Day: April 1, 2021

Yo, is this Colorism?

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Transcript

Hi guys, my name is Lily Collignon, and today we’re going to be talking about colorism, but specifically, colorism seen in the beauty industry. So what is colorism? The national conference for community and justice, also known as the NCCJ defines colorism as a practice of discrimination by which those with lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin. I’d also like to run through some statistics that can also explain colorism further. A 2016 University of Georgia study showed that employers prefer light-skinned men to dark-skinned men, regardless of their qualifications, from MS magazine, dark-skinned defendants are more likely to be convicted and receive the death penalty than lighter-skinned ones. So these are just a couple of examples of how colorism can actually affect people’s lives negatively, and the different abilities that they can have.

So, where does this all come from? And where did this obsession over a lighter complexion begin? There are many events in history that created this ideal of light skin, and I’m going to walk you through a few of them. To start out, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The only women who had pale complexions were those who didn’t have to work outside, so pale skin was associated with wealth and high class. But then in the 19th-century women began consuming arsenic wafers that would make their skin paler because of the association with the class in lighter skin. Also in India, around the same time, they had white rulers, which are said to be the reasons why many Indian people fascinate lighter skin. So again, they’re associating the white rulers with power and their wealth, and it’s associated with lighter skin. In the 1950s colorism continues, advertisers are now marketing products to African American women that are said to lighten their skin, which is supposedly going to lead them to be more beautiful, more socially liked can even marry better

In one of our in-class readings, the story of my body by Judith Ortiz Colfer. She delves into her upbringing and the many physical components of her life that have shaped who she has become. In her early teenage years, she remembers hearing a Puerto Rican woman say, “I hope my baby doesn’t turn out prieto, which is slang for dark and black.” This is an example of how colorism has affected an individual who feels as if her daughter or son- if they had darker skin wouldn’t be as liked, or have the same abilities as somebody with lighter skin.

In the past decade, there have been tons and tons of products marketed to everyone solely for whitening and brightening the skin. Today I’m going to talk about Tarte makeup that launched a brand new foundation. And it only had 15 shades. And I’m going to put the link to the article as well as a picture so you guys can see this for yourself. So the shade range ranges from 15 shades. And if you look at this picture it’s quite stirring. Only three of these shades are for darker-skinned people, and there are many many more shades of other individuals out there with darker skin complexions than just these three shades. The other shades are all pertaining to white skin. After much controversy tarte insisted that they had more shades coming that are already in the work. I’m not sure whether I believe this or not, especially because I looked into it, and tarte actually launched their quote-unquote full shade range of the foundation. In February of 2020. So that would have been 13 months after this swatch photo, and when the first 15 shades came out. I think it’s great that they ended up having more shades for people but at the end of the day, they came out with 15 shades that were completely prioritizing and pertaining to individuals with lighter skin.

Tarte isn’t the only makeup brand that has been guilty of colorism. Even right now if you were to look at Ulta which is a makeup store and you scroll through the concealer page, you will notice that almost every concealer shade on the cover page pertains to a lighter skin complexion. How does this affect the black community? Well, I have no idea. But I did do some research and I found in an article black voices colorism is a plague in the black community. Jacey Bledsoe interviews fellow students on the topic of colorism and asks them a series of questions. I read through all these questions I found it particularly insightful, but my most favorite question and the response comes from DeDjreanna Thames. And she says “it affects the black community because the world is already hurting in discriminating against us as it is. It doesn’t help that we are putting each other against one another as well because we are too light and dark, instead of fighting the fight against America together. We are fighting each other.” I think that Thames makes a really great point here. And she’s basically just trying to say that- And I mean it’s just putting it into perspective that there are many problems in the world and one of them is equality and discrimination and, and just making everybody equal regardless of skin tone and for individuals to be saying you’re too dark, or you’re too light.. is just taking us in the wrong direction for a diverse yet unified nation. I would like to make the argument that much of the beauty industry chooses to other members of the black community with their marketing efforts and product availability in relation to skin tone, the beauty industry looks at individuals with white and light skin as the one and prioritizes them because this skin tone is associated with idealistic beauty in what’s favored by society.

Beauty brands are continuing this horrific act of colorism and discrimination by continuing to sell these products and market mainly to individuals with lighter skin. I certainly think the beauty industry has the power to reshape ideologies and show that all skin color is beautiful ideal and valid. A lot of the time, makeup is associated with feeling pretty or dressing up, or feeling beautiful and looking beautiful. Right. And when big brands, choose to only market their products to individuals with lighter skin, they’re saying that only these individuals get to feel beautiful, but all colors are beautiful and invalid in able to feel pretty right. If you’re interested in a brand that supports black individuals and has a diverse shade range. And prioritizes all skin tones equally. Check out Juvias place, I actually have a product for them. And I really like it. They have so many shades and they market all their products using shades starting from dark to light, which was the first makeup brand to do that. So a lot of the time when you go to makeup counters, you’ll see products. And you’ll notice the next time you’re in there, but it’ll be like light to dark. Why, why, why is it not like medium to dark to light or dark to light it’s just interesting that’s just one of those things, but Juvias place if you go to their cameras you’ll see dark to light and even if you look up their page, you’ll, you’ll see uh, it’s just really cool, and you’ll see the difference to compared to Tarte per se. But yeah, a lot of the start to change colorism and is going to begin with the decisions that you decide to make in society. And thankfully tarte fixed their problem to a degree and didn’t just leave it. I don’t even know if they came out with an apology, but they were certainly othering black people when they came out with this line and making white complexion the one and it’s just interesting to think about it in that perspective.

But yeah, thank you so much for listening, and even you can make an impact by putting a stop to colorism just by the choices you make in society and the products in brands, you choose to buy and support. Thank you so much for listening. I’m going to link all of the articles of everything and some photos for you guys to look at just to get even more understanding, obviously, I’m not a pro on this topic I’m still learning as much as you guys are too and it’s just very eye-opening to read these kinds of things. So, thank you so much again, and I look forward to reading your guys’ “Yo is this podcast”s! Thank you.

 

Work Cited

Adamu, N. (2019, March 21). Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching. Welcome Collection. https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/ee63db55ad29f4e9078a5244e9f23f8c0be4f9dd_arsenic-complexion-wafers-smithsonian.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&w=1338&h= 

Baragona, L. (2018). Fans are furious after Tarte unveiled its new foundation that cater almost entirely to white people. The Insider. https://www.insider.com/tarte-cosmetics-shape-tape-foundation-range-2018-1 

Bledsoe, J. (2020) Black Voices: Colorism is a plague in the black community. Indiana Daily Student. https://www.idsnews.com/article/2020/11/black-vocies-colorism-is-a-plague-in-the-black-community 

NCCP. (2021) Colorism. https://www.nccj.org/colorism-0 

Newby. B  (2019) Tarte Relaunched Shape Tape Foundation Due To Shade Range Outrage. The Reviliest. https://www.revelist.com/beauty-news-/tarte-relaunched-shape-tape-foundation/14634 

Ortiz, Judith Cofer “The story of my body” Osman, N. (2019, April 4). Under the skin: How lightening creams exploit the beauty myth. Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/skin-lightening-creams-are-they-exploiting-beauty-myths-south-sudan 

Sankaran, S., Sekerdej, M., & Von Hecker, U. (2017). The role of Indian caste identity and caste inconsistent norms on status representation. Frontiers in Psychology, 8. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00487

History of the Black Panther Party: Lindsay Juranich

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Prior to us watching the film The Black Panther, I find it useful for us to understand what a “Black Panther” is and the history of the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The political organization’s main purpose was to challenge police brutality against the African American community. The Black Panthers were a group of 2,000 African American individuals who dressed in black hats and leather jackets and organized armed citizen patrols in Oakland, California (The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration).

The founders of the party valued Marxist ideologies and used a Ten-Point program to organize the views and policies of the party. According to the Ten-Point program, there will be an end to police brutality, increased employment for African Americans, and property, housing, and justice for all (Basgen, 2002). The Black Panther Party fueled an even larger Black Power movement of unification, civil rights, and support for the African American community. The party also focused on survival programs in African American communities, such as free meals and healthcare, with the thought of women and children in mind. They also supported schools, legal aid offices, clothing distribution, and transportation in these communities (Smithsonian).

Although the party was successful in areas of social reform, there are many controversies and violence that the party is also responsible for. There are multiple accounts of violence with law enforcement and internal violence amongst members. This including the shooting of Officer John Frey and the murders of members Alex Rackley and Betty Van Patter (History.com). The party was also a target of FBI counterintelligence program COINTELPRO. The party was viewed as a communist group and the director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, claimed that it was “one of the greatest threats to the nation’s internal security” (History.com). The FBI ended the party in 1982.

Although the actions of the party led to violence and threatened national security, the Black Panther Party’s values and underlying motives have inspired activism in the Black Lives Matter movement, empowerment of women, and justice for the African American community. The Black Panther Party’s effect on social reform is still present in our society and have created a revised platform for our generation to follow in areas of civil rights, equality, anti-black racism, and police brutality.

The Occupied Times – Black Against Empire: Joshua Bloom Interview

Sources:

Basgen, Brian. Black Panther Party, www.marxists.org/history/usa/workers/black-panthers/.

“The Black Panther Party.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/black-panthers.

“The Black Panther Party: Challenging Police and Promoting Social Change.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, 23 Aug. 2020, nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/black-panther-party-challenging-police-and-promoting-social-change.

Chow, Andrew R. “The Black Panther Party’s Impact on Modern Day Activism.” Time, Time, 12 Feb. 2021, time.com/5938058/black-panthers-activism/.

History.com Editors. “Black Panthers.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 3 Nov. 2017, www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement/black-panthers.

Western Views of Traditional African Culture

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The movie Black Panther directed by Ryan Coogler, is a great film that mixes the traditional African culture, with a bit of futuristic concepts. The movie does an excellent job at promoting and giving power to the African culture, as well as showing how “western views” of African culture can be interpreted. In general, many westerner’s views Africa’s traditional culture as a very outdated one, since many parts of the continent are still ruled by tribes living off of the land and following ancient traditions. It is known that roughly seven to eight percent of the continent’s population is composed of these traditional tribes, which is a lot of people when the entire continent of Africa has over one billion people. These tribes still live the way that their ancestors did thousands of years ago and will likely continue their traditions until they are forced to transition to modern standards.

An example of the film portraying these types of African culture can be seen through the tradition of mortal combat for power of the throne.  This depicts the traditional African culture for obtaining power in a tribe, which can be seen through the Ibibio people Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria (Idang). According to Gabriel E. Idang, who wrote the article African Culture and Values, he described how few tribes still carry on these ancient traditions to determine the leader of the tribe. Generally, the first-born son of the previous leader gets birth rights to the throne, but an outsider is able to challenge for power.

The film can also imply western views through the tribal clothing and weapon choices. Throughout the entirety of the film, the people of the Wakanda tribes are all shown wearing traditional clothing such as cloaks or a special clothing item called Kitnege. A Kitenge is a traditional garment worn by women and is generally worn by Samburu people of northern Kenya (Hansen). The movie also shows traditional weaponry such as Zulu spear. The spear, commonly referred to as an “Iklwa” or “Ixwa” is a type of spear created and still used by the Zulu tribe of South Africa (Ogunniyi).

 

 

Works Cited

 

Idang, Gabriel E. “African culture and values.” Phronimon 16.2 (2015): 97-111.

Hansen, Karen Tranberg. “The world in dress: Anthropological perspectives on clothing, fashion, and culture.” Annu. Rev. Anthropol. 33 (2004): 369-392.

Ogunniyi, Meshach Bolaji. “Adapting western science to traditional African culture.” International journal of science education 10.1 (1988): 1-9.

Diary of Systematic Injustice- Class Inequality

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The concept systematic injustice is related with structural inequality that has been learned in our course. The case that I choose is related to structural inequality, which means that one group of people might be situated in a status unequal to the other groups of people.
One year ago, two women drove a luxury car to go into the imperial palace in China and took the pictures, which aroused the heated discussion of lots of people. Usually, Chinese average people did not have the right to drive the car inside the imperial palace. Besides, the woman also showed her arrogance and contempt on the social media platforms, which leads to the social antagonism. Later, it was found that she was the wife of one official in China. It was also found that she had three big houses in the USA. The woman did not make any apology and instead she continued her extravagant life. The picture below was the one that the woman took pictures with her friends in imperial palace.

The link of the whole story for the case is as follows.

From the event, it could be seen that the gap between rich and the poor is enlarging and the rich people in China could have special protection. It seems that laws are not designed for the rich or for the upper class; instead, laws are just designed to control the average people. It reminds me of the story that two years ago, a family member of an official killed three women without gaining any punishment. It seems that those who have power and wealth could trample on the law. It is quite unfair for average people. Even though the constitution in China claimed that all people are equal, in fact, it is not. The social classes have formed and the gap between the rich and poor would never be narrowed. The social injustice is caused by the unlimited control of power. In fact, some officials are not elected in China and they have unlimited power and no supervision, which leads to the abuse of power.
The structural inequalities usually refer to a system of privilege. In China, those who have power will have privilege in everything while average people need to obey all the rules and regulations. The one who has the privilege in China is usually the government, or more specifically, those officials working in the government. Besides, unlike western countries, the power of the government is limited and monitored by the mass, no one in China could monitor the government. Hence, those officials including their family members always on the opposite side of people when making decisions. When power is not monitored and controlled, those officials will release different kinds of policies to control average people and strengthened their privilege, which makes it impossible for average people to break through structural inequalities in China.