Colorism in the Mixed-Race Family

Hello Meltingpot Readers,

When you think of colorism, what’s the first community you think of? Is it the African-American community, with their #teamlightskin #teamdarkskin hashtags? Is it the the Latinx community, considering baseball legend Sammy Sosa and hip hop star Amara La Negra keep making colorism headlines? Maybe when you think about colorism, your mind immediately goes to India or East Asia where light skin is so fetishized that skin lightening products are a billion-dollar industry. But what about the Mixed-Race community? Is colorism an issue in a community that by definition is multicolored and multi-shaded? Of course it is, because colorism affects all humans with melanin and Mixed-Race people fall into that category.

This weekend I am going to be speaking at the Critical Mixed Race Studies Conference about colorism in the Mixed-Race community, particularly in the Mixed-Race family, because that’s what I’ve been researching and writing about for the past few years. Of course, I always begin with my own multi-hued family, because for me, the political always begins with the personal. In my family of five, nobody is the same color. Clearly, el esposo and I are on opposite sides of the color spectrum and our three children all have unique skin tones, ranging from “dark to light” on the spectrum of brown. The challenges in raising three kids with three different skin tones have ranged from the practical – I have to buy three different types of hair products – to the political – which son gets the talk about how to deal with the police when in public?

But are these issues of colorism you might ask? Yes and no. I define colorism as “the practice of providing preferential treatment based solely on a person’s skin color.” I wouldn’t say I practice colorism in our home, but because colorism exists in the outside world, I have to raise my children to be able to combat colorism when confronted with it. Plus, each one of them will have a unique role to play because theoretically, two of my kids will benefit from colorism while one will suffer. Of course, we know light skin isn’t always the winning option, so all of this gets very complicated.

Ultimately, my goal is to dismantle colorism in every community. I know, lofty ideals, but somebody has to do it. Human beings aren’t inherently colorist (or racist for that matter). We may be tribal, but we don’t have the instinct to discriminate based on color. That concept was created by lighter-skinned people who wanted to hang on to their power over darker-skinned people. Like racism, colorism is an unnecessary and invented construct that can be unlearned. And it starts with a conversation and constant education. I believe we can do this. History has shown us that we can, in fact, unlearn false concepts about humanity and society.

I created a video project to get this conversation started, along with my book, Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families. Here’s a trailer of the bigger project that will be released soon.

Thanks for reading watching. Do you have any ideas or best practices for dismantling colorism? I’m listening and taking notes.

Peace!