Light skin versus Dark skin -Clarisse Jones

Clarisse Jones’s essay, “Light skin versus Dark skin”, talks about a common controversy present in black society. Jones recalls her painful encounters with this topic, which she refers to as Colorism. All most all African American have encountered this haunting problem. Colorism is still a prevalent issue among blacks in today's society; furthermore, this deeply rooted issue has been, and still is, the cause for black on black discrimination

“Colorism --and its subtext of self-- began during slavery on plantations where white masters favored lighter –skin blacks…” Many people, including Clarisse Jones, feel that skin discrimination stemmed from slavery. The whole concept that light skinned slaves were better than darker skinned slaves, brought on slave divisions. Light skinned slaves were called “House Slaves” because lighter slaves were given duties indoors. Leaving darker skinned slaves, called “Field Slaves”, to do all the hard work out side. After slavery, the "brown paper bag test" was created. This test was mainly used by African Americans in fraternities or sororities to discriminate against darker skinned blacks. Sororities or fraternities would not let anyone darker than a paper lunch bag into their society. Colorism send out the wrong idea of light skin being more acceptable compared with dark skin. It’s test like this, which cause division and discrimination within the black community.

You can see Colorism present everywhere in today’s society. “Some African Americans, dark and light, prefer light-skinned mates so they can have a “pretty baby.” In black America light skin is seen as beautiful. So many African Americans want there children to be of a light skin complexion. Clarisse Jones gives another example of colorism’s present in today’s society. She talks about how skin lighting creams used, even though they are advertised as blemish fades. Light skin is seen as clean or wealthier and dark skin is seen as dirty or poor. Colorism is also present in hip hop. In music videos, most video girls are of light skin complexion. All of this Colorism in the media and in everyday life causes blacks to discriminate against other blacks, based on their skin color.