Colorism, also known as light-skin bias, is a form of prejudice that discriminates against people of a darker complexion, which has become more prominent in schools and workplaces worldwide.
Colorism is often passed off as a subsect of racism, but is actually prejudice based on the belief that lighter skin is superior to darker skin rather than that based on racial superiority. In many communities, efforts are made to lighten the skin of children due to the belief that darker skin is less beautiful, and a strong emphasis is placed on maintaining light skin throughout the course of one’s life.
“Colorism is when people show bias against darker skin tones. This is extremely prevalent in India and other South Asian countries, as fairer skin tones are favored more there,” said Shreya Chandrasekar, a student at Carlmont High School.
Colorism is often confused with racism, which is discrimination against people of different races rather than people of different skin colors.
“Colorism is a type of discrimination based on skin color where light skin is preferred, even within the same race or ethnicity,” said Yerim Jung, a sophomore at Carlmont High School.
Racism has long existed globally, with many people taking action against it in recent years, particularly to fight racism against Black people and against Asian Americans. However, awareness about colorism is only recently emerging, especially the public’s notice of its existence in societies beyond America.
Colorism can occur in countries even where the majority of residents are the same race, including locations in Asia such as India and South Korea. This often leads to negative future implications for people with darker skin tones where lighter skin is preferred.
“In my opinion, colorism is harmful because it hurts self-esteem, limits opportunities, and perpetuates inequality, forcing very narrow and unrealistic standards of beauty,” Jung said.
According to the Pew Research Center, having a darker skin color harms Latinos’ ability to get ahead and makes it more likely for them to experience discrimination incidents than Latinos with light skin.
Additionally, a study conducted by the American Sociological Association, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, found that colorism has a strong correlation with worse physical health outcomes, making worse health another negative consequence of colorism’s prominence.
Many of the products that people are driven to purchase due to their deep-rooted belief in colorism can also cause physical harm.
“Many Filipino people buy harmful whitening creams or shampoos that they apply to their skin and even ingest dangerous pills that allegedly make your skin ‘whiter,” said TingTing Wang, a junior at Burlingame High School. “Additionally, colorism is also the basis for deciding self-worth for many people,” Wang said.
Although students from across the world have seen the impacts of colorism, prejudices against darker skin tones continue to run deep.
According to a study on Asian Americans published in Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, there is a link between prejudices against dark skin and depression symptoms in Asian-American women. Much of the stigma held against darker skin tones comes from ideas that those with darker skin are less educated or “dirty,” despite these ideas having no scientific basis.
These stigmas are only furthered by beauty standards that prefer lighter skin, which are particularly seen in Asian and Latin American countries.
“Colorism can be harmful to individuals with darker skin because of their desire to conform to East Asian beauty standards,” Wang said.
However, some of the main contributors to colorism are trends that promote fairer skin tones, as well as advertisements for products that claim to lighten skin.
“In Korea, light skin is considered the standard of beauty. The media, advertising, and cosmetics industries are reinforcing this perception,” Jung said. “I’ve seen cases where people feel pressured to lighten their skin or try to make it brighter, which is something that a lot of people go through in Korean society,” Jung said.
According to BBC, colorism has been promoted in India by beauty companies such as L’Oreal and Unilever, which primarily sell products that claim to make people’s skin lighter or fairer, which they describe as “lovely” in their advertisements.
BBC also finds that light-skin bias has been present in everything from India’s film industry to matchmaking, with TV shows like Indian Matchmaking showing a preference for light-skinned bridal candidates and matchmaking websites like shaadi.com offering an option to choose a preferred skin tone to filter matches.
Colorism has been around for a long time, with many only now beginning to recognize how it divides societies and can be compared to other forms of discrimination, such as racism. Much of colorism’s integration into society comes from how it has become normalized, and even institutionalized, in many locations globally.
“The current practice of colorism, especially in places like India, comes down to generational bias and how it’s been a normalized practice for years,” Chandrasekar said.
Despite the prominence of colorism in many South Asian societies, change is coming, with campaigns like #brownisbeautiful gaining popularity on Instagram and new media such as Overachiever Magazine working to address colorism and advocate for equality in how different skin tones are perceived.
Additionally, influencers such as Blair Imani, a queer Muslim Black author, historian, and educator who founded the web series Smarter in Seconds, have been using their platforms to raise awareness about colorism and its prevalence globally.
“I think it’s necessary to raise awareness about issues like colorism and challenge beauty standards. Beauty standards can vary from person to person, and beauty exists in every skin color,” Jung said.
