraracial problem as well as an interracial problem. Racial minorities who are alert to white-black or white-brown issues often remain silent about a colorism that asks "how black" or "how brown" someone is within their own communities.

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Credit... Mirko Ilic

If colorism lives underground, its effects are very real. Darker-skinned African-American defendants are more than twice as likely to receive the death penalty as lighter-skinned African-American defendants for crimes of equivalent seriousness involving white victims. This was proven in rigorous, peer-reviewed research into hundreds of capital punishment-worthy cases by the Stanford psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt.

Take, for instance, two of Dr. Eberhadt's murder cases, in Philadelphia, involving black defendants — one light-skinned, the other dark. The lighter-skinned defendant, Arthur Hawthorne, ransacked a drug store for money and narcotics. The pharmacist had complied with every demand, yet Mr. Hawthorne shot him when he was lying face down. Mr. Hawthorne was independently identified as the killer by multiple witnesses, a family member and an accomplice.

The darker-skinned defendant, Ernest Porter, pleaded not guilty to the murder of a beautician, a crime that he was linked to only through a circuitous chain of evidence. A central witness later said that prosecutors forced him to finger Mr. Porter even though he was sure that he was the wrong man. Two people who provided an alibi for Mr. Porter were mysteriously never called to testify. During his trial, Mr. Porter revealed that the police had even gotten his name wrong — his real name was Theodore Wilson — but the court stuck to the wrong name in the interest of convenience.

Both men were convicted. But the lighter-skinned Mr. Hawthorne was given a life sentence, while the dark-skinned Mr. Porter has spent more than a quarter-century on Pennsylvania's death row.

Colorism also influenced the 2008 presidential race. In an experiment that fall, Drew Westen, a psychologist at Emory, and other researchers shot different versions of a political advertisement in support of Mr. Obama. One version showed a light-skinned black family. Another version had the same script, but used a darker-skinned black family. Voters, at an unconscious level, were less inclined to support Mr. Obama after watching the ad featuring the darker-skinned family than were those who watched the ad with the lighter-skinned family.

Political operatives are certainly aware of this dynamic. During the campaign, a conservative group created attack ads linking Mr. Obama with Kwame Kilpatrick, the disgraced former mayor of Detroit, which darkened Mr. Kilpatrick's skin to have a more persuasive effect. Though there can be little doubt that as a candidate Mr. Obama faced voters' conscious and unconscious prejudices, it is simultaneously true that unconscious colorism subtly advantaged him over darker-skinned politicians.

In highlighting how Mr. Obama benefited from his links to whiteness, Harry Reid punctured the myth that Mr. Obama's election signaled the completion of the Rev. King's dream. Americans may like to believe that we are now color-blind, that we can consciously choose not to use race when making judgments about other people. It remains a worthy aspiration. But this belief rests on a profound misunderstanding about how our minds work and perversely limits our ability to discuss prejudice honestly.

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Op-Ed Contributor Cambridge, Mass. LAST week, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, found himself in trouble for once suggesting that Barack Obama had a political edge over other African-American candidates because he was "light-skinned" and had "no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one."

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1. In 2010, senate majority leader Harry Reid suggested that former president Barack Obama had a “political edge” over the other black candidates due to the fact that he is “light skinned” and he had no “negro dialect”.

1. “Mr. Reid was not expressing sadness but a gleeful opportunism that Americans were still judging one another by the colour of their skin, rather than as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose legacy we commemorated on Monday, dreamed by the content of their character” (Vedantam 2010).

2. There has been research that has shown that skin tone and racial features have played a major role in who gets ahead in the United States.

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- The relationship between discrimination and colorism

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- The effect of colorism on the perception of beauty within the Black & Asian community
- The effect of colorism on how one perceives discrimination
- The effect of colorism on how one perceives beauty

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New York Times oped: The Hidden Brain and colorism

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New York Times oped: The Hidden Brain and colorism

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https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-hidden-brain/201001/new-york-times-oped-the-hidden-brain-and-colorism

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I have an oped in the New York Times today discussing an issue that I explore at length in my new book - the problem of colorism. Most people think about racial prejudice as being merely about how whites think about blacks, but the reality is far more complicated and nuanced. The issue is not just that racism is about groups other than whites and blacks. A vast array of experimental studies show that even within a single group, our minds make intricate distinctions between people. Within a group such as African-Americans, for example, our unconscious minds make subtle gradations that cause us to discriminate more against black people who are darker skinned than those who are lighter skinned.

Don't take my word for it - the oped and the book detail empirical research that proves that darker skinned African-American defendants are more than twice as likely as lighter skinned African-American defendants to receive the death penalty for committing crimes of equivalent seriousness. Colorism, as it is sometimes called is both an inter-racial problem and an intra-racial problem.

The election of Barack Obama as president was a proud moment for many people concerned about racism. However, many of the real challenges in overcoming prejudice still lie ahead. Bob Herbert in the Times eloquently details some of those challenges in another oped today. I would have added an addendum to Herbert's point about the soaring black unemployment rate: I haven't seen empirical data on this, but I would bet the recession has disproportionately affected African-Americans who are darker skinned relative to those who are lighter skinned.
Learn more about The Hidden Brain, follow me on Twitter, and join me on Facebook.

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New York Times oped: The Hidden Brain and colorism

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I have an oped in the New York Times today discussing an issue that I explore at length in my new book - the problem of colorism. Most people think about racial prejudice as being merely about how whites think about blacks, but the reality is far more complicated and nuanced.

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OPINION: Colorism is alive and thriving in the Black community

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OPINION: Colorism is alive and thriving in the Black community

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https://statehornet.com/2020/02/opinion-colorism-is-alive-and-thriving-in-the-black-community/

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I will never be able to fully grasp what my darker skinned brothers and sisters face daily, but just because the melanin content in my skin is not as high as others does not mean I do not face discrimination.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that having lighter skin in the Black community doesn't give me a level of privilege - it does. I am aware of it and won't deny it. But I still am subjected to discrimation based on the color of my skin - and that comes from inside and outside of the Black community.

directly affects all members of the Black community, not just a select few. While the Black community is constantly fighting against and facing issues that come from outside forces, the same issues are coming directly from inside the community.

Now, if people believe that me being on the lighter side of the melanin spectrum removes me from having a right to speak on issues of colorism within the community then that is their opinion - but this is mine.

I am not here to play "devil's advocate." I am speaking about what I see happening in the Black community.

A community that has been historically oppressed should not continue the cycle of oppression within its own community. Members of the Black community often reinforce stereotypes subconsciously because the Black community has been taught to view themselves as lesser throughout history. As a community, it can be hard to release the stereotypes that we have not only adopted but accepted.
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"Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet?" Malcolm X pic.twitter.com/BKsDMfd9eI

- COMMON (@common) December 23, 2017

In the Black community, colorism is heavily present in relationships.

Stereotypes like "the angry Black woman" and the "the loud Black woman" have been forced on us because the Black men within our community stick us with these tropes that are hard to shake.

Once Black women begin to feel unworthy because of the way they are treated by Black men and choose to date outside of their race, they are seen as traitors.

Black men internalize the hate that they are taught and force it onto Black women in their community.

Often people in the Black community do not want to admit to adding to the perpetuation of the negative view of their community, and colorism is not an exception.

It can become hard to focus on the bigger issues - police brutality and criminalization of skin color - when a community is in a constant battle with itself.
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While colorism has been given a concrete definition, there is no way to fully describe it in words unless you have experienced it yourself. Colorism is related to more than the melanin content of a person's skin, it is about the lineage attached to the skin color.

I'm often told, by people within the Black community, that because of the color of my skin, I do not face the same level of discrimination as they do-which is true- but the color of my skin does not lessen the racial discrimination that I face.

Even through I may not face the same amount of discrimination than those in my community who are darker than I am, I can still speak out on the issues of colorism.

When a community is fighting within itself, people who other groups deem as "acceptable" have to realize that, with their privilege, they need to speak up and push the issues to the front of the conversation.

When communities fight internally, more problems can arise and it can become easier for outside groups to discriminate against them when they are unable to find acceptance within itself.

No person in the Black community, no matter how dark their skin, can choose when to be Black and when not to be Black.

Being Black is not something that can be turned on and off when it is applicable to a situation, there is no switch to flip, there is not an option to opt-out.

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OPINION: Colorism is alive and thriving in the Black community

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I will never be able to fully grasp what my darker skinned brothers and sisters face daily, but just because the melanin content in my skin is not as high as others does not mean I do not face discrimination. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that having lighter skin in the...

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The Impact of the Browning of America on Anti-Blackness

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The Impact of the Browning of America on Anti-Blackness

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/14/opinion/latinos-colorism-anti-blackness.html

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One of the things I often hear as a person who frequently writes about race, ethnicity and equality is that the browning of America - the coming shift of the country from mostly white to mostly nonwhite - is one of the greatest hopes in the fight against white supremacy and oppression.

But this argument always flies too high to pay attention to the details on the ground. For me, white supremacy is only one foot of the beast. The other is anti-Blackness. You have to fight both.

The sad reality is, however, that anti-Blackness - or anti-darkness, to remove the stricture of a single-race definition for the sake of this discussion - exists in societies around the world, including nonwhite ones.

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.

A fascinating report issued this month by the Pew Research Center explored colorism in the Hispanic community and underscored how anti-Blackness, or anti-darkness, is no respecter of race or ethnicity. It is pervasive and portends a future in which the browning of America does not succeed in wiping away its racial prejudices.

First, the report reaffirmed what we all know to be true: A majority of Hispanic adults, regardless of skin tone, report experiencing discrimination.

But dark-skinned Hispanics reported far more discrimination than light-skinned ones.

The survey allowed Hispanics to select the skin tone closest to their own on a 10-point scale. Eighty percent of respondents chose the four lightest tones, which the report identified as light-skinned, but only 15 percent chose the six darker skin tones, which the report identified as dark-skinned. Others chose not to answer.

The survey found:

A majority (62 percent) of Hispanic adults say having a darker skin color hurts Hispanics' ability to get ahead in the United States today at least a little. A similar share (59 percent) say having a lighter skin color helps Hispanics get ahead. And 57 percent say skin color shapes their daily life experiences a lot or some, with about half saying discrimination based on race or skin color is a "very big problem" in the U.S. today.

Intolerance wasn't only coming from outside the Hispanic community, but also from within it. Nearly half of the Hispanic adults surveyed said that they have often or sometimes heard a Hispanic friend or family member make comments or jokes about other Hispanics and about non-Hispanics "that might be considered racist or racially insensitive." Dark-skinned Hispanics reported these incidents at a higher rate than light-skinned Hispanics.

When it came to how much attention was paid to racial issues in this country, a majority of Hispanics, understandably, said too little attention is paid to race and racial issues concerning Hispanics. A plurality also said that too little attention is paid to race and racial issues nationally.

But a plurality said too much attention was paid to issues concerning Black people.

This is troubling. Concern over racial issues isn't a zero-sum game. There should be more concern for all groups and less of a belief that some are receiving too little and others too much.

These issues around how darker-skinned people of all races and ethnicities are perceived and treated must be addressed. This is in part because we are racing toward a future in which the share of minorities who are dark-skinned will only be a fraction.

By 2065, it is projected that not only will Asian Americans outnumber African Americans, but there will also be nearly twice as many Hispanics in the country as Black people.

As I have mentioned before, I worry that white supremacy could be replaced with a light supremacy, a society in which light-skinned people are still advantaged and dark-skinned people are still oppressed, even as the white majority recedes.

Interestingly, in the Pew report, respondents who identified as Hispanic, Latino or of Spanish origin were asked their race and told that for the purposes of the race question, "Hispanic origins are not races." They could pick more than one race. According to the report, 58 percent identified as white. (Actual census data found that dramatically fewer identified as white.)

I have seen some encouraging allyship between Black and brown people in my lifetime. Just last year, following the murder of George Floyd, a Pew survey found that an even higher percentage of Hispanics than Black people said that they had participated in protests.

But these groups have different histories with oppression in this country and different ongoing relationships with it. Pew found in 2015 that "immigration since 1965 has swelled the nation's foreign-born population from 9.6 million then to a record 45 million." The vast majority of that growth obviously happened after the civil rights movement.

We must all recognize these differences and confront them in honest and deliberate ways. Colorism and racism are cousins, and both are a pestilence.

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Opinion | The Impact of the Browning of America on Anti-Blackness

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One of the things I often hear as a person who frequently writes about race, ethnicity and equality is that the browning of America - the coming shift of the country from mostly white to mostly nonwhite - is one of the greatest hopes in the fight against white supremacy and oppression.

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- Colorism & the encouragment of skin bleaching in Africa
- Black Lives Matter
- Impact of colonialism on today's beauty standards
- Fetishization of whole races due to their features for example, the fetishization of black women or asian men.

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- Girls missing school due to not being able to afford period products (period poverty)

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- Suicide rate rising among teens because of mental health issues such as depression which can be invalidated by society

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- HIV & AIDS
- Malnourished children in war torn countries - COVID - 19