“You’re really beautiful, for a dark girl.” Many dark women have received this “compliment” and had to take it with a grin – whether fake or real. It’s as if being regarded as beautiful, or even “acceptable” as a dark person, is an anomaly; an achievement of sorts that makes one “prettier” than other dark people but not quite as beautiful as anyone else who is fairer.
But what’s in a complexion? Does it really matter that much? The short answer is “yes” – especially if you’re a woman, because females bear the brunt of this type of bias. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Alice Walker defined colourism in a 1982 essay as: “Prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their colour.”
It is not racism: colourism exists in a same-race society whereby the scale is tipped in favour of lighter-skinned members, who enjoy certain privileges based on their complexion. Or, to paraphrase the song by Big Bill Broonzy: “If you is white, you’s all right”.
