When darker-skinned individuals favor lighter-skinned people over those who share their own complexion, what we are witnessing is colorism a painful, often unspoken form of discrimination rooted in racism and white supremacy.
Unlike racism, which pits one race against another, colorism exists within racial and ethnic groups. It quietly shapes friendships, dating choices, family dynamics, and even workplace opportunities.
This is not an abstract issue. It is lived. It is carried. And for many, it is inherited like a scar that stretches across generations.
What Exactly Is Colorism?
Definition: Colorism is the discriminatory act of valuing lighter skin tones over darker ones.
🚩 Scope: It shows up across many racial and ethnic groups, but cuts especially deep in the Black community.
🚩 Impact: It affects education, income, housing, healthcare access, and social mobility.
🚩 Roots: Born out of slavery, colonialism, and the systemic privileging of proximity to whiteness.
Unlike personal preference, colorism is not about individual choice. It is about how society consistently rewards lighter skin while punishing darker complexions.
The Workplace Isn’t Immune
Colorism doesn’t disappear once you clock in. It follows people into boardrooms, cubicles, and Zoom calls:
🚩 Favoritism: Lighter-skinned employees may be chosen for client-facing roles, promotions, or leadership tracks.
🚩 Micro-aggressions: Darker-skinned employees endure “compliments” like being “pretty for a dark-skinned person,” or offhand remarks comparing skin tones.
These subtle biases shape careers just as much as résumés do.
Can Colorism Affect Light-Skinned People?
Some argue that lighter-skinned individuals can also face exclusion being told they’re “not Black enough” or disconnected from the struggle. While this pain is valid, the systemic advantage still tilts toward lighter skin. Colorism by definition privileges them, even if individual experiences vary.
Internalized Colorism: When the Wound Turns Inward
One of the most painful realities is when darker-skinned people themselves internalize colorist thinking. This can look like:
🚩 Choosing lighter-skinned partners over darker ones.
🚩 Befriending lighter-skinned peers for “status.”
🚩 Rejecting darker-skinned relatives or peers, reinforcing cycles of harm.
This is not weakness it is survival in a world that has rewarded lightness for centuries. But survival often comes at the cost of solidarity.
How History Planted the Seed
🚩 Slavery: Lighter-skinned enslaved people, often children of white slave owners, were given house duties and privileges. Darker-skinned people were forced into the fields. This division was intentional a way to fracture unity.
🚩 Paper Bag Tests: After emancipation, certain Black organizations and social clubs required one’s skin to be lighter than a paper bag to gain access.
🚩 Black Elitism: Lighter-skinned circles often had more access to wealth, education, and visibility, leaving darker-skinned individuals locked out of upward mobility.
These legacies didn’t vanish they evolved.
The Family’s Role
For many, colorism doesn’t start in school or on the job. It starts at home:
🚩 A grandmother calling a lighter baby “beautiful” while describing a darker one as “cute but dark.”
🚩 Parents encouraging their children to “marry light” to “improve the family line.”
🚩 Relatives teasing kids for their skin tone or hair texture, planting insecurities before self-esteem has a chance to grow.
Generational wounds are passed down like heirlooms. Healing requires breaking that cycle by affirming dark beauty, celebrating African features, and rejecting Eurocentric standards.
Why It Still Lives Today
Despite decades of progress, colorism is far from dead. It shows up in:
🚩 Pop Culture: Jokes about “team light skin vs. dark skin” circulate online as if they’re harmless fun.
🚩 Media: Light-skinned celebrities and influencers are often deemed more “marketable.”
🚩 Dating Culture: Beauty standards rooted in colonialism still dominate swipe culture and “preferences.”
🚩 Everyday Language: Comments like “you’re pretty for a dark-skinned girl” keep old wounds fresh.
These may seem small, but together they reinforce a centuries-old hierarchy.
Colorism in the Music Industry
If you want to see colorism in full view, look at the music industry. Here, the bias toward lighter skin is loud, deliberate, and profitable.
Artists Choosing Light Over Dark
Some darker-skinned artists themselves perpetuate the system:
🔹 Selective Collaborations: They intentionally feature lighter-skinned artists to increase social visibility, radio play, or mainstream acceptance.
🔹 Altering Appearance: Heavy makeup, contouring, lighting, and filters are used to appear lighter in videos, album covers, or social media posts.
🔹 Industry Pressures: Labels often encourage or reward lighter appearances with bigger budgets, marketing, and opportunities. Darker-skinned artists who stay true to their natural complexion may face slower career growth or fewer collaborations.
This is not just cosmetic it’s strategic colorism, a survival tactic that also reproduces the hierarchy it inherited.
The Cost for Darker-Skinned Artists
Even talented dark-skinned artists report being overlooked for awards, mainstream features, or marketing pushes while lighter-skinned peers are highlighted. Opportunities become tied to skin tone instead of skill, reinforcing the damaging idea that lightness equals worth.
Breaking the Cycle
Colorism is not inevitable. Ending it requires conscious effort:
1. Acknowledge It: Stop treating colorism as taboo or just “jokes.”
2. Educate: Teach how slavery, colonialism, and systemic racism planted these divisions.
3. Affirm Dark Beauty: Representation in media, family conversations, and social spaces must uplift darker complexions unapologetically.
4. Challenge Bias: Call out colorist remarks and practices in workplaces, families, and relationships.
Final Thought
Colorism is not just an external wound inflicted by white supremacy it is also an internal one, reproduced within families, friendships, relationships, and even within the entertainment industry. The question is no longer why it exists, but when we will stop passing it down.
Healing begins when we stop seeing skin tone as a measure of worth and start honoring the full spectrum of Blackness.
Journal Prompt
“Think about your own experiences with colorism have you witnessed it in your family, workplace, or social circles? How has it shaped your relationships, self-perception, or choices? Reflect on ways to challenge these biases and affirm the beauty of all skin tones.”
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