BLAKGROUND ON COLORISM:
Oxford English Dictionary—prejudice or discrimination
especially within a radical or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin Alice Walker- first coined the term and defined it as
“prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color,” which continues to this day. And as she once wrote,
“…unless we
exorcise it, we cannot as a people progress. For colorism like colonialism, sexism, and racism impedes us.”
Urban Dictionary—Racism within members of the same race. For instance, light-skinned African Americans looking down on and discriminating against darker-skinned African Americans.
Colorism is just as harmful as racism perpetrated by whites on Blacks.
RESPONSES BY STANLEY DESMARAT “HEF”
- Did you know the definition of colorism before this interview?
- Yes, I have.
- What does colorism mean in your words?
- Ignorence in it’s purest form. It is one thing to be hated by those who do not look like you. But to have another person who shares the same ethnicity as you to look down at you because you are darker or lighter than them. can only stem from low-level iq or retardation.
- Through what lens have you encountered colorism, and have you experienced and/or contributed to it?
- When ever I watch these rap video’s. It feels as if I am being program to hate the women I grew up seeing. My grandmother, mother, aunts, and sister. To replace their image for light skin Keishia’s, Puerto-Rican Maria, or Oriental Susie Lu.
- Has this interview enlightened or disheartened you in any way? How so?
- Diffenitly not disheartened. Unfortunately though, this issue has been a topic of conversations amongs other’s and myself many times before.
Sincerely,
Stanley Desmarat, “HEF”
FCI Loretto Inmate