Colorism is discrimination based off skin tone within the same race. Many minorities are blessed to have people of many different colors, shapes and sizes, but there has been a rise in internalized racism toward each other. Internalized racism has a major effect on the black community. Slavery caused a division in the black community that now, 400 years later, we are still working toward fixing. For example, light skin vs. dark skin; the idea of looking and being “European” in the black community has wiped over, no one wants to be black anymore. Brainwashing the idea of what beauty is has caused a race of women and men to self-hate against one another. Colorism is a form of oppression that is expressed through different treatment based on your skin tone; lighter skinned people get better treatment than darker skinned people.

The root of colorism comes from slavery. The slave master treated lighter slaves better than darker ones. Certainly, at the end of the day, slave masters knew that they were still black and slaves, but the slave master treated them better due to the fact that white blood flowed through them, putting lighter-skinned slaves on a pedestal.

Slavery not only had a major effect but so did colonialism, which introduced white supremacy. Whites had dominated the United States and mentally ingrained the European standard of beauty into the black race. Furthermore, skin color became a social means; Pigmentocracy describes a social structure in which status, class, education and occupation is determined by skin color. The lighter you were could possibly mean more wealth and being dark meant you were at the bottom of the barrel. The media uses its power to put colorism on a platform. Showing women who are European more than beautiful black women. It has set a tone for what beauty is and who would be considered beautiful. It was all about skin tone and features. Our beauty matters, my black girls with big lips, negro noses and Jackson Five nostrils, yes, I had to. It's like, if no one else can celebrate our beauty, it's a must that we do. The more we allow people to continue to segregate us mentally, the less we move forward as a community. Black women and people of color, from the lightest shade of the color spectrum to the darkest, are beautiful, point blank, period. There shouldn't be the debate of dark skin versus light skin because, at the end of the day, we're all black. So let's celebrate our excellence and our black beauty together instead of downing one another. It's destroying the minds of our youth and diluting our culture. Embrace your 'fro, embrace your skin and you'll always win.

Peace 'n love,

-Soula