Colorism ppt

Umoja Presents: Colorism in the Media

What is racism???

Racism |noun the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on such a belief

- Race is SOCIALLY constructed...there is no proof that race is a biological feature in humans...

- it is human nature to label people; racism began as far back as Christopher Columbus? time when they used race to justify why they could enslave those who were non-white and take advantage of them during the conquest of the Americas and Africa by the Europeans

What is internal racism???• Colorism is a form of discrimination in which

human beings are accorded differing social and treatment based on skin color

• Miscegenation, or race mixing, became widespread as Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans mixed their seed and substance to produce a kaleidoscope of skin tones and features. But these primary race groupings differed sharply in their civil liberties and political freedoms. Subtle variations in appearance took on enormous consequences in meaning, especially among Negros.

• Fair-skinned slaves automatically were selected for the better jobs, which were located in the master's house. After gaining the trust of their masters, many of these fair-skinned slaves traveled throughout the nation and abroad with their masters and their families, therefore affording them the opportunity to be exposed to the finer things, and many became educated as a result. Their darker-tone peers labored relentlessly in the fields. They were the ones who were beaten, burned and hanged, the ones permanently condemned to be the lowest of the low in U.S. society.

How African Americans began to characterize themselves• BlackBrownTanMulattoLight-

SkinnedWhite= Superiority

• Brown paper bag tests of the 1960s- Entrance into certain parties or

organizations depended on whether or not you were darker than a brown paper bag

• Blue Vein Society-Original goal was to establish a group of

African Americans who could hold up a particular demeanor in society

• “Color-tax” parties- The darker your date was, the more you had

to pay to get into the party

• Brown Fellowship- Their focus was to assimilate into white

culture, while benefiting from the ownership of slaves.  They used their money to further distinguish themselves from dark-skinned blacks, even those who had equal wealth status

Source: http://students.ou.edu/M/Craig.A.Marroquin-1/colorism.html

COLORISM CLIP

Examples of colorism in other places

• Pigmentocracy: a social hierarchy based on skin tone that is practiced in Russia.

• Egyptian art: darker skinned Egyptians are servants to the king and queen, where they can be found picking up the queen, plowing the fields, and in many cases the darker skinned Egyptian are small characters. This infers that the darker skinned Egyptians where looked at as insignificant.  

Stereotypes

monkey, tar baby, jigaboo, high yellow, coconut, light bright

The Black woman’s place in Hollywood

•Only 29% of all roles go to women, of those only 10% go to black women

Source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_/ai_10806101

Striving Black Actresses

Black Actresses Today

Fast Forward to Now…

Video Girls

• Willie Lynch: Dark skinned slaves vs. light skinned slaves & males vs. females

• The type of women often portrayed in media usually fit a stereotype: Light skinned with long hair

Young Berg

Sources: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6546/is_50/ai_n29060932/pg_2?tag=artBody;col1And http://www.hiphopvideos.net

What do the children see???• From a young age, somewhat

predetermined standards are imposed upon the consciousness

of the Black child.

A Girl Like Me

Thank YouP.s. Barack Obama 08!