Colourism is identified as the issue of being judged because you are darker than the so-called accepted standard and it has been growing cancerously. Someone can be subjected to colourism from the inside and outside of one’s own community. This also brings into question companies capitalising on this. Unsurprisingly, the light-skin bias penalises women more than it does men.
A recent example of colourism is the latest trend that has taken the world by storm; AI-generated images of women. Specifically, AI-generated images portraying “attractive women” from various regions worldwide have gained significant attention on social media platforms for several months. For instance, a TikTok video showcasing AI-generated images of women from South and East Asia, uploaded by an account called AI World Beauties, has garnered over 1.7 million views. While it is all fun and games in the beginning to see how you would look like, or women from your nationality would appear to be from the POV of generative technology, a deep dive into what it actually entails reveals something insidious. A recurring pattern that you can spot in these images is how all women have fair skin (even if it is black, AI opts for a tan version), slender noses, full lips, unblemished skin and chiselled jawlines. Evidently, AI’s concept of a beautiful woman is inherently colourist and feeds into unreal beauty standards.
The gravity of colourism
In 2022, there was widespread astonishment on social media when it was revealed that FN Meka, an AI-generated robot rapper, had supposedly “signed” with Capitol Records Music Group. Many found it perplexing that a prominent record label would provide an opportunity to a character resembling something out of a simulation game when there was an abundance of exceptionally talented human artists in the US who would cherish such an opportunity.
A brief examination of any content featuring this character hinted that, yet again, the decision seemed to be driven by the desire for profit, exploiting harmful stereotypes associated with the Black community.
Following the initial excitement and subsequent backlash, which led to FN Meka being dropped within a day, TK Saccoh, the creator of The Darkest Hue, an Instagram platform aimed at fostering community and addressing colourism, used her social media presence to initiate a vital dialogue. She posed a thought-provoking question to her followers: “Are Black individuals becoming merely virtual entities?” By citing instances like FN Meka and well-known avatars like Shudu, Saccoh contends that the perpetuation of bias favouring lighter skin tones is taking on a more subtle and concerning form of evolution.
Ruchika Tulshyan in her writeup for the Harvard Business Review explains how colourism represents a subtle and deeply ingrained form of bias that disproportionately affects people with darker skin tones, transcending ethnic and racial boundaries. Remarkably, this issue remains largely overlooked by many institutions in the world. Organisations aiming to foster inclusivity within diverse teams should recognize how colourism not only influences interactions among people from diverse backgrounds but also among individuals of the same community who exhibit varying skin tones. Addressing and dismantling these biases in practice could have a profound impact on promoting inclusion.
However, one of the challenging aspects of colourism is its elusive nature, making it difficult to substantiate or address. Unfortunately, individuals who encounter colourism often find themselves without effective recourse. For instance, let us consider workplaces. A new report conducted by Catalyst examined data from 2,734 women belonging to marginalised racial and ethnic groups across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The findings unveiled that 51% of women from these groups had been battered by instances of racism within their current workplace. For women with darker skin tones, this figure can escalate to as high as 69%.
Intriguingly, skin tone can play a more significant role in determining whether someone secures a job than their educational qualifications, as noted by Matthew Harrison, a researcher at the University of Georgia. In the US, a study disclosed that Black individuals with lighter skin tend to have higher socioeconomic status and often form partnerships with individuals of similar socioeconomic standing. This led the study’s authors to draw the inference that the influence of skin colour or shade was equally as impactful as race in determining American socioeconomic status. Interestingly this trope is not only prevalent in the West but is spread and practised religiously in Asia as well. The way that dark-skinned people are perceived by people from their circles and by themselves is quite questionable. This then inadvertently (or by purpose) perpetuates the anti-black sentiment that exists in some regions of Asia.
Even in day-to-day life, we may be victims of colourist remarks such as “pretty for a dark-skinned girl; I am not black, I am brown; acting light-skinned”. Sometimes, they take the avatar of backhanded compliments which leave you in a tight spot. Precisely because of the fact that colourism is sneaky and often appears as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, it is difficult to decode what passes as colourism and what doesn’t. Dismally, colourism creates an unspoken rule among people that roughly translates to “some are more equal than others based on skin colour”. This has systemic consequences, be it the criminal justice system, health care sector, education, employment, media or pop culture; everything is infested by it. Its presence has become so pervasive that even filters on Snapchat and Instagram cater to this agenda. Therefore, it is important to be acutely aware of the narratives that are being circulated about people based on their skin colour. And call them out if it is even disparaging in the slightest way.
(Sandunlekha Ekanayake)