This is America: We need to talk about colorism

N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY
·6 min read

Last week, Thandiwe Newton tearfully apologized to dark-skinned actresses for taking their roles during an interview with the Associated Press.

"I've wanted so desperately to apologize every day to darker-skinned actresses. To say, 'I'm sorry that I'm the one chosen.' My Mama looks like you," she said. "It's been very painful to have women who look like my mom feel like I'm not representing them. That I'm taking from them, taking their men, taking their work, taking their truth."

Black Twitter had a pretty mixed reaction, although that's not uncommon for celebrity apologies.

Colorism in Hollywood has come up a lot recently. There has been criticism of "In the Heights" for its the lack of Afro-Latino representation, the casting of Zazie Beetz as Stagecoach Mary in "The Harder They Fall," and the roles given to people of color in Shonda Rhimes "Bridgerton." Meanwhile, Zoe Saldana finally apologized for her controversial portrayal of famed jazz singer Nina Simone.

I’m N’dea Yancey-Bragg, a breaking news reporter who focuses on race and identity. Welcome to the "This is America" newsletter centered on race, identity and how they shape our lives.

Newton's interview and its subsequent backlash led me to explore the impact of colorism and how people who benefit from colorism, myself included, can address it.

But first: Race and justice news we are reading

Colorism and racism aren't the same. Here's why it matters.

Colorism is when individuals of the same race are treated differently because of their skin tone, typically resulting in individuals with lighter skin or more Eurocentric features receiving more privileges than darker-skinned people. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker coined the term in the 1980s, experts told me.

Experts say colorism and racism are closely connected, but colorism is more nuanced. And it’s important to acknowledge the difference between them.

“We all exist in a social context that has taught us that whiteness is the preferred ideal in terms of our racial hierarchy in the United States,” said Trina Jones, professor of law at Duke University. “So we're dealing with gradations between that ideal at the top and the most denigrated or marginalized people at the bottom.”

Jones explained that in the United States, colorism evolved out of the racial categories and hierarchies created by European colonizers and slave owners. But she stressed that colorism is an issue not just for the African American community but in Latinx and Asian communities worldwide.

Colorism is significantly associated with worse physical health outcomes among African Americans, according to a 2021 study in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Research from Latin America also has found that inequality in educational attainment based on skin color is more consistent than inequality based on ethnic or racial identification.

Latinos with darker skin reported experiencing more discrimination and having less access to opportunities than their lighter-skinned peers, Pew's 2021 National Survey of Latinos found.

Jones added that once racial discrimination in hiring practices was outlawed, some employers found more subtle ways to skirt the rules.

"You just pick and choose those that you deem to be more desirable," she said. "And sometimes people do this consciously, but frequently unconsciously, on the basis of skin color, or hair texture."

Colorism in beauty standards can have dangerous consequences

Colorism also can have a serious negative impact on self-esteem, particularly for darker-skinned girls and women who don’t see themselves reflected in media, Kimberly Norwood, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, told me.

This has pushed consumers in the United States and around the world to spend billions of dollars on skin-lightening products. Some of these products contain harmful chemicals like mercury that can have long-lasting negative health impacts, including permanent damage to the kidneys, brain and liver.

This issue is so prevalent that in 2020, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced an amendment to spread awareness about the danger of these products and urge the federal government to research the health impacts.

Norwood, the author of “Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the Myth of a Postracial America," said she became interested in researching and writing about colorism in part because of personal experiences.

"I am Michelle Obama's complexion and my mother is Halle Berry's complexion. And so growing up I always understood from the way people interacted with us on the streets of New York that she was beautiful and I was not," Norwood said. "Once I got to high school and once you start dating and you're looking at all of these choices that people are making and it looks like it's based on skin color."

Jones also said she was aware of colorism from her early childhood.

"I remember people being denigrated, with phrases like 'oh, you're pretty for a dark skinned girl' or 'you're so Black you're blue,'" she said.

Those who benefit have a responsibility to speak up

None of this means that lighter-skinned people don’t also face discrimination, to echo a point Newton made about her own experiences. Sociologist Margaret Hunter also pointed out that lighter-skinned people sometimes struggle with issues around identity, like not feeling “Black enough,” or being ostracized by other people of color, including their own families because of their complexion.

In fact, when I was first thinking of ideas for this piece, that’s exactly what I wanted to talk about because it’s something I’ve experienced. While those moments can be painful, it’s not the same as being systematically denied resources or opportunities, as Hunter reminded me.

“It’s more the social, emotional, psychological components of group membership that are difficult for light skin people,” said Hunter, who began researching colorism in the African American community decades ago. “But in terms of traditional measures of discrimination, those things are consistently in the favor of light skin people.”

Jones said while communities of color are aware of colorism, the country hasn’t reckoned with the issue because we are still reckoning with racism. She also cautioned against getting too caught up in pointing the finger at individuals like Newton who have a responsibility to speak out about colorism even if they don’t always do so successfully.

“We have to be really careful as people of color to keep our eye on the larger social context and what is causing colorism,” she said. “Everyone needs to focus on the fact that the target of our engagement and criticism should be white supremacy.”

Contact Breaking News Reporter N'dea Yancey-Bragg at nyanceybra@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter @NdeaYanceyBragg

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Understanding the nuances with colorism v. racism