In the Urban Dictionary, the word colorism is defined as a discrimination that only happens in black communities. It is when dark-skinned people, usually women, are seen as unattractive and light skin black people are seen as attractive. However, colorism is not only happening in the black community. Colorism is a discrimination against individuals with dark skin tone, and it occurs in lots of ethnic groups.
Latinos, Asians and Blacks have for so long been told that if we do not have European features, then we are considered unattractive, ugly, dirty (just to name a few). At a young age, I began to realize my skin was not the definition of beautiful. You see, I never felt ugly, but eventually, I started to hate my skin color. I know some people will say," You're so silly, I wish I was dark. You have such beautiful skin," but the thing is, your words mean nothing when people's action are always saying that dark skin is appalling. At a young age, kids are told to date light skinned people and to not date anyone who's darker than them. Instead of having a conversation about loving your skin, we are told the opposite.
Colorism exists. I promise, I am not making it up. Whether it is Korean, Indian or in Latin American novels and soap operas, the main characters are light skinned. The novelas I grew up watching featured light skin Latinos as attractive, intelligent and successful, while the dark skin actors played indigenous roles, poor people or the bad guys. This form of hierarchy is not only going on in Latin America, but in other places, as well. For instance, in Bollywood movies, the Indian actors cast in the movies have an olive skin tone, but we do not really see darker people in those movies, as if darker people do not exist.
Colorism is not only about having lighter skinned people portrayed in TV. Colorism is a big issue that we need to dismantle. That's why "melanin is beautiful" has been a statement I have seen on social media. To say melanin is beautiful is saying that dark skin tones matter, are beautiful and need to be recognized. That is not saying that if one has light skin they are ugly. No, not at all. You see, everyone has been told that light skin or anything close to white is the norm. We have grown up thinking that way, and if anything was not close to white, we thought of it as ugly. Society has made different ethnic groups hate each other because of our skin color, and that needs to stop. We need to embrace dark skin tones just the way we embrace light skin tones.
