Colorism And The Common Struggle Of Black Girls - 1921 Words

Colorism and the common struggle of black girls Over the course of the years, society has taught black girls that the darker their skin tone is, the uglier they are which triggered them to do their best to meet Eurocentric beauty standards such as having light skin, slim nose and straight hair. â€Å"It was their contempt for their own blackness that gave the first insult its teeth. They seemed to have taken all of their smoothly cultivated ignorance, their exquisitely learned self-hatred, their elaborately designed hopelessness and sucked it all up into a fiery cone of scorn that had burned for ages in the hollows of their minds — cooled — and spilled over lips of outrage, consuming whatever was in its path.† (2.4.12 Morrison). Colorism is a serious and one of the most unaddressed subject in the black community, people of color come with all types of excuses to brush it off, they also ignore the internalized racism behind it, but it should be more acknowledged and debated, that way our generation will be enlightened about it and prevent the emotional damage at best to the generation to come. Many black girls go thru social identity issues on a daily basis. Skin color has created division even within black people because fairer skin tones are highly praised in the Negro community. Discrimination is used everywhere against black girls with a deeper skin pigment per example, makeup brands neglect the commercialization of darker shades of foundation, hair products for women of colorShow MoreRelated Oprah’s Life Class on Colorism Essay1165 Words   |  5 PagesRecently on Oprah’s Life Class on Colorism, many young African American women came together to converse on a very tough topic within the community. This rising dilemma Oprah calls ‘The Secret Shame’, also known as Colorism, is a prejudice act where people within the same race discriminate against each other based on the shades of their skin. There has been a lot of talk about the privilege of lighter skin over darker skin tones and how it has truly effected African Americans as a whole. Peopl e ofRead MoreThe Disease Known As Colorism2165 Words   |  9 Pages The Disease known as Colorism Justin Tyler Hampton University Abstract What defines who we are: is it where we come from, who our parents are, how much money we have, what we look like, or is it what we do with our lives? The truth is, the answer to this question is very complex, and there is no one true answer, but when looking from the eyes of America one of the major contributing factors to this is race. In the world that we live, being black has become known as something negativeRead MoreThe Stereotypical Black Woman Essay1985 Words   |  8 Pages‘The media is the most powerful mind-manipulating tool on the earth.’†(Ruby, 18) The perception of black women in the media today can be damaging to the self-image of the young black women of today. During the Black Arts Movement, many artists and poets spoke of how white influence in our lives has created skewed beauty ideals in the African-American community. This white influence tends to harm black women’s images of themselves. Most female images seen in mainstream media are white, thin, tall andRead MoreAnalysis Of Sweetness By Toni Morrison1572 Words   |  7 Pages In an effort to explain the impact of colorism in black communities, Rita B. Dandridge once stated, â€Å"In African American culture, class bias is the handmaiden of intraracial prejudice that privileges the near-white or light-complexioned person over the darker-hued.† These privileges include more desirable jobs, houses in more prestigious neighborhoods, and better educational opportunities based on one having a lighter skin complexion. Since whites have more privileges in society simply based onRead MoreRace Film : The Great And Only Essay10250 Words   |  41 PagesGreat and Only: The Life of America s First Black Filmmaker From the very beginning of the early stages in American cinema, African Americans had a presence on the silver screen. The twentieth century created a new era of cinema that consisted of films produced for and targeted to an all-Black audience. â€Å"Race films† which existed in the United States for over thirty years (1913-1948), were films produced by African Americans that focused on Black themes and highlighted the talents of African