Does “Shadism” and “Colorism” exist?
It is my understanding that “Shadism” and “Colorism” are forms of discrimination based on the lightness or darkness of one’s complexion. They appear to me to be relatively new terms related to racism, but not the same as racism. I would like to learn more about this and would like to hear from people about this. In particular I would like to hear from people of color and women. I am a white male.
Tom,
Didn’t you see that episode of “A Different World?”
The terms may be new, but the idea isn’t. “High yellow” is from the late 19th century, for one.
Of course. Why else do you think people would buy skin-lightening creams (which are big business in Asia, for instance)?
Look at how bi-racial couples are portrayed on television. The African-American wife is thin, well educated and articulate, and very light skinned.
Also “intraracism”.
It is even older than that. Southern Louisiana, especially New Orleans, had lots of free blacks even before the Civil War and social status was partially determined by their percentage of African blood. There wasn’t just black and white. There was a gradient along the black spectrum with mulatto or creole being the general term for people with obvious mixed ancestry and a whole bunch of specific terms to describe ancestry/skin color at the individual level. The terms varied between the Spanish, French, and U.S. Southern periods but the differentiation was made as early as the 1700’s and still is in some contexts even today.
http://christophelandry.com/2011/02/04/louisiana-myths-quadroons-octoroons/
A SNL sketch from 1977.
Indians definitely have shadism ideals. One of our highest compliments for a girl is that she is “gori”, or fair-skinned. They say it about men, too “kitna gora hai;” look how light he is.
There are many skin lightening creams and many of the actresses from yesteryear had to lighten their skin. Some of our most famous actresses, SriDevi and Rekha, had their skin lightened.
Not only bi-racial couples. I’ve noticed myself that when an American drama shows a black couple, the woman is usually lighter-skinned than the man.
I’m sure there are exceptions (I hope there are exceptions), but once you notice the trend, it does get a bit irritating.
I recall a bit by a black comic I saw on Comedy Central once, forget his name:
In fact, if I recall correctly, very pale skin has been a marker of nobility for a long time in a large part of the world (including at least some of Europe). After all, very rich folk never need to go outside and tend to the fields. Wasn’t that the point of that pure white powdered face with rouge on the cheeks look you see in 18th/19th century France?
According to the video “Killing Us Softly,” which looks at gender and advertising, one usually only sees light skinned black women selling things. But, if it’s a dark skinned black woman the odds are it’s somehow associated with animals, savage, “Africa,” etc.
A couple of years ago there was a bru hah hah because some were saying that advertisers were lightening Beyonce’s skin tone.
I don’t think this word is used this way anymore, but my mother told me that in the past a light-skinned black person might have been referred to as “bright.” I see urbandictionary.com is defining the phrase “light bright” the same way.
At the other end of the spectrum, she would have described a very dark-skinned black person this way: “Honey, he’s so black, he’s tribal.” I don’t think I ever heard her describe Africans this way, only dark-skinned African Americans.
This also comes up with issues with hair: straight hair=better and such.
Of course, now it means “atheist.”
I’ve noticed the bizarre way Hollywood works for a while, black actresses are pretty much all light skinned(think Hallie Berry) and on the flip side black actors are preferred to be dark skinned. It gets really obvious once you notice it and you wonder WTF it is all about. Angela Basset is the rare darker toned black actress, and she certainly hasn’t been a megastar.
My wife’s black family and friends have said what a shame it is our son got hard hair, but at least he is “red” in skin tone.:rolleyes:
Berry is biracial. So are other “black” celebrities like Thandie Newton, Lenny Kravitz, and Alicia Keys - as you noted, none of them have really brown skin. An even more unusual case is Prince, who while generally identified as black, actually has significantly more white ancestry than black.
Bassett isn’t all that dark skinned. Here’s a picture of her and her husband, actor Courtney Vance, and he has darker skin than she does.
Both of his parents are black, though*. So it makes sense to me to call the dude “black”, if only to distinguish him from someone with white-black parentage.
Actually, this makes Prince rather normal than unusual. Light-skinned offspring of light-skinned parents probably outnumber the biracial set considerably, and are often mistakenly pegged. Examples include Vanessa Williams, Julian Bond, Lisa Jackson, Sinbad, and the late Lena Horne.
*Purple Rain is not autobiographical.
