Hello Meltingpot Readers,
Can we talk about colorism? What I mean is, are we allowed to talk freely, out in the open, about colorism? It’s always been deemed a taboo topic, something we don’t speak about in polite company. So, has that changed in the last few years? Has something shifted in the cultural zeitgeist such that we can now, finally, open up an honest dialogue about how colorism operates in society and in our personal and private lives? The creators of the ABC show Black-ish seem to think so. But are they the only ones ready to get busy combating colorism?
Racism + White Supremacy = Colorism
I hope not, because tomorrow night I’m participating in a Reading Series here in Philadelphia and I’m going to be reading from my book, Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families. I had a choice to read from any of my books, but I decided that if I’m given a microphone, an audience and five minutes to share my work, then the work I should share is the work that needs to be shared. The fact of the matter is, many people are still unaware that colorism even exists (And for the record, it’s still not recognized by most online software as an actual word.)! We can hardly get to work on solving a problem if the problem is unknown.
Even though I wrote an entire book about colorism, it is still easy for me to forget sometimes that combating colorism is an urgent matter. My focus gets pulled to my anti-racism work and in my battle against white supremacy, but lurking deviously on the sidelines of both of those conflicts is colorism. Colorism is a destructive by-product of racism and white supremacy. If we could eradicate those two social ills, colorism too would disappear. But we can’t wait for that sometime tomorrow. Every single day colorism is rearing its ugly head in communities of color all over the world, causing men, women and children to believe that the melanin in their skin is a measure of their self-worth. It is a destructive and dangerous belief system. And it is making a lot of corporations peddling white supremacy obscenely rich.
Sharing is Caring
So, where do we start? We start by bringing colorism out of the closet. We start talking about this pernicious and painful problem. We share our stories of our mothers and grandmothers teaching us how to keep our skin light and avoid boys who were darker than us. We open the conversation to white people to let them know they too are part of the problem when they consciously or subconsciously find themselves attracted to the lighter version of the colored person in the office or at the gym. Colorism affects all of us human beings. So, we should all be part of the discussion to plan its demise. I’m going to start talking tomorrow night. When will you start?
