Roseline Gondo
1-17-18
Mr. Reilly
Argumentative essay
Racism within colorism
Imagine being discriminated against because you had a darker skin tone. Picture people calling you names like “charcoal”, “tart”, “dirt” constantly degrading you because of a simple factor that you couldn't control. Sad but true that colorism still exist in America today. It never stopped, if anything it got worse as people made you choose if you were on #teamlightskin or #teamdarkskin. As if they weren't all black, but it's the urge in people to identify or label. To understand this argument better colorism had to be defined. Afterwards, colorism will show how it affects self esteem, social classes and it divides society. This issue affects the dating…show more content… Society views on dark skins are unattractive, manly and when they do look at them differently they often use the phrase “your pretty for a dark skin girl” as if dark people are all ugly. Why couldn't she just be pretty or gorgeous ? Why does her skin matter? Why does skin tone always have to come into context? Are people so colorstuck that they can't see anything beyond that point. When you hear or see scenes like this play out often times people's mind reverts back to the white doll v.s black doll test (NAACP). During the test they'd have two dolls, one with dark skin, brown eyes, and kinky course hair and the other with white skin, blue eyes, long blonde silky hair. They'd place these dolls out and ask children a series of questions which always leads back to “which doll do you think is the prettiest”. Inflicting self hate on these kids who were still young. That mindset and horrible way of thinking is still ingrained in people's lives today. Men look toward women with Eurocentric features as opposed to women with Afrocentric features. The media also plays a part in this. When you look on Tv at music and rap videos you'll hear or see them portraying a lighter breed of black people. “I like my woman redbone” - lil Wayne (wayne). Some people have preference and that's totally acceptable . “ I don't like dark women, dark like me is unattractive” - Kodak black (black). This shows how…show more content… Often when your really bright skinned people tend to question your race or identity. This simple factor makes woman often have arguments and have to prove their blackness to those who are black or non black. They're normally stereotyped to be stuck up, conceited just because there on the lighter side of the black spectrum. Society views them that way because there held up on a pedestal, just by simply having more Eurocentric features ; but this is not always true. Lighter complexion people also face name calling and discrimination such as “banana’’, “redbone”, “high yellow”, “coon”, “Jigaboo” (Duke, Bill). Not only from the outside world but from those in the same society as them. Aka the black community. The scrutinization never ends; they face retaliation from their fellow black folks too, receiving misdirected anger from darker individuals. They are also being resented upon for a factor that they too couldn't control (Moyo). All this leads to the feeling of alienation. Making lighter complexioned people feel like they belong and don't belong at the same time. It's hard for some to fully identify with a side because they know they won't be fully accepted by blacks either, because of this controversial problem. There is racism with in colorism. Racism and prejudice against their own