Colorism is a large issue all around the world. Colorism is discriminating an ethnic group based on skin color. Even though many people say colorism has died down, it is still lurking around and common. Many people first experience the act of colorism at a young age and it carries on into their adulthood. In this video, An Education on Colorism with Kiara Lee, she discusses how people who are dark skinned are treated so much differently than those who are light skinned. People with dark skin are called multiple degrading names and are continually judged by their peers. Beginning at a young age, dark skinned children may experience rejection or discrimination simply because they appear "different". Human beings are visual people, and this is how we are able to judge others based on their appearances. Even if we do not want to judge someone, we automatically always do based on their appearance at first. We always have a quick thought that runs through our heads once we see someone; whether that thought be good or bad or whether we use that judgement against that person or not. Colorism is a tough subject because it has been around for such a long time, and unfortunately will continue to be around if we don't make a change soon. In her video, Kiara Lee talks about how many dark skinned people have low self esteem because of how they are treated; usually resulting back to the beginning of their childhoods. No person has the right to judge someone harshly and use it against them, especially with an innocent child. No one should be negatively thought of by anyone: peers, family members, friends, or teachers. These discriminating actions that children experience at a young age will stay with them for the rest of their lives leaving them to be self conscious and insecure about themselves.
Another video I found online was with a woman sharing her personal experiences of colorism stories relating to discrimination and rejection. These stories were related to her professional life and her love life. It was interesting to hear her talk about her experiences because they were personal and were coming directly from her. She spoke about how she was a model at the age of fourteen and fifteen, and was eventually rejected because her skin was too dark. She was told by the modeling company that she had the perfect body and height, but her skin was just simply too dark! Imagine that. Also, she said in college she had a friend who had the same body type as her and was dark skinned, but about two shades lighter than her. Wherever they went together and whenever they went out together, the men would always gravitate towards her friend because she was lighter skinned. She found that most of the men were more attracted to the lighter skinned girls. She received numerous offensive comments from guys that they thought were compliments such as, "You're pretty for a dark skinned girl." and "You're beautiful, but just too dark for me." Comments like these are sure to destroy a female's self esteem in a second. Comments like these are said everyday by people to dark skinned girls of all ages.
It is amazing that people still today are judging people based on the color of their skin. It is disgusting and disturbing that this still takes place today. We need to change this. We need to make a difference. We need to learn right from wrong with this issue. We need to implement our good, high standard morals and values into this issue. We need to make our change today. We need to be against colorism!
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