We’re not talking black vs. white here (too straightforward), but lighter vs. darker complexions in the same race or nationality.
For example, in 2007, Vanderbilt law and economics professor Joni Hersch analyzed a 2003 government survey of 2,084 legal immigrants to the USA. She found that immigrants with lighter skin earned 8-15% percent more than similar immigrants with much darker skin. The results held even after accounting for English proficiency, education, race, and country of origin.
The survey used an 11-point scale for measuring skin tone coloration, with 0 for an absence of color and 10 for the darkest possible skin tone. Hersch concluded that on average, being one shade lighter is equivalent to an additional year of education. University of North Carolina economics professor William Darity Jr, said Hersch’s study replicated the results of his 2006 paper on skin tone and wages among American blacks. Neither study could verify whether the apparent employment bias was conscious or unconscious.
This preference also plays itself out in African American social dynamics, and whites are almost totally ignorant of it. Bear with me here – remember my note at the beginning of this list (seems ages ago, doesn’t it?). Here goes: There exists today a perceived social preference for lighter skin in the African American community, complete with bidirectional stereotypes and its own specialized lexicon. Complex interpersonal and communal relationships now exist based on a random genetic manifestation.
The sheer number and callousness of terms for different African American skin tones is alarming. They start from the innocuous “Light Bright” and “Mocha”, and quickly devolve to more derogatory terms as shades darken (‘high yellow’, ‘piss yellow’, ‘redbone’, ‘midnight’, ‘burnt’ and ‘crispy’). Darker women report they often receive backhanded compliments such as ‘you’re pretty for a dark girl’. What, “pretty” isn’t enough? They also refer to a ‘pecking order’ on the dating scene where light-skinned women have the upper hand.
And it gets more complicated in reverse. Light-skinned black men are often stereotyped as being more militant on race issues because they are overcompensating for yet another stereotype, which is that dark-skinned men are more masculine than “pretty boy” light skinned men. Light skinned women also complain they are unfairly stereotyped as having a superiority complex over darker women.
At this point in my research, my head exploded. Fortunately, Elnora Web, President of Laney College in Oakland, CA, sums it up nicely: “There is something related to color that we have bought as a society -across the board – that somehow associates excellence, associates promise, associates possibilities, associates competence, intelligence, and worthiness, with a lighter hue. And somehow the darker you are, the less likely you are to be of any asset, or let alone, any contribution or success in society”.
Well said. All I’ll say is that “something” is wrong, and the just-hate-one-son-of-a-bitch-at a-time motto is looking better all the time.
