Colorism refers to a societal inference of negative characteristics placed upon people of darker pigmentation, with more power and admiration given to those who are of lighter skin. The practice of colorism and discrimination based on pigmentation is something that is not explicitly stated in many countries but inferred through social practices such as dating and relationships, economic mobility and social capital. Scholarship based on colorism suggests that it is closely tied to a history of colonialism and global imperialism. Imperialism from the mid 19th to mid 20th century was the cultural and economic domination of predominantly White European countries of other territories. Indigenous people within these regions were coerced into adoption and submission of European lifestyles that promoted White features as good and blackness as innately inferior (Blay 6). Within the context of colonialism, skin color communicated one’s position to and within the dominant power structure, justifying the unequal distribution of resources and exploitation of the powerless. Psychological colonization is the “standardization of ideas previously less relevant to native populations and includes exportation of race constructs to native subjects among whom race was previously all but insignificant” (Hall & Livingston 639). Given this reality many people, particularly those who have been historically subjected to white domination, colonization, and enslavement have internalized projected notions that the basis of their inferior condition is their skin color.- Vanessa Atem (Africlectic Magazine co-editor)
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Colorism refers to a societal inference of negative characteristics placed upon people of darker pigmentation, with more power and admiration given to those who are of lighter skin. The practice of colorism and discrimination based on pigmentation is something that is not explicitly stated in many countries but inferred through social practices such as dating and relationships, economic mobility and social capital. Scholarship based on colorism suggests that it is closely tied to a history of colonialism and global imperialism. Imperialism from the mid 19th to mid 20th century was the cultural and economic domination of predominantly White European countries of other territories. Indigenous people within these regions were coerced into adoption and submission of European lifestyles that promoted White features as good and blackness as innately inferior (Blay 6). Within the context of colonialism, skin color communicated one’s position to and within the dominant power structure, justifying the unequal distribution of resources and exploitation of the powerless. Psychological colonization is the “standardization of ideas previously less relevant to native populations and includes exportation of race constructs to native subjects among whom race was previously all but insignificant” (Hall & Livingston 639). Given this reality many people, particularly those who have been historically subjected to white domination, colonization, and enslavement have internalized projected notions that the basis of their inferior condition is their skin color.- Vanessa Atem (Africlectic Magazine co-editor)