Julalak 1

Julalak Boonleerawat
Professor Santosh Khadka
English 11B TTh
3 May 2016
Colorism: Discrimination that never bleached out through time.
Looking back through history, Colorism has been persistent significant sociological issue
in many countries. Although this is 21st century, there is no more slavery system, or Antimiscegenation laws, skin color discrimination is still settle down deeply causing people who
have less prefer shade of skin color suffering from discrimination in addressing self-esteem and
partner selection. Despite of attempts to overcome colorism by promulgation of anti
discrimination acts and agreements in both national and international level such as title VII
of the 1964 civil rights act, Discrimination (employment and occupation) convention (No.111),
skin care industry takes advantage of people yearning for a shade of skin color which they dont
have originally and boots colorism to cultivate deeper.
Colorism is practice of discrimination that some shades of skin color are more favorable
than others. According to Margaret Hunter, colorism is discrimination that privileges lightskinned people over their dark-skinned which means in her aspect colorism is about only seeing
light skin better than dark skin (Hunter 1). Colorism is operated in 2 level. First level is being
subset of racial system which people see different skin color according to their race for instance,
African Americans are blacks, Americans or Europeans are whites, and Asians are Yellows.
Second level is skin tone which are mainly about lighter or darker. People may discriminate
other people in the same race having different skin tone, for example African Americans who
have lighter skin could be less favorable than white Americans or Europeans, but they are more

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favorable than darker skinned African Americans.

Existence of colorism roots can be affected by 2 main forces. First is European colonial
project (Stevenson). When countries like Spain, England, and United Stated whose original
citizens are whites colonized other countries whose original citizens have darker skin, they took
over the resources, turned local people into slaves, and collected high rate taxes from their
colonies. Even now those countries are free, the scars they left for colonized people cultivated
deeply that being whites are privilege and being dark has less value are stay still. Second force is
the early class hierarchies (Jordan). People in higher class or leisure class tended to spend a lot
more time in their live indoor, while working class people became dark because they had to work
outside as laborers, so dark skin represented poverty and low class.
Root of colorism in United Stated is based on racism and slavery system. Most African
slaves were brought to North America to be laborer in plantation of tobacco and cotton. Being
slaves, they were perceived as inferior, ugly and uncivilized people, while white skin people
were superior, beautiful, and civilized. Going to deeper in to colorism in skin tone level.
Sometime slave owners generated discrimination among slaves themselves by giving some
privileges to lighter skin slaves, such as working indoor, or learning to read (Davis 1991).
Similar to India, but slightly different, dark people there were not slaves, instead they
became low classes, and they were also limited their roles in society. Colorism in India has roots
from distinction between Aryan and Dravidians. Aryans who have white skin migrated into India
from the North. Dravidians or indigenous people who have dark skin were defeated. Aryans took
over north side of India, disregarded the Dravidians cultures, and pushed them to move
southward. In order to keep the Aryans blood pure, they introduced caste system and prohibited
marriage between castes. Whoever broke the rule would become untouchables which are
considered as dirty and polluting. The first caste are Brahmins which means priests and scholars,

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the second are Kshatriyas in other words, administration group like politicians or soldiers. The
third are Vaishyas, or merchants, and the fourth are the Shudras which are laborers, peasants,
artisans, and servants. Due to this caste system, higher caste Brahmins and Kshatriyas were light
skinned and Vaishyas and Shudras were dark skinned (Deshpande).
Colorism in East Asia is different from India and United stated. It tended to be influenced
by the early class hierarchies more than Western culture since East Asian countries like China,
Japan, and Korea have never been colonized by western countries before. These three countries
are related in terms of history, so I will give Japan as the example. There was evidence shows
that during Edo period which shoguns controlled the country, white lead powders (some lead
powder imported from China) were widely worn by high class people to make themselves look
whiter than usual. According to Cohen, she states that anatomist Tamiji Nakashima found the
concentration of lead in the bone of dead bodies are very high in samurai burial place in the
ancient city of Kokura especially in women. This support the existence of strong white skin
value in early Japanese class hierarchies.
Colorism in South East Asia tended to be influenced by other countries, so the root seem
to be mixed version of two forces. In Philippines, colorism is based on being colonized by Spain
and United states, so people accepted western cultures of white supremacy. Colorism in skin tone
level showed up when intermarriage among indigenous people, Spanish colonists, and Chinese
settlers were frequent and it crated complexion of skin color spectrum (Glenn 290). While
colorism in Thailand are more likely influenced by East Asian cultures especially from Chinese
merchants. In the past, plantation was what Thai people did for living, trading was something
that made more money, but usually, trading in Thailand were limited only between government
and Chinese or western merchants who have light skin, so having light skin could represent

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wealthy.
From the root of colorism pass on through generations, It is very obvious that colorism
existed in the past, but some people may not agree of existence of light preferring nowadays,
because it turns out that tanning is very trendy in western cultures. Nowadays especially in US,
culture, tan skin is portrayed as attractive and healthy in both male and female. Women who are
tan, thin, and have large breasts and men who are tan, lean, muscular are sexy. The root of
yearning to be tan came from 2 factors. The first one is industrial revolution Since industrial
revolution arrived, White skin trend halted, because in 19th century, laborers tended to work
indoor like cramped factories, or mines instead of cultivation work. Outdoor time was what
people yearn for because it means they could be away from smog and soot. Only people in
higher class had time to go out and enjoyed their lives under the sun. The second factor was
discovery of sunlight in medical therapy. Around 1890, Rickets and other bone deformities were
widespread. Dr. Theobald Palm discovered that sunlight is essential for vitamin D synthesis
which help in bone development. From the history, it affects the view of tan skin as a sign of life
of leisure. You can see the evidences from celebrities, actors, and models
tanning themselves.
I do believe that colorism is about light preferring, because there is two ways of being
tan. The first one is you are light but try to tan your self. Even you get darker, it is still based on
light skin. The person may become darker, but they are not considered as having real dark skin.
Another way is being dark trying to be lighter, but not too light. This is also based on lighten
skin color. I see tanning in the aspect of people yearn for light or less light, not in the aspect of
light want to be dark. From history until modern days, colorism always takes light skin side.

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When everyone only prefers being light), the story become darker. The cost of
colorism leave mortal wound which cannot be healed by time. Colorism have a great impact on
addressing self-esteem in discriminated people. They are more likely to have lower self-esteem
since they perceive the value of themselves by how society value them. According to child
psychologist and University of Chicago professor Margaret Beale Spencer, he set up the doll test
by having 133 children from two age groups: 4 to 5 and 9 to 10 choosing the back or white dolls
following given questions such as Which doll is a bad doll?, and Which doll is an ugly doll?
most of children chose the black doll, While the question like Which doll is a nice doll and
Which doll is a pretty doll?. They chose a white doll then the following question was Which
doll looks like you? all of African American children chose black doll, after that he asked Why
that doll is ugly? Most of their answers are the doll is ugly because it is black. The thing that
surprised me more is the out come of second group study, 9-10 years old children, which I think
they are older and they would have been more thoughtful have no difference. Most of them
prefer white doll. This study shows that discriminated people perceived the value of themselves
lower since they were children. Even dark skin belongs to them, they
prefer being white to black.
Moving on from loving and respecting of one self to love that is given by others. When
you love someone it doesnt matter whether the person are light or dark. This is true, but not
completely. If we rewind back to before two people falling for each other, mostly, there were
some criteria that we use to make a decision. We make conscious choices about who we love and
who we reject. In scientific term, according to Charles, he states that Evolutionary adaptation
suggests that the use of multiple signals provides advantages such as reducing the chance of
mating with less than optimal partners, and avoiding the cost associated with mating an inferior
progeny (Charles 382). This mean that people are less likely to choose people who are

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considered inferior. As society value white skin are privilege and dark skin are inferior. Dark
skinned people are less likely to be chosen. According to Sagaree, married Indian woman, She
said that she was told by older people when she was twenty years old that You are dusky and
now you are growing old, so you are not going to get married. She showed a photograph that
was taken to show to potential grooms. She stated that I had to really dress up, this dress that
you see orange as a color because people thought that it would make me look brighter.
Picture 1. Sagarees photograph for potential grooms.
They increased brightness, shone light on me, and rubber
powder on face, then this skin tone
appeared and honestly, it doesnt look like me. I mean
otherwise it looks like me, but the skin
tone doesnt look like mine (see picture 1). This show that skin color has a great impact on
being chose in marriage selection. People tend to choose significant other which have the same
skin tone or lighter. According to Margaret Hunter from Department of Sociology and
Anthropology, Mills College, she states that Light-skinned people of color are not more likely
to be married than their darker-skinned counterparts. To prove that her statement is true,
Census Bureau statistics can make it clearer by showing that between married couple White men
are least likely to marry black women (see picture 2). This shows that skin color obviously
influences marriage choices.
Picture 2. Census Bureau statistics of married couple in United States in 2010

From the interview and the statistic, they sadly make me think about J.R. Ward quote about
love in the book called Lover Unleashed. Love can conquer everything but reality. Which will
win every stinking time (J.R. Ward). Colorism is one of the reality which at times, love cannot

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conquer and it still exist every stinking time.

Since colorism seems to be chronic social problem in many countries from history until
todays. There were many attempts trying to overcome colorism. The great examples are title VII
of the 1964 civil rights act and Discrimination (employment and occupation) convention
(No.111). According to US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, title VII of the 1964
civil rights act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and
national origin in other words, whoever discriminate people because of their race, color,
religion, sex and national origin are illegal in United Stated. Another example is Discrimination
(employment and occupation) convention (No.111). The convention requires states to enable
legislation in order to protect all workers against discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex,
religion, political opinion, national extraction, social origin, and other criteria as may be
determined by a ratifying state after consultation with representative employers and workers
organizations (the United Nations Action for Cooperation against Trafficking in Persons (UNACT). Both of the example were created to fight against colorism, but colorism seems to be
immortal. I experienced it by myself. Working in a restaurant, there was a black man entering
restaurant to apply for job. My manager gave him application form and told him that he would
call back. I thought he would be my co-worker for sure, because the restaurant lacked of waiter
however, I never seen him again. My another co-worker said that this restaurant never had black
people work here before, so I decided to interview my manager, Sam Mefee (alias), about this

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and he said We dont work with black people, they are trouble makers, but we had to give him
application form, unless it is illegal (Mefee). Mefee case demonstrate colorism situation in
racial level which can not be solve by law. Despite of prohibition, people will find the way to
discriminate each other anyway.
Regardless of slavery system, or Anti-miscegenation laws and Existence of many laws
are introduced to eliminated colorism, the question is what makes it hard to be extirpated. One of
the best encouragers can be skin care industry which seem to take advantage from colorism. The
more people yearn for skin tone that they dont have, the more cosmetics for altering skin tone
are sold, the more money skin care industry gets.
Skin lightener is rapidly growing, and it seems to be unstoppable. Based on P&G internal
company data, they state that in Japan, the three biggest benefit segments of skin care
Whitening (~40% market share), Anti-aging (~30%), and moisturizing and others (~30%). This
number demonstrate that people yearn for lightness more than younger skin and moist skin.
They also refer to others countries that Korea and China. Korea's cosmetic market has been
growing at a 10 percent rate per year while China has been growing by 20 percent. The
market of skin cares lightening growth in a country can affect the whole legions, or the whole
world because, first exportation and importation of skin care todays are more widely than the
past. Look at my cosmetics bag, even I dont use skin whitening, I found my self using products
from three countries, Japan, Korean, and United Stated. Second we all share pop culture and
medias. Soul Secret are the perfect example of how importation and media created by skin care
industry boots colorism. Seoul Secret is Korean skin care product brand imported to Thailand.
Their segment in Thailand made commercial for promote their product under campaign Just be
white you will win. The commercial tells a story about Chris Horwang, a very popular model

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and actress in Thailand, that it is not easy to be famous like she is now, Whiteness of her skin is
investment, if she stops take care of her skin, she can be replaced by newcomers and become a
dark star. Her skin in the commercial becomes darker until she become dark black and the
camera zoomed out to another girl (a model) whose skin is very light with soul secret product in
her hand. At the end of the commercial the campaign Just be white you will win is
emphasized. Although later, Seoul Secret company came out to apologize and said that they did
not have intention to convey discrimination massages. They just want everyone to keep
developing themselves including their appearance, talent, and professionalization, but if they did
that for development purpose, the appearance that they prefer from their massage is being white
anyway. I do not blame Seoul Secret, but the entire skin care industry. I understand that they
have to do business, they should have done it under media ethic, winning or losing does not have
anything to do with skin color. It is about talent or hard working. Ton of commercials of
lightening products have been released with stars as promoters. Can you think about how many
people watch it? and how many people have been convinced by those commercials? With the
original root of colorism, even many attempts have been brought up to solve this problem, it can
not beat the strong unappropriated value that has been implanted by skin care industry in the
society.

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Picture 3. Seoul Secret commercial

Colorism has existed in most of countries through history until todays. We have been
suffering from it enough. Fairness never played fairly. It should have been wiped out,
but when one of the most powerful industries like skin care encourage it to stay, it will still linger
on. who do you think we should blame? The history that we cannot fix, or skin care industry
never helped fixing inaccurate social value, but take advantages of it. While one side has tried to
bleach out the problem to be faded away, another side has forced people to bleach their skin.
What do you think it is easier? Keep it or beat it?

Work Cited

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Ashikari, Mikiko. "Cultivating Japanese Whiteness: The 'Whitening' Cosmetics Boom and the
Japanese Identity." Journal of Material Culture, 10.1 (2005): 73-91.
Blahblahblahksheep. "Fair? - A Documentary about Skin Colour in India." YouTube. YouTube,
21 July 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
Davis, F. James 1991. Who Is Black? One Nations Definition. University Park, PA:
Pennsylvania State University Press
GLENN, EVELYN NAKANO. "YEARNING for LIGHTNESS: Transnational Circuits in the
Marketing and Consumption of Skin Lighteners." Gender and Society, 22.3 (2008): 281302.
Huang, Jinfeng, Victor Stone, Tatsuhiko Sunouchi, Victoria Tan, and Takeshi Tashiro. "Japanese
Skin Care Cluster." Isc.hbs.edu. Harvard Business School, 10 May 2013. Web. 3 May
2016.
Hunter, Margaret L. "'If You're Light You're Alright': Light Skin Color as Social Capital for
Women of Color." Gender and Society, 16.2 (2002): 175-193.
Jordan, Winthrop 1968. White Over Black. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Mefee, Sam. Personal interview. 2 May 2016.
Sims, C, and M Hirudayaraj. "The Impact of Colorism on the Career Aspirations and Career
Opportunities of Women in India." Advances in Developing Human Resources, 18.1
(2016): 38-53.
Stevenson, Brenda 1996. Life in Black and White: Family and Community in the Slave South.
New York: Oxford University Press
Wilkinson, Sophie. "A Short History of Tanning | Sophie Wilkinson." The Guardian. Guardian

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News and Media, 19 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.