The darker side of black

[Bantu_Kelani]

The darker side of black
By: Tanisha Brown and Brandi Costain

When Grace Asamoah looks in the mirror, she thinks the image that stares back is a disgrace.

The 16-year-old's naturally kinky hair, pinched back into a ponytail, broad nose, full lips, dark eyes and even darker skin all scream one thing to her: "You're ugly." They're the reason why she applies ivory powder to her ebony skin. In her mind, her dark skin is undesirable. She wishes she could have lighter skin or even better, be white. But she knows her dream of looking like the females on television will never come true.

"Everyone I see on TV and in advertisements is white or light skinned. These images tell me that I am ugly, that my dark skin isn't good enough and that I don't belong," Asamoah says.

In April of this year, a study done by Tufts University in Massachusetts, found that the skin tone stereotypes that Asamoah believes about herself are shared by many young adults.

The study, "Cognitive Representations of Black Americans: Re exploring the Role of Skin tone," found that racial bias and prejudice are related to the lightness or darkness of a black person's skin (both men and women), not other features such as hair length or texture, fullness of lips, or the width of a person's nose.

Prior research had only studied cultural stereotypes of blacks in general, but Keith Maddox, assistant professor of psychology and head of Tuft's social cognition lab, found that there exist cultural stereotypes based on the skin tone of blacks.

In the first part of the study 150 black and white college students were shown photos of blacks with various skin tones. Characteristics were printed beneath the photos. In a later test of memory, they matched the characteristics with the photographs. The researchers ensured that the categorizations were based on skin tone rather than facial features by altering the lightness and darkness of skin tone in photos.

In the second part, the students listed characteristics they thought were associated with dark- and light-skinned blacks. Maddox says that blacks and whites associate intelligence, motivation and attraction to light-skinned blacks and poor or unattractive to dark-skinned blacks.


Asamoah admits that she has low self-esteem, but her desire to have light skin is a case of internalized racism. In elementary school she was called "gorilla" and "tar baby", and remembers the boys in her class rating her on her lack of beauty - she was given a minus 1000 because she was so dark.

Now in high school, Asamoah is called "white-washed" by her peers because she "acts white" and only has light or white friends. Asamoah believes that being called "white-washed" is far better than the other names she has heard and that nothing could ever be worse than the time a boy told her she looked like, and was just as funny as, Whoopi Goldberg.

"It really hurt. I cried myself to sleep," Asamoah says. "She's successful and all but when people say you look like her, you know you don't look good. I want to look like Halle Berry. She doesn't get made fun of."

Asamoah and her mother moved to Toronto from Togo, Ghana in 1992. She remembers how "nice" it was in Ghana when all the kids of different shades would play together without mention of colour but how, at the same time, her mother would constantly disparage dark skinned people. Asamoah says this only got worse after she moved to Toronto and her parents divorced.


"[My mother] tells me that dark-skinned men are no good," says Asamoah. "She sees how happy her friends are with their white husbands and she wants to be like them, she wants to have money and status without the struggle. Being as black as we are, the only way to do that is to marry a white man."

Asamoah's experiences with skin tone bias and stereotypes dates back to when she came to Canada, but according to experts, it has been around since slavery.

Yvonne Bobb-Smith, a lecturer in Caribbean studies, says that skin tone bias stems from a historical capitalist system where black women were sexually exploited and forced to have intercourse with white men. This resulted in many black people who were born with lighter skin.

"White people created a hierarchy where a mixed race group of people made up a specific social and economic group in society. At the same time people with dark skin were still enslaved," she says. "It was very difficult to find dark-skinned people who were doing economically well."

Bobb-smith says a system existed where light-skinned people were seen as more attractive and were given financial opportunities over dark-skinned people.

She explains that those with dark skin wanted to improve their status in society so they mixed races and married different groups in hopes of improving the lives of their children.

In The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans, author Kathy Russell writes that during slavery white plantation owners became sexually and emotionally involved with black female slaves and were just as attached to their bi-racial children.

She explains that some plantation owners freed their mixed sons and daughters and helped them to start businesses. White legislators had also fathered mixed children and were known to make political changes for the benefit of the mixed population of blacks. As a result, Russell says that mixed blacks in the South obtained the status of a separate coloured class.

"A three-tiered system evolved in the lower South, with mulattos serving as a buffer class between whites and blacks. Members of the white elite found advantages of this arrangement," she says.

"Necessary business transactions between the races could be conducted through mulattos, whose presence reduced racial tensions, especially in areas where negroes outnumbered whites."

Russell says that after the American Civil War both light- and dark-skinned slaves were freed and skin-tone discrimination developed between the two groups.

"To preserve their status this colored elite began to segregate themselves into a separate community. In the process they actively discriminated against their darker-skinned brethen," she says.

According to Russell, the coloured elite acted the same as any other upper-class group in attempting to secure their status. But, instead of money, skin colour determined who would be accepted.


Ryerson student Kedane Aleph says he never thought about the type of black women he dated, but admits he's only been attracted to those who are light-skinned.

"Something catches your eye when you see a light skinned girl as opposed to a dark-skinned girl," the third-year social work student says. "I try to look at black women on a universal level and not to cite skin tones, but I notice that there is a preference towards light skin, thin lips and so on."

Aleph admits that skin tone based stereotypes have determined the type of women he has dated or approached in the past. He says the difference in treatment of dark-skinned and light-skinned women is similar to what you see in other cultures and racial groups where people with fairer complexions have more advantages.

"It's a caste system or pyramid that you see in most cultures where light skin is at the top and dark skin tone is at the bottom. It's a system that makes you think that whiteness is better and blackness is soiled," he says.

Aleph adds that he noticed that when he was dating women with lighter skin tones, he received better treatment from his peers.

"When you are talking to someone with a lighter skin tone, people around you give you more compliments about her. I see it as just a product of society," he says. "It's just kind of sad to see that you are put on a sort of pedestal if you are dating someone of a lighter skin tone."

Charmaine Crawford, the co-ordinator of the African Canadian Coalition against Racism, says that black people need to start affirming themselves and those them, as well as having positive images within the home.

"Stop telling people they're too black or that their lips or butt is too big and embrace our multiplicity," she says. "We need black dolls, artifacts, paintings and books in our homes that promote the beauty of blackness."

This also means that the blacks in media and entertainment industries need to stop projecting the image of one particular woman as ideal.

"Black Entertainment Television [BET] and all those music videos show you how far we haven't come in appreciating our diversity," she says.

"They keep on showing the same kind of girl making it seem that only one type of girl is beautiful and can be successful and loved."

But Asamoah wants to be that girl. She says that her mother is now with a white man and they are planning to have a baby. Her mother tells her that in order to be successful, she must do the same.

"My mother told me she wouldn't come to my wedding if I married a black man. She says I need to lighten up our family and our race," she says.

She's doing it with her fiance and I will be so jealous when the baby comes - it will have light skin, it will be living my fantasy."

[Oshun_Auset]

What boggles my mind about the attitudes of many in the "coloured" class in the Southern U.S. is that they are actually proud about their place in the caste system, that was created by capitalism and slavery...As if being the next in line for the possition of "top exploiter" is someting to be proud of...especially when that possition was obtained from no personal effort, not that being an exploiter is something anyone should aspire and work towards...I understand the causes, but I don't understand why we hold on to such ideology...I guess some people are happy being oppressed and exploited as long as someone else is getting oppressed and exploited more than them. Bantu, what do you think it will take for our community to get past our internal colourism? Do you think that the destruction of capitalism will cure this sickness within the Black community, since capitalism and slavery is what caused it in the first place?

I get baffled by the attitudes of many light skinned brothers and sisters out there. I am light, and I grew up around a lot of European/White people...They didn't care that I was light...I was still an "N" to them...The only people who ever cared I was light were lost and ignorant Balck people(light and dark)...The system cares only to a limited extent who is light....for purposes of divide and conquer and maintaining white privallege...(as this article shows) Why can't we see this? The double wammy in this article is that the young sister who hates her African skin is from home ...This definately is a good example of how the White supremacist system, and it's psychological warfare and it's propoganda machine works on a global scale...If anyone should be comfortable in their own skin it should be people from home!!! This really angers me. The African personality isn't free to flourish anywhere...We need to unite, this crap has to stop.

[Bantu_Kelani]

I hear and feel your disappointment Auset. As a Black woman who has lived both in the West and in Africa I can confirm our people faces many psychological problems (self-hate) both in Africa or abroad. Their mental is really plagued with racists' theories introduced by Europeans and Europeans-Americans to confuse us, a subtle form of reverse psychology.. 99% of Africans worldwide just don't want to associate with their Blackness, that's a fact. Unfortunately, it is all over their face, and genes. There is no way around it!

I say our people really need to discuss this issue but Black folks don't like to talk about it. It's piece of dirty laundry for them. But we have to be honest about it because the color caste system in the US or abroad has affected and continues to affect Black people's life chances and choices today. All Blacks are not viewed equally, inside or outside our communities. Light-skinned Blacks tend to be more affluent than dark-skinned Black who are more likely to be poor it is notorious.. I don't think the end of the capitalist system is needed among our people, although Capitalism and globalization actually hurts Black nations. Our Peoples problems still have little to do with economics and more to do with EDUCATION, UNITY, and PRIDE! We must break the eurocentric psychological oppression by redefining our reality in an African worldview. I think we can retrieve our self-love and dignity if we learn our dark pigmentation, our natural hair and our Black people all over the world were the original race on the planet and precursors of Culture and advanced civilizations. Our solutions lie in unity, contemplation, education, reflection and pride from our parts. We need to meditate for racial improvement and or solution. Let's not ashamed to be Black and African.. We can start by making a difference through our children, LET'S MAKE THEM FEEL PROUD OF THEIR BEAUTIFUL SKIN AND THEIR HERITAGE!!!!!!!


Bantu Kelani.

[RASNUBIAN]

I LOVE AND RESPECT THE BLACK WOMAN TO THE FULLEST AND I THINK YOU "BANTU KELANI" ARE A WONDERFUL REPRESENTATION OF THAT BEAUTY MIND, BODY, AND SOUL.

BLACK POWER!!!

[karibkween]

To each his own. I find nothing more attractive than a 100% black man or woman. There is something about unblemished black skin, as smooth as velvet that makes me wish that my father had married a black woman. Straight and long hair is overated. I find it boring not to mention the high maintenance it requires. Most people are not aware that the hair is the filthiest part of the body. The longer it is the more difficult it is to keep clean. I keep my hair short so that I can shampoo daily. But then hygiene is important to me. Most women Black and White, who wear perms will tell you that the perms take better when the hair has not been washed for at least a week. The perfume in gels and sprays temporarily masks the odor of unwashed hair. It is why I run for cover whenever I come near some female who thinks it is cute to shake her tresses in other people's faces.