My dissertation explored colourism in the
black British community. Alice Walker coined
and defined colourism as the prejudicial or
preferential treatment of same-race people
based solely on skin colour. As a light-skinned
black woman with a dark-skinned sister, I
chose to study this because I have seen the
ways my skin colour has positioned me in a
place of privilege in comparison to her, as
well as other dark-skinned black people. As
the focus of colourism tends to be on the
discriminations faced by dark-skinned black
people, I sought to explore if and how dark-skinned
individuals might be privileged and light-skinned
individuals discriminated against.
As a qualitative study, I interviewed a combination
of light, brown and dark-skinned black males
and females. I found that dark-skinned black
people face colourism to a greater degree
than their light-skinned counterparts. This
is particularly true for dark-skinned women,
due to the pressures placed on female physical
appearances by society. However, it was also
clear that light-skinned black people can
be alienated in their identity, whereby they
may be perceived as not black enough within
dark-skinned groups, but also too black among
white groups. I found that colourism predominantly
affects individuals psychologically, whereby
it can negatively impact self-esteem, self-efficacy,
and sense of identity.
My study found that colourism is a pervasive
problem within the black British community,
that is unfortunately, largely unaddressed.
