Breaking The Colorism Binary, Faulty Language And Doing Self Work
By: Naima “Queen” Muhammad
Breaking The Colorism Binary, Faulty Language And Doing Self Work
Part 3 of our colorism series
Photo Source: Nappy.co
Thanks so much for following my thoughts during this colorism series. There’s so much more I have to say, but I'm going to conclude the series in hopes that everyone who reads this leaves with some tools. Colorism is corny as hell, and I need everyone to stop participating in it. I’ll start this final installation of the series by addressing the lowest common denominator of colorism. I honestly feel all of us have embedded colorism within our everyday lives and have to work extra hard to unlearn it. Understand that the responsibility of completely dismantling the system of colorism is (and I can’t stress this enough) light skin Black peoples. It’s with them that the power lies in this oppressive system.
The sole beneficiaries of colorism are light-skinned Black people, which I state in part one of this series, Why I stopped Talking to Light-skin People About Colorism. Colorism is only divisive to the people who don’t want to give up their power in a system that oppresses people in our community. Also, let's have deeper conversations about colorism other than representation and desirability. Dark skin people want more than to be desired; we want to be free. As discussed in part two of our colorism Desirability Will Not Free Me, deconstructing colorism through sexual and romantic desirability is flawed. Although lighter skin gives you unearned access, it does not completely shield you from harm, so how will changing my desirability factor do so also? The list for tearing down colorist systems is endless, but I wanted to highlight three ways to start dismantling it and stop the continuous oppression of dark skin Black people.
Shade isn’t a binary
Ask yourself a few questions, do I prefer lighter Black people over darker Black people? I specifically state lighter and darker to acknowledge shades of Blackness aren’t a binary and emphasize that a lot of us think we’re not participating in colorism because the preferred person for us is a person on the lighter side of the brown skin spectrum. As a child, I remember a period in the ’90s when the “it” girl in music videos and movies was usually someone who looked like Jada Pinkette- Smith, Lil’ Kim, Nia Long, Vivica Fox, Tyra Banks, and Monica, just to name a few. These women and their skin color have allowed them to be the safe choice. They still meet the standard of lighter preference even though they are not considered light by many, AND their presence gives people the false sense of not participating in colorism. Folks that fall on the lighter side of the “brown skin spectrum” don't particularly have light skin privilege but get the trickle effect of that privilege simply for lighter skin. I have currently landed at calling this “lighter privilege,” These celebrities I mentioned and other Black people that fall into this category also get the unearned benefits of simply being lighter.
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I recall a past conversation with someone who suggested someone we knew was dark-skinned, and the person they were referring to would pass a Brown Paper bag test. Hearing a person who would pass a paper bag test be called dark-skinned opened my mind to the ignorance many of us have about lighter privilege. The colorism binary victimizes and adds a layer of the erasure of dark-skinned people. It allows people to forget that it is the darkest folks that receive the most victimization in this system. If everyone who is not light skin is dark skin, then actual dark skin Black people will be oppressed and ignored indefinitely.
The Brown Paper Bag test is a term in Black American oral history to describe a discriminatory colorist practice within the Black American community in the 20th century. An individual's skin tone is compared to the color of a brown paper bag. The test was believed by many to be used in the 20th century by many Black American social institutions such as sororities, fraternities, and churches. The term is also used about larger issues of class and social stratification and colorism within the Black American population. People were barred from having access to several public spaces and resources because of their darker complexion.
I can understand that shades of Blackness are a spectrum; folks in the light brown range do also feel the oppression of colorism, it is not the extent of darker skin Black people, but it exists. Colorism existing outside the binary s doesn’t just end with the “it” girls of the 90’s I spoke of earlier; it’s also in our arts and activism spaces. Like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and even Dr. Martin Luther King comes to mind. They may have had access to education and other things because they could pass paper bag tests, or in other instances, simply benefiting from having lighter privilege. Yet, we often skip over this when discussing colorism because the binary is more accessible.
Self-work
Do you show a preference for shade? Do you assign high value to lighter-skinned Black people and lower value to darker Black people? Do you tie dark skin to being rugged, strong, rough, or masculine? Do you connect light skin to being delicate, soft, sweet, pleasant, or feminine? All of us need to examine our preferences in terms of shade and get to the root of why we align beauty, intelligence, and attach a greater value to people who have lighter skin. Heavily influenced by white supremacy and lightness (although faulty as fuck), it has been used as a tool to cope with the oppression that the system inflicts. Dig deep into why you think the things you think about skin tone. No one's ideas of the different shades of Blackness happens in a vacuum independent of white supremacist and Anti-Black sentiments. Also, understand that dark skin folk can’t “self-esteem” their ways out of oppression; even with high self-esteem, a dark skin person will be oppressed due to their darkness.
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Dark skin people reading this undo the negative thoughts or ideas the world has told you about your complexion. Unlearning these things is a process and won’t happen overnight. Yet beginning with altering the media you receive, follow more darken people on social media, read the work and liberation ideas from dark skin people, and get into the things that go against what white supremacy dictates to you about colorism. Light skinned folks reading this, you have work to do! Understand your privilege fully and that it’s unearned and doesn’t make you unique. I will also repeat that you are the sole beneficiary of colorism, and only you can completely dismantle this system amongst Black people. Ask yourself how are you using your privilege to dismantle this system? You’re most likely to believed when pointing out colorism and egregious acts of oppression towards darker-skinned people. It is also essential to understand the thin line between taking up too much space or being a conspirator/ally to dark skin people. Colorism isn’t the soapbox for any of ya’ll to earn money, popularity, or notoriety in the name of awareness. Your role is to stop harming dark skin folks and talk to your harmful light-skin friends, so they get their shit together.
Faulty Language
The language we use in colorism and other offensive words that happen around this topic. Words actually mean things, and when you examine the language we use towards each other, harm is being inflicted and thrown around consciously and subconsciously. Nothing upsets me more than a conversation about colorism, and folks use hierarchical language for light-skinned people. I recall once watching a panel discussion about colorism, and everyone on the panel used the word fair to describe light skin people the way I wanted to fight everybody!! The word fair in contrast to dark is a hierarchical word that still suggests things that are fair colored are better. Some definitions from webster dictionary are : Pleasing to the eye or mind especially because of fresh, charming, or flawless quality. Superficially pleasing: specious, Clean, Pure
If you’re like me, you may need the definition of specious, which means having a false look of truth or genuineness. If that definition isn’t a hierarchical, colorist mess, you probably hated the entirety of this series. Another covertly harmful word is chocolate when referring to dark skin people; why is simply saying dark skin so hard for everyone? We get it, you’re trying to be complimentary, but it’s not hitting for most of us. As Lisa Jean Francois states
Whenever I hear “chocolate” used as an adjective to describe someone’s complexion I’m both frustrated and puzzled. Why is skin color, particularly complexion, still so front and center? Why must dark skin be attributed to food in order for it to be acceptable? Why must we feel so greatly the stigma attached to dark skin that we use gentler synonyms to make it easier to swallow. Why is dark skin so hard to swallow?
No one wants to be sexualized or reduced to something more palatable for you to appreciate us. Ala, if you refer back to part two of this series, Desirability Won’t Free and dark skin people becoming more palpable for the masses is not dismantling the system of colorism; it’s conceding to it.
My last point about harmful languages is the word white. There’s language in this space that is not at all colorist but extremely anti-Black, and that's the word white. With a complete understanding that anti Blackness fuels colorism removing that word is essential. There’s no whiteness in colorism, just varying shades of Blackness. As much as light skin Black people get on my damn nerves cause they choose to be complacent in harming dark skin Black people, they’re not white people. They’re harmful as fuck, full of flaws, but they’re still Black people. Associating the light skin Black people with whiteness assists in the hierarchical order of shade, and isn’t that what we’re trying to eliminate? If you’re an adult still calling light skin Black people or honestly any of the ways Blackness exists, white, you’re violent, and let’s stop doing that.
In short, radical change must take place to eradicate colorism and all of its by-products. Dismantling colorism will reduce the need to gatekeep Blackness; there would be no Rachel Dolezal in our spaces thriving if colorism didn’t exist anymore. We’d have more inclusive liberation conversations if we didn't only favor the words of light skin people, and you can’t let go of the hold whiteness has on many of us if lightness is also your preference. So, let’s all do the work to get free
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