Colorism In African American Community

The African Slave Trade was a massive system of Europeans taking African Americans and selling them into slavery. The African Slave Trade began in the 15th century. This slave trade put Africa in a weird relationship with Europe that cause the depopulation of Africa, but it increased the wealth of Europe.

If a black woman had dark skin she would resemble a man, therefore making her ugly in society’s standards. This pressures black women to constantly be "compatible with the white female standard of beauty" (Ashe 580) in order to be socially accepted in society. Intuitively black women understood that in order to be considered desirable, the less black they had to look. This unfortunate perception of beauty stems from a long pattern of "sociohistorical racial injustices" (Bealer 312) towards darker skinned African Americans. Maria Racine states in her review that since slavery black people who approximated closer to whites were sexually sought after by black slave men and white plantation owners and were considered to live a somewhat "easy coexistence" because of their appearance (Racine 283). Since it’s start, colorism laid the pathway of racial prejudice towards dark skinned individuals. The result of treating dark African Americans as subhuman beings led to the altering of the black psyche by creating a "pervasive hierarchy" of beauty that black woman constantly combated or were forced to accept. (Bealer 312).

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

Slavery began in the late 16th century to early 18th century. Africans were brought to American colonies by white masters to come and work on their plantations in the South. They were treated harshly with no payments for all their hard work. In addition, they lived under harsh living conditions, and this led to their resistance against these harsh conditions. The racism towards the African Americans who were slaves was at its extreme as they did not have any rights; no civil nor political rights.

Everyone has their own understanding of what slavery is, but there are misconceptions about the history of “slavery”. Not many people understand how the slave trade initially began. Originally Africa had “slaves” but they were servants or serfs, sometimes these people could be part of the master’s family. They could own land, rise to positions of power, and even purchase their freedom. This changed when white captains came to Africa and offered weapons, rum, and manufactured goods for people. African kings and merchants gave away the criminals, debtors, and prisoner from rival tribes. The demand for cheap labor was increasing, this resulted in the forced migration of over ten million slaves. The Atlantic Slave Trade occurred from 1500 to 1880 CE. This large-scale event changed the economy and histories of many places. The Atlantic Slave Trade held a great amount of significance in the development of America. Africans shaped America by building a solid foundation for the country.

In the United States, slavery had an overwhelming impact on their political, social, and economical. Jamestown, Virginia in 1619, the first African slaves were brought into the United States. Reasons were because the tobacco, sugar, rice, and coffee fields were expanding which led to increasing the demand for labor. The Atlantic slave trade was an inhuman systematic importation of slaves between the African traders, American planters, and the European merchants bargaining over human lives which led to the Middle Passage. 1675-1775, the slaves were the backbone of monoculture labor and so it was put into law to keep the Africans as slaves. “So prevalent was this Italian-operated slave trade that the word “slave” was derived from the word “Slav,” name for people from Slavic countries” (Williams 3). In both seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation.

Contrary to what we learned in school, the transatlantic slave trade actually began in the 1450s when the first Africans arrived in Europe. You see, slavery existed in some capacity since the beginning of human interaction. As early as 2,000 years ago, the Romans enslaved people of color as servants. Around 600 AD the Arab Muslims started enslaving Africans. However, slavery was not based on race until Europeans began slave trading with Africans. It is also worth mentioning that Africa had a slavery system that existed within the country long before the Europeans arrived. The African slavery system was based on tribal ethnicities and economic status as thousands of Africans were captured during various wars between African nations and sold into slavery. In 1440, Spanish and Portuguese explorers sailed

In 1619, the first African Americans arrived in the colonies. Only a handful of survivors had outlasted a gruesome sea voyage. They had all been taken during a raid of a Spanish ship that was sailing for the Spanish West Indies. During the next few years, many African Americans were uprooted from their homelands and forced into slavery. They were unwillingly taken from their families and tribes, forced onto slave ships, and forced to endure cruel treatment at the hands of their captors. Many of the African American women were sexually assaulted during their time on the ship, and in many cases, it would not stop when they reached port. Upon their arrival in the colonies, the slaves that survived would be auctioned off or used for

Even before the establishment of slavery the Europeans already had racist sentiments towards dark-skinned people and this just made it seem like it was okay to enslave them and dehumanize them. In 1619 a dutch ship carried the first africans to the New World Colonies. At first the Africans slaves were treated like indentured servants and had an opportunity for freedom like the white indentured servants. Trenado observes “In 1619 the first black Africans came to Virginia...Landowners turned to African slaves as a more profitable and ever-renewable source of labor and the shift from indentured servants to racial slavery had begun” (1-2, Trenado) As the labor demands had grown and so had the cost for indentured servants landowners turned to African slaves and after that it became the dominant labor. This quote demonstrates that the colonists gained power by switching from indentured servants to African slaves that are a more profitable source of labor. Africans had been forcibly brought from Africa and had to work as slaves. As the Black and White reading states “The Africans’ having been torn from their land and cultures made enslavement easier” (26, Zinn) They couldn't enslave the Indians because the Indians outnumbered them and they were in their home but the Africans were taken from their land and brought to a place where they didn't know anything about and this made it easier to enslave them and make them do

But conflict between white and black individuals did not began in todays society nor was it any better before. Racism and abuse towards blacks dates back up until the late 16th century, starting from slavery. Slavery first began in 1619, when a dutch ship introduced the first captured africans to the new world. The ship docked in the north colony of Jamestown, Virginia. The ships crew traded the kidnapped victims for food and supplies. This enslavement of africans became an advantage to the colonists, by utilizing them as free labor in the production of tobacco. African men and women of all ages and sizes were taken from their country and turned into slaves.

Having dark skin and long thick hair has always been things that I was proud of, because this was the way that all the women in my family looked. My mother and grandmother always made me feel like being me or looking like me was the greatest gift in the world, however, I learned from the constant teasing and hair pulling from individuals in my 5th grade class that looking like the rest of my family was not seen as a good thing to others outside of my home. That is when I became truly aware of my differences and I believe those negative experiences changed the way I viewed my own self-worth and beauty. I am no long that confident

Over the course of the years, society has taught black girls that the darker their skin tone is, the uglier they are which triggered them to do their best to meet Eurocentric beauty standards such as having light skin, slim nose and straight hair.

Colorism is an issue amongst African Americans that is slowly disunifying the culture. The idea that is constantly reiterated in the African American community is that if you are light skinned you have a better job with more income, more successful, have more relationships, and are deemed less of a threat, essentially living the “best of both worlds”. If are darker skinned you are jobless or at a job that is not moving you into the future, less successful, passed by a potential mate, and is labeled as a common crook. The ideas about color pigmentation in the African American community all goes back to the original argument made numerous of times: “White is good, Black is bad”. Slavery is a primary reason why African Americans have this

The first English colony in the New World didn’t have African slaves in mind when they came to settle, as slavery was no longer practiced in England. The first African brought to America mainly for the purpose of indenture servitude. As the need for Labor for the colonies intensifies the character of north American slaves status start to change dramatically. As more captive African arrived to the colonies, the law more and more ingrained with the racial slavery the makes its increasingly difficult for slave to secure their freedom. Its seems to me these laws created colorism to legally create social barrier amongst people. When they start changing and creating laws to make African workers as inhumane as possible, I believe racism and bigotry

Colorism is the prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group. Colorism has been one of the most prominent dividing factors amongst multitudes of ethnicities and cultures. Lighter skin has been associated with higher levels of intelligence, wealth, attractiveness, and more. As a result, those of darker complexions have undergone drastic and harmful measures in order to meet these restrictive beauty standards. Advertisements exhibit men and women with creamy white skin and silky straight hair. Companies have profited off of colorism by selling skin bleaching and hair straightening products. The damage colorism has created amongst communities physically and psychologically is deplorable.