User:Meru358/Discrimination based on skin color

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While colorism as a term includes all skin tones, most examples of colorist behavior are directed towards those with darker skin than the offender. Those with darker skin tones subjected to face more discrimination in a multitude of countries around the globe.

A Eurocentric aesthetic is valued in popular culture in the United States which focuses on fair skin, light colored eyes, long and straight hair with smaller facial features and thin bodies. On the other hand, African-centered aesthetics which include larger bodies and a darker complexion are not considered beautiful or attractive. The skin color and body size of black women is used to physically differentiate them from the ideals of white womanhood. White women’s bodies are considered to be the opposite of black women. The ‘bigness’ or ‘sloppiness’ of black women is unacceptable for white women.

There are differences in color-blind strategies pertained to black men and women. Bonilla-Silva’s logic demonstrates how all black people, irrespective of their gender, sexuality, and class, are marginalized within the racial structure of the United States and are vulnerable to any tactic used to oppress them. For example, Patricia Hill Collins (2000) describes “controlling images” that have been used in the US history. These are informally constructed depictions of black women that are devised by white supremacists to validate policing and controlling of black women. These images normalize poverty, racism, and sexism for black women. The depiction of black women as faithful and obedient servants was formed to control black women’s exploitation as house slaves and limit them to domestic service.

Colonized Black women were depicted as having monstrous, “unwomanly” bodies that were considered as not pretty. On the other hand, the delicate bodies of white people were considered to be beautiful. The depiction of black women as voluptuous and unwomanly was perceived as a means for functionality and labor. Thus, black women were used as slave labor in Europe. In the postcolonial era, the increase of Eurocentric ideals of thinness made thick black bodies used continuously in support of anti-black woman agendas and to oppress black women in general. Black women are not only oppressed in terms of beauty but also in terms of their participation in the global economy.

Children are taught from an early age about the beauty ideals created by the society. Children learn about such dilemmas through fairytales which describe women’s passivity and beauty as gendered scripts. As a result, the dominant gender system prevails in which dark-skin is considered ugly. Although, dark skinned individuals face oppression irrespective of gender, women have to suffer more because of it.

Feminist scholars are specifically interested in the socially constructed feminine beauty ideal. It emphasizes on the fact that physical desirability gives advantage to women and they should aim for it. Fair skin is the main requirement to look attractive. It is said in many cultures that fair skin hides many flaws in a woman’s appearance. With regards to the beauty ideal, women who look highly attractive (fair skinned) are psychologically and socially at an advantage.

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Worldwide

Racism affects almost every part of daily life. Research shows that black people or the people of color are offered lesser opportunities in higher education and employment. Black people are treated more strictly rather than politely. They are less desirable as romantic partners. They receive compromised medical treatments.

Asia

In many Asian cultures, colorism is taught to children in the form of fairy tales - Asian mythological protagonists are typically fair and depict virtue, purity, and goodness.

Africa

During the European colonial period, travelers in Africa emphasized and added to a European discourse of black womanhood that attributed a big body to all black women. This was a symbol of ‘otherness’, their inferior phenotype, and backward culture and intellect.

Although, today the thick Black female body is celebrated but it does not neglect the fact of white colonialist views and the prevalence of white beauty standards. “The voluptuous black female body is still perceived as unattractive, ugly, and grotesque—the opposite of beautiful—when seen through the prism of white supremacy.”

Police killings and use of force

Racism is also present in policing. For instance, the United Kingdom’s ‘stop and search’ laws have been unreasonably used to focus and tease black people, specifically black men. The unnecessary use of force against black people is also very common. Particularly in the United States, police officers kill almost one thousand people annually. Police is more likely to shoot an unarmed black American than an unarmed white American. Due to such discrepancies, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ (BLM) movement started. The movement began in the US in 2012, after George Zimmerman (Hispanic, Caucasian, and armed with a gun) employed the ‘stand your ground’ legal defense and was declared innocent despite committing the murder of killing Trayvon Martin (17 years old, unarmed, African American). The movement skyrocketed after the killings of other unarmed African Americans by the police which included George Floyd as well. However, the BLM also faces criticism and the ‘All Lives Matter’ (ALM) emerged as a response. However, there is an ongoing debate on the motifs of the ALM. Former US president, Donald Trump and some other Republicans declared the BLM as racist and the ALM as more inclusive and color-blind.

Media

Cultural products represent societal values and offer an approach to see transitions in those values. Children’s stories investigate cultural products for cultural motifs and values, which according to Bettelheim (1962) are major ways by which children integrate in the culture. Children’s stories are very important to examine value constructs such as beauty ideals. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, fairy tales taught girls and young women to integrate into the patriarchal culture. Women were supposed to be domesticated, respectable, and attractive to get married. Boys and girls were assigned gendered roles and attitudes in the fairy tales. Research by Pescosolido, Grauerholz, and Milkie (1997) discovered “that during periods of intense racial conflict and significant political gains by African Americans”, Black characters almost vanished from children’s books. Thus, children’s media imitates and is formed by the changing social and power relations within different groups. As a result, children’s literature can reflect important political and social transitions in the past. The Grimm brothers in the nineteenth century, echo how the extensiveness of the feminine beauty ideal has transitioned over time. The tales that have managed to survive till date are read by children from different social classes and racial groups. Moreover, it continues to incorporate symbolic imagery that preserves existing, race, class, and gender system.

The character’s physical appearances are regularly quoted in the fairytales. There is a particular emphasis on fair skin tone of the ‘princesses’. Younger women’s beauty is highlighted more than older women and men’s appearance. There is a strong link between beauty and goodness and ugliness and evil. In one story for example, it has been quoted, “A widow had two daughters, one who was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy”. It shows how ugliness is punished while beauty is rewarded. Beauty is also linked to race and class. “In The White Bride and the Black Bride, the mother and daughter are “cursed” with blackness and ugliness”. Thus, black color is automatically associated with not being pretty. As a result, beauty is connected not only with goodness but also with whiteness and economic privilege. Stories such as ‘Snow White’ emphasizes how fair skin tone would lead to marrying a princess because he would be attracted to her ‘beauty’. The aspect of ‘fairness’ is deeply ingrained with beauty in these fairytales, that it is difficult to imagine any without glorifying it.

Beauty

Globalization has always put women at the receiving end of the spectrum. Beauty pageants are held across the world to evaluate women in terms of the feminine beauty ideal. Beauty pageants are merely sites of female, patriarchal, and sexist objectification of women. Women are excessively judged with regards to the male defined impression of beauty which is tremendously limited. Such competitions emphasize on the appearance of women and executing the ideal standards of beauty, neglecting the diversity between them.

Despite the fact that the pageants have tried to diversify their criteria of evaluating beauty standards, the racial, gender and class norms still incorporate the white middle class femininity. There are academies that train women for such pageants which ruins their mental and physical health.

Advertisement campaigns and cosmetic brands also enforce a certain sense of superiority with being white and fair skin tone, encouraging the fairness creams. In India, skin whitening products have been the highest selling with increasing consumers. A print media brand in India published a collage which also organizes the annual beauty pageant. The collage included 30 women with the same skin tone which is towards the fairer end. The limited diversity in the poster imitates India’s obsession with a fair skin tone. Moreover, Bollywood films also play a vital part in idealizing fair skinned heroines.

Although, it is accepted that the feminine beauty ideal is oppressive and a result of the patriarchal system which objectifies women. It is, however, a reality that many women willingly participate in it and consider beauty as empowering, instead of oppressive. Attaining the ‘beauty ideal’, i.e. light skin tone, continues to be one of the main ways by which adolescent girls and women achieve social status and self-esteem. Value constructs such as “nice girl” or “feminine beauty” operate as normative restrictions by limiting women’s personal freedom and laying the “groundwork for a circumscription of women’s potential for power and control in the world”. A study shows that most women feel good if they look good. Thus, in today’s world self-confidence revolves around the feminine beauty ideal. Dellinger and Williams (1997) found that women who use makeup every day to work are considered as heterosexual, superior, and more skilled than those who do not. On the other hand, the women who fail to meet the beauty standard of achieving a lighter skin through makeup, are seen more negatively. Therefore, women experience workplace discrimination based on their looks, and particularly enhanced skin tone.

Jones and Shorter-Gooden (2003) presented the Lily Complex as a method that modifies and hides the original facial features. This is done to assimilate in the mainstream post-colonial culture and to be accepted according to the Eurocentric standards of beauty. The lily complex stresses that the pressure to follow the feminine beauty ideal that is fake and mostly unachievable can make black women insecure. Their self-esteem is shattered because of the criticisms on their natural appearance. Thus, they consider themselves as undeserving of safety, health and success.

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