Coloursim

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If you’re from the Caribbean or been around a lot of Jamaican influences, you have to know at least one song about bleaching, or at least know this one line. 
 
DEM A BLEACH, DEM A BLEACH UP DEM SKIN. 
 

Bleaching is a serious epidemic within our Caribbean and African communities, that has been destroying the natural colour and complex of our skin for decades. As a young child, I would always scrunch up my face at the sight of someone who was bleaching. I never truly understood the reason of this popular “beauty enhancing” method. The idea of people lightening their skin always confused me, especially when the ending results were distasteful to the human eye.
As a curious child, I decided to read about history and try to follow with conversations on and off the internet, I’ve came to conclusion on why bleaching is such a big thing in my region.

It was coloursim.
 
Now many persons, especially within the black community tend to mix up the term colourism with racism. So to clear the confusion, let us look at the definitions of these two terms.
 
Dictionary.com sites racism as such:
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human racial groups determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to dominate others or that a particular racial group is inferior to others.
2.a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3.hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.
 
Whereas, in 1982, Alice Walker coined the term Colourism which is defined as a form of prejudice or discrimination in which people are treated differently based on the social meanings attached to skin color.
 
Before we continue, I just want to note, that the term “colourism” isn’t a real word by dictionary standards, but the term is living testament of the society we live in today.
 
Now that we’ve defined these two terms, we are going to focus on colourism, a topic that has been plaguing my twitter and tumblr feeds for the last week or so. In order to understand colourism, we have to look at its origins. Slavery in the New World.
Yes, that wonderful time period from the 1600s to 1800s. Who am I kidding, it’s still happening today. However, that’s another topic, so I digress. 
 
There was a British slave owner from the West Indies named Willie Lynch. It was heard across the Americas that this man had perfected the art of slavery and was invited to give a speech on the colony of Virginia to teach his methods. The speech highlighted methods which became a tool to slave owners all over.
 
Here is the beginning of the speech where he highlights the differences between the various slaves and how he used them against each other:
 
“In my bag here, I HAVE A FULL PROOF METHOD FOR CONTROLLING YOUR BLACK SLAVES. I guarantee every one of you that, if installed correctly, IT WILL CONTROL THE SLAVES FOR AT LEAST 300 HUNDREDS YEARS. My method is simple. Any member of your family or your overseer can use it. 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. These methods have worked on my modest plantation in the West Indies and it will work throughout the South. Take this simple little list of differences and think about them. On top of my list is “AGE,” but it’s there only because it starts with an “a.” The second is “COLOR” or shade. There is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZES OF PLANTATIONS, STATUS on plantations, ATTITUDE of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine hair, course hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action, but before that, I shall assure you that DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST AND ENVY STRONGER THAN ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION. The Black slaves after receiving this indoctrination shall carry on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for HUNDREDS of years, maybe THOUSANDS. Don’t forget, you must pitch the OLD black male vs. the YOUNG black male, and the YOUNG black male against the OLD black male. You must use the DARK skin slaves vs. the LIGHT skin slaves, and the LIGHT skin slaves vs. the DARK skin slaves. You must use the FEMALE vs. the MALE, and the MALE vs. the FEMALE. You must also have white servants and overseers [who] distrust all Blacks. But it is NECESSARY THAT YOUR SLAVES TRUST AND DEPEND ON US. THEY MUST LOVE, RESPECT AND TRUST ONLY US.”
 
Finalcall.com has an article where they go in detail of Willie Lynch’s theory and you can click here to read it.
 
 
Reading the snippet above, it is evident that a lot of issues that we are facing in the black community today has derived from this method of controlling. Today we are going to focus on dividing us by colour or shade.
 
“You must use the Dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves and the light skin slaves vs the dark skin slaves.”

 
If we replace the world slaves to people, we have the simplified version of coloursim. Throughout history, many white people gave higher praises and better positions to those of lighter colour because their tone was closer to theirs. It was a psychological method to instill into them that they were better than their darker counterparts but still aren’t equal to the white man, however if they don’t acknowledge their darker counterparts and treat them like the lower class citizens, the lighter folks might have a chance to have similar opportunities like the white man.
 
This has caused one the biggest division within the black community. It has changed and molded the beauty standards of the community where as the lighter you are, the better you look. Many people suffer from coloursim on a daily basis. Many darker persons in the community deal with mental and emotional pain from the countless teasing and lack of opportunities.
 
Yes, darker persons, especially the women, are less likely to get the higher pay job within the black community. You personally don’t think so? Let’s look at black Hollywood for a second. Many of our favourite sitcoms that has changed and revolutionized television for are great examples where the leading female roles are usually awarded to the lighter actresses.
 
Martin? Gina was light skin.
My Wife & Kids? Jay was light skin. Also can’t forget that they replaced dark skin Claire with a light skin Claire like we wouldn’t noticed. (By the way Tisha killed both of these roles. This woman is phenomenal)
The Cosby Show? Claire was light skin.
Fresh Prince of Belair? Aunt Viv went from real dark to real light and whole different personality real quick. I wish they put in more effort to get a dark Aunt Viv after the original left. Luckily Will girlfriends went across all different diasporas.
The Proud Family? Why Penny was light skin? Why her dark skin friend was extra loud? Stereotypes? Hmmmm......
 
If after looking at a small portion of the sitcoms you still do not believe there is blatant discrimination within the black community, look at the original casting call for Straight Out of Compton 

Source: Huffington Post https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/17/straight-out-of-compton-casting-call_n_5597010.html

I rest my case.
 
 
The question is, can we change this narrative within our community?

The answer, yes and no.
Dark skin individuals (especially women) can continue to cry out and advocate for better opportunities within their community and folks of lighter diaspora can also advocate and educate about the lack of representation. However, ignorance thrives through the system. We can’t get anywhere if everyone wants a lighter person so they can have nice light babies with big ole curls, everyone seems that the lighter person is calmer and is more respectful and we definitely can’t get anywhere if the colour of skin determines the overall beauty of the person.
 
Colourism is one of those institutionalized beliefs that we as a people (all people of colour, including the Latin/Hispanic, Arabic and Asian communities) have to fight through on a daily basis. It is just something we can’t continue to ignore. Coloursim is an important topic that has to be taught within our communities to the both young and old. We have to change the narrative that lighter is better and that we are all one people.
 
If we can change the narrative on step at a time, I can stop singing DEM A BLEACH, DEM A BLEACH UP DEM SKIN. 

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