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Racism In The Black Community

Decent Essays

With the rise in the #BlackLivesMatter movement, racism has been a hot topic of discussion in news, music, television, and in film. America is finally beginning to understand and confront the effects of racism in society. Although the country still has a long way to go in regards to reform and achieving true equality, the acknowledgement of the existence of racism is a large first step. Despite the frequency of conversations about racism, there is still one vital aspect that is ignored and overlooked that greatly contributes to the hindrance of true change. Colorism. As a society, when speaking of racial inequality in the black community we fail to realize the role colorism has and the effect it has on those that suffer from it. Colorism in the black community is one of the main things that keeps us from …show more content…

Not only was I seen as lesser because I was black, but my darker than most skin left me vulnerable to the torment of others. Throughout high school, everywhere I would look; social media, television, magazines, and film, I would see dark-skin women being represented as lesser beings. In entertainment we were always the characters that were aggressive, high-tempered, “ghetto”, sassy, uneducated, ugly, and the list goes on whereas light-skin women were put on a pedestal. It made it seem that if you weren’t mixed, you were automatically not worth anyones time or effort. The representation of dark-skin women presents us in a permanently negative light and destroys the self esteem of thousands of young girls. When I was young, I always told by my classmates “you would be pretty if you weren’t so dark.” This was extremely detrimental to my self confidence as a young girl and led to the festering of insecurities I still haven’t completely recovered from today. As a society, we need to work towards presenting dark-skin and light-skin women in a more equal

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