Light versus Dark

History tells of a time when the tone of a black person’s skin ultimately affected their status and the way they were treated during the historic slavery period in the southern region of the nation.
Principally, light-skinned blacks received better treatment than their dark-skinned counterparts, whether it was on a plantation or during the nation’s post antebellum period.
Some people believe skin color status is a thing of the past, but in today’s society, does the question: are blacks still unconsciously judging their own based on the shades of their skin still reign true?
“A lot of it has to deal with how a person was raised,” said Brent Page, a junior political science major from New Orleans. “A lot of guys have been brought up to think that a light-skinned woman with straight hair is what they need to shoot for.”
According to historians, the correct term for black on black discrimination is “colorism.”
For people like Phil Lester, a junior engineering major from Houston, “colorism” is something that he was exposed to while growing up.
“My folks always used to tell me to try not to bring a dark-skinned girl home,” said Lester, a dark-skinned person of color himself.
According to Bill Maxwell, a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times, during slavery light-skinned blacks were given substantially better treatment by plantation owners.
When slavery was abolished with the North’s victory over the confederate South, the light-skinned blacks formed clubs and hosted “Paper Bag” parties that banned dark-skinned blacks, who were darker than the shade of a brown paper bag, ultimately shunning the darker individuals into a inferior subculture.
Eventually, Madame CJ Walker created a way for black women to straighten their hair chemically with a permanent relaxer bridging the gap between women with naturally long silky straight hair and naturally “kinky” locks.
Historians said black Americans adopted an ideology that consisted of striving to be as close to white as possible.
“That’s a powerful thing to put into someone’s mind,” said Natasha Laskett, a freshman biology major from Birmingham, Ala. “I think it still exists way too much, and it’s because of how strong the idea was pushed into the black person’s mind.”
Not all blacks share Laskett’s views on the state of “colorism” in today’s modern society.
“Black discrimination went out in the 60s,” said Raymond Lockett, chairman of the SU History Department. “After that, black became beautiful.”
“Nowadays blacks, especially black college students, are more intelligent on the subject,” Lockett said.
Akia Moorehead, a sophomore mass communication major from Little Rock, Ark., disagrees with Lockett.
“The idea that black is beautiful died in the mid-nineties,” said Moorehead. “Today, that’s looked at as some kind of dying fad.”
Matthew Harrison, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia, said dark-skinned blacks are at a significant disadvantage for employment.
Harrison conducted a study of 240 psychology students and found even if they possessed higher educational achievement and had more qualified resumes, dark-skinned blacks are less likely to get the job than light-skinned counterparts.
“I think color of skin is definitely something that everybody thinks about,” said Ebony Baylor, a junior political science major from Shreveport. “It’s just not something that’s always talked about.”