History UsefulNotes / Colorism

ButNotTooBlack is the InUniverse depiction of colorism in media, whereas this page simply describes the phenomenon. See also RaceTropes, MediaDiversityTropes, MediaAdaptationTropes, and CharactersAndCasting to find tropes that are frequently related.

[[caption-width-right:350:Is this still considered {{Blackface}}? [[note]]Top left: African-American musician and activist Music/NinaSimone; Top right: American actress of Afro-Dominican and Puerto Rican descent Creator/ZoeSaldana; Bottom: Saldana portraying Simone in the {{biopic}} ''Nina'' (2016) with makeup to darken her skintone, an afro, and a prosthetic nose to try to match Simone's features.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Is this still considered {{Blackface}}? [[note]]Top left: African-American musician and activist Music/NinaSimone; Top right: American actress of Afro-Dominican and Puerto Rican descent Creator/ZoeSaldana; Bottom: Saldana portraying Simone in the {{biopic}} ''Nina'' (2016) with makeup to darken her skintone to try to match the much darker Simone.[[/note]]]]

Colorist behaviors come in many different forms and can show up in all aspects of life. In the United States, one infamous way colorism was perpetuated and maintained amongst African Americans in the 20th century was through the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Paper_Bag_Test "Brown Paper Bag" test]]. If a black individual was not lighter than a brown paper bag, they would be barred entrance to elite African-American social institutions like sororities, public spaces, like clubs and churches, and many people-facing jobs in the service and film industries. Given HollywoodBeautyStandards, colorism has also impacted hiring practices, representation, and the likelihood of success for groups and individuals in media. The practice of "whitewashing," in which people are made to have a lighter skintone in media either through makeup, lighting, or digital alteration in post-production, plays a big role in perpetuating this bias against darker skintoned representation in media. Whitewashing also includes making a character in an adapted work appear much lighter than they do in the source material, even if that source material is RealLife, like a {{Biopic}}. RaceLift and PlaysGreatEthnics are two tropes that cover parts of whitewashing.

[[caption-width-right:350:Is this still considered {{Blackface}}? [[note]]Top left: African-American musician and activist Music/NinaSimone; Top right: American actress of Afro-Dominican and Puerto Rican descent Creator/ZoeSaldana; Bottom: Saldana portraying Simone in the {{biopic}} ''Nina'' (2016) with makeup to darken her skintone to try to match the much darker Simone.]]

Due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil importing more enslaved Africans]] than any other country during the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the resulting large African population this created, Brazil developed its own form of a society-wide colorist practice, referred to as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_whitening "racial whitening"]], which has since been adopted or developed organically throughout Latin America and Oceania as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanqueamiento "blanqueamiento"]]. The idea behind racial whitening is to "improve" or completely eradicate the black race in Brazil through interracial coupling between white and black people. Brazil's racial boundaries place far less emphasis on ancestry than in the US,[[note]]see this page on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule one drop rule]] for information on the US's stricter racial bounds[[/note]] so social class also plays a huge factor, making social mobility an often secondary method of racial whitening.

The historical causes of colorism around the world have different roots. In places impacted by the trans-Atlantic slave trade or colonization by Western European countries, colorism can be thought of as racism's and white supremacy's insidious sibling. The differential treatment regarding social, legal, and economic privileges colorism maintains was reinforced via slave owners' preferential treatment to house slaves versus field slaves. Field slaves were forced to work outside for long hours often under grueling heat and faced the harshest of treatment and brutality from slave owners. the outside exposure darkening their skin, making it clear what kind of slave they were. House slaves however, by virtue of having to do housework over fieldwork, had ''comparatively'' easier lives, as they avoided the back-breaking physical labor of field work, had nicer material living conditions, and looking presentable to the white guests they served became important. In addition, lighter skin for a slave was also an indication of mixed race ancestry (almost exclusively from male slave owners sexually abusing the enslaved women they owned). While many mixed race children born from such relations were treated no different than other slaves, others were brought into the home and had their parentage recognized by their fathers, who gave them an education and sometimes even freed them from slavery.

The historical causes of colorism around the world have different roots. In places impacted by the trans-Atlantic slave trade or colonization by Western European countries, colorism can be thought of as racism's and white supremacy's insidious sibling. The differential treatment regarding social, legal, and economic privileges colorism maintains was reinforced via slave owners' preferential treatment to house slaves versus field slaves. Field slaves were forced to work outside for long hours often under grueling heat; the outside exposure darkening their skin, making it clear what kind of slave they were. House slaves however, by virtue of having to do housework over fieldwork, had ''comparatively'' easier lives, as they avoided the back-breaking physical labor of field work and had nicer material living conditions. In addition, lighter skin was also an indication of mixed race ancestry due to primarily male slave owners raping the women they owned. While many mixed race children born from these acts were treated no different than other slaves, others were brought into the home, given an education and even freed from slavery.

The historical causes of colorism around the world have different roots. In places impacted by the trans-Atlantic slave trade or colonization by Western European countries, colorism can be thought of as racism's and white supremacy's insidious sibling. Outside of notions of white superiority, colorism was reinforced via slave owners' preferential treatment to house slaves versus field slaves. Field slaves were forced to work outside for long hours often under grueling heat; the outside exposure darkening their skin, making it clear what kind of slave they were. House slaves however, by virtue of having to do housework over fieldwork, had ''comparatively'' easier lives, as they avoided the back-breaking physical labor of field work and had nicer material living conditions. In addition, lighter skin was also an indication of mixed race ancestry due to primarily male slave owners raping the women they owned. While many mixed race children born from these acts were treated no different than other slaves, others were brought into the home, given an education and even freed from slavery.

Colorism is a form of discrimination based on skin tone in which people with lighter skin receive preferential treatment than those with darker skin. Thus, light-skinned people have more privileges relative to dark-skinned ones in various institutions and spaces throughout society (e.g. workplaces, educational institutions, healthcare, criminal justice, and media); these are either explicitly outlined and enforced through laws and institutional policies, implicitly via social norms and codes of conduct, or both. While colorism as an abstract concept could be biased against lighter skin toned individuals rather than darker skin toned ones, due to its relationship with racism and classism discussed below, it has manifested almost unilaterally as the privileging of lighter skin over darker skin. And while individual prejudices against lighter skinned individuals certainly do exist, colorism as a perpetuated social system focuses on society-level biases that are sanctioned and assumed to be true on a large scale.

The historical causes of colorism around the world have different roots. In places impacted by the trans-Atlantic slave trade or colonization by Western European countries, colorism can be thought of as racism's insidious sibling that is both enacted upon non-white minorities by white majorities and enforced within those minority communities by community members. Outside of notions of white superiority, colorism was reinforced via slave owners' preferential treatment to house slaves versus field slaves. Field slaves were forced to work outside for long hours often under grueling heat; the outside exposure darkening their skin, making it clear what kind of slave they were. House slaves however, by virtue of having to do housework over fieldwork, had ''comparatively'' easier lives, as they avoided the back-breaking physical labor of field work and had nicer material living conditions. In addition, lighter skin was also an indication of mixed race ancestry due to primarily male slave owners raping the women they owned. While many mixed race children born from these acts were treated no different than other slaves, others were brought into the home, given an education and even freed from slavery.

Outside of this, the billion dollar global skin whitening and lightening industry historically relied on colorism to sell its products with numerous advertisements juxtaposing miserable and undesirable dark skinned people with happy and attractive lighter skinned counterparts, often using BeforeAndAfterPictures. Interestingly, this industry has only a small market space in the US in modern times, despite the US's history with colorism and many brands being subsidiaries of well-known American or Western companies like the Fair and Lovely brand and Unilever, likely because of colorism's racist roots there. However, it has a huge market share in South Asia, and India especially, due to the country's historical use of caste systems to structure society and how colorism was enmeshed within that system.

Because of sexist double standards regarding women and beauty (see MenActWomenAre, MenAreStrongWomenArePretty, WomenAreDelicate and DelicateIsBeautiful), this tends to come down much harsher on women than men, though male stars are not immune from this standard either. Male and female idols throughout East and Southeast Asia are often ridiculed in the media and by netizens for appearing too tan. When black female characters appear in media, they often have straightened hair, straight hair extensions, or wear straight hair wigs; if they do have curly hair, it will often be of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-textured_hair looser curl pattern]] than the kinky, coily type that is predominant amongst African descended people. Similarly, prominent Latino and Asian characters in stories are more likely to be portrayed by lighter skinned and white Latinos / lighter skinned East Asian actors as opposed to darker skinned / Southeast and South Asian individuals, respectively. While there has been organized movements for more representation of minorities of all forms in media for decades, more recent calls focus on diversity within minority groups as well to explicitly challenge colorist norms and practices.

[[caption-width-right:350:Is this still considered {{Blackface}}? [[note]]Top left: African-American musician and activist Music/NinaSimone; Top right: American actress of Afro-Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, Creator/ZoeSaldana; Bottom: Zoe Saldana portraying Nina Simone in the {{biopic}} ''Nina'' (2016) with makeup to darken her skintone to try to match the much darker Simone.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Is this still considered {{Blackface}}? [[note]]Top left: African-American musician and activistMusic/NinaSimone; Top right: American actress of Afro-Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, Creator/ZoeSaldana; Bottom: Zoe Saldana portraying Nina Simone in the {{biopic}} ''Nina'' (2016) with makeup to darken her skintone to try to match the much darker Simone.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Is this still considered {{Blackface}}? [[note]]Top left: African-American musician and activistMusic/NinaSimone; Top right: American actress of Afro-Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, Creator/ZoeSaldana; Bottom: Zoe Saldana portraying Nina Simone in ''Nina'' (2016) with makeup to darken her skintone to try to match the much darker Simone.]]

ButNotTooBlack is the InUniverse depiction of colorism in media, whereas this page simply describes the phenomenon. See also RaceTropes, MediaDiversityTropes, MediaAdaptationTropes to find tropes that can be related.

Colorist behaviors come in many different forms and can show up in all aspects of life. In the United States, one infamous way colorism was perpetuated and maintained amongst African Americans in the 20th century was through the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Paper_Bag_Test "Brown Paper Bag" test]]. If a black individual was not lighter than a brown paper bag, they would be barred entrance to elite African-American social institutions like sororities, public spaces, like clubs and churches, and many people-facing jobs in the service and film industries. Given HollywoodBeautyStandards, colorism has also impacted hiring practices, representation, and the likelihood of success for groups and individuals in media. The practice of "whitewashing," in which people are made to have a lighter skintone in media either through makeup, lighting, or digital alteration in post-production, plays a big role in perpetuating this bias against darker skintoned representation in media. Whitewashing also includes making a character in an adapted work appear much lighter than they do in the source material, even if that source material is RealLife, like a {{Biopic}}. RaceLift and PlaysGreatEthnic are two tropes that cover parts of whitewashing.

Colorist behaviors come in many different forms. In the United States, one infamous way colorism was perpetuated and maintained amongst African Americans in the 20th century was through the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Paper_Bag_Test "Brown Paper Bag" test]]. If a black individual was not lighter than a brown paper bag, they would be barred entrance to elite African-American social institutions like sororities, public spaces, like clubs and churches, and many people-facing jobs in the service and film industries.

Due to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Brazil importing more enslaved Africans]] than any other country during the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the resulting large African population this created, Brazil developed its own form of a society-wide colorist practice, referred to as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_whitening "racial whitening"]], which has since been adopted or developed organically throughout Latin America and Oceania as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blanqueamiento "blanqueamiento"]]. The idea behind racial whitening is to "improve" or completely eradicate the black race in Brazil through interracial coupling between white and black people. Brazil's racial boundaries place far less emphasis on ancestry than in the US,[[note]]see this page on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule one drop rule]] for information on the US's stricter racial bounds[[/note]] so social class also plays a huge factor, making social mobility an often secondary method of racial whitening.

Given HollywoodBeautyStandards, colorism has contributed just as much to hiring practices, representation, and the likelihood of success for groups of people and individuals in media as run-of-the-mill racism. Because of sexist double standards regarding women and beauty (see MenActWomenAre, MenAreStrongWomenArePretty, WomenAreDelicate and DelicateIsBeautiful), this tends to come down much harsher on women than men, though male stars are not immune from this standard either. Male and female idols throughout East and Southeast Asia are often ridiculed in the media and by netizens for appearing too tan. When black female characters appear in media, they often have straightened hair, straight hair extensions, or wear straight hair wigs; if they do have curly hair, it will often be of a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-textured_hair looser curl pattern]] than the kinky, coily type that is predominant amongst African descended people. Similarly, prominent Latino and Asian characters in stories are more likely to be portrayed by lighter skinned and white Latinos / lighter skinned East Asian actors as opposed to darker skinned / Southeast and South Asian individuals, respectively. While there has been organized movements for more representation of minorities of all forms in media for decades, more recent calls focus on diversity within minority groups as well to explicitly challenge colorist norms and practices.