A recent culture phenomenon categorizing members of the black community into team light skin and team dark skin might not be as recent as we think, but yet the effects of this labeling are as harmful as they were in the past. The separation of people of color into groups based on complexion began during slavery. In 1712 a British slave owner by the name of Willie Lynch was invited to the Virginia colony to teach his methods on controlling slaves. In his speech he mentioned methods of pitting the slaves against one another so that there would be no way for them to unit and raise up against their slave owners; “I have a full proof method for controlling your black slaves….. I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves; and I take these differences and make them bigger. I use fear, distrust and envy for control purposes…” Slave owners then started dividing their slaves. Slaves with lighter complexions were allowed to work in the house, while slaves with darker skin tones ha to labor outside. Even after slavery colorism, a practice of discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin, would continue. One method in which colorism was played out was through the brown paper bag test. The brown paper bag test was a ritual once practiced by certain African-American sororities and fraternities, black elitist colleges and Hollywood (if you were darker than the brown bag you could be rejected) who discriminated against people who were "too black". Also stigma’s grew out of this such as the lily complex, the belief that the only way to be beautiful is to look as close to “White” as possible (beauty standards match Caucasian/European features), the color-caste system, which statistically shows that lighter skinned blacks have an advantage (jobs, education, etc.) and are viewed as prettier, and overall lower self-esteem in dark skin people. A manifestation of the stereotypes and characteristics attributed with dark skin people was illustrated through the Clark Experiment, aka the Baby Doll Experiment. The Clark Doll Experiment (1939) was an experiment done by Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie where they asked black children to choose between a black doll and a white doll. The dolls were the same except for their skin color but most thought the white doll was nicer, prettier and the doll they would want to be. The experiment has been duplicated multiple times in more recent years with both white kids and kids of color, yet still producing most of the same responses, that the dark doll was bad.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 16:31:51 +0000
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