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Layers of Blackness
Colourism in the African Diaspora
By Deborah Gabriel
(ayers of )lackness* +olourism in the African %iaspora +opyright , -../ by %eborah 0abriel Originally published by Imani Media Ltd. All rights reserved. 1o part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author. )ritish (ibrary +ataloguing-in-#ublication %ata A catalogue record for this book is available from the )ritish (ibrary I2)1 "/3-.-"44/--5..-/
Table of Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................... 5 The Origins of Colourism................................................................ 4 Colourism in the USA .................................................................... 56 Skin Tone Hierarchies in Jamaica ............................................. -4 Racism and Colourism in the UK .............................................. 6/ Pigmentocracy in atin America ................................................ 44 Human !"olution and Skin Colour ........................................... 74 #hiteness and #hite Su$remacy ............................................... /6 %lackness and %lack Identity ...................................................... 34 Conclusion ........................................................................................ "4 Taking the &e'ate (or)ard....................................................... 5.6 References ....................................................................................... 5.4 %i'liogra$hy ................................................................................... 555
Introduction
2ome of us in America, the 8est Indies and Africa believe that the nearer we approach the white man in colour the greater our social standing and privilege and that we should build up an 9aristocracy: based upon caste of colour and not achievement in race. ;arcus 0arvey, 5"-6.<
;arcus 0arveys observations in 5"-6 are an apt description of the topic of this book. )ut why write a book about colourism = a term that is rarely used in public spheres and a topic that is e>ually rarely discussed in private circles? As a $ournalist who writes predominantly about issues that impact on the African %iaspora, I am acutely aware that a lot of attention is devoted by community leaders into addressing issues of racism that disadvantage the black community and in fighting for social, economic and political e>uality that is routinely denied to people of colour. )ut we never stop to e'amine the ine>ualities and pre$udices that e'ist within our communities that are related to our skin colour, which generally regards light skin more favourably than dark comple'ions. @aving researched the sub$ect for a dissertation pro$ect, I found that there was an abundance of information on the A2A and numerous studies which prove that people with darker skin earn less and have lower educational outcomes that light skinned persons. I was curious to discover whether the same could be said of )ritain, whether we too have reached the stage where blackness has become so devalued that the shade of our skin literally controls our present
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condition and future prospects. )ut aside from e'amining other regions in the African %iaspora, namely the +aribbean and (atin America, I wanted to bring a historical and political perspective to the story. I have written numerous articles about the legacies of chattel enslavement and colonisation that mostly manifest themselves in terms of the institutional racism that people of African descent e'perience everywhere in the %iaspora and in the continued economic e'ploitation of the African continent. +olourism fits into that picture as a manifestation of the psychological damage caused by centuries of enslavement which created social hierarchies based on skin colour, that maintain an invisible presence in our psyches. This book therefore aims to e'amine the origins of colourism, how it has evolved among people of African descent in the A2A, (atin America, Bamaica and )ritain and to e'amine its present impact on the African %iaspora. At the Anited 1ations 8orld +onference Against Cacism in %urban, 2outh Africa, in -..5, the conference president, 1kosa ana %lamini Duma, said in his closing statement* E8e have agreed thatFthe systems of slavery and colonialism had the degrading and debilitating impact on those who are blackFG @e went on to say that remedial action is necessary Eto correct the legacy of slavery and colonialism and all other forms of racism. This book takes the link between slavery and racism as a starting point from which to e'amine colourism as an internalised form of racism. The first chapter e'amines the link between colourism, racism and white supremacy, negative associations of blackness in +hristian symbolism and in Bewish and ;uslim te'ts. It also looks at historical e'amples of colourism during pre-Huropean slavery on the African continent. +hapter two e'amines the beginnings of
Introduction
colourism in the A2A from the 5/th century, when enslaved Africans were first shipped to Iirginia. It also e'plores the way in which social hierarchies among enslaved Africans established by slave owners, persisted after emancipation and have continued to e'ist right up to the present time. +hapter three e'amines the same scenario in the +aribbean island of Bamaica, where during slavery, the racialised categorisation of individuals according to the degree of whiteness in the skin, determined the social order. It also traces how mulattos Jmi'ed race personsK emerged as the elite class within Bamaican society after emancipation and e'plores the effect that the denigration of blackness has had on the psyche of dark-skinned Bamaicans. +hapter four e'amines racism and colourism in the AL and looks at how scientific racism shaped the colonial discourse and influenced the portrayal of people of African descent in popular culture, particularly during the Iictorian era. It also e'amines official statistics to assess whether skin tone has an impact on the educational and employment outcomes of African descendants in the AL and analyses the differences in the way that colourism evolved in the AL, compared with Bamaica and the A2A. +hapter five e'amines the pigmentocracy in (atin America and analyses the myth of raceless societies and the reality of social, economic and political e'clusion on the basis of colour. +hapter si' e'amines the human evolution of skin colour and provides both anthropological and biological theories on the black origins of mankind. +hapter seven analyses theories on whiteness and white supremacy and looks at how they function simultaneously within contemporary societies to disadvantage non-white peoples. +hapter eight e'amines the meaning of blackness and its historical, spiritual and cultural significance. The final chapter summarises the findings of this book.
%eborah 0abriel
As a dark-skinned black woman from the African %iaspora, the issue of colourism is of immense importance to me on a personal level. I do not consider my e'perience as an African woman to be divorced from the e'periences of Africans on the continent or elsewhere in the %iaspora, but ine'tricably linked. At the age of five during the si'ties )lack #ride era, my eldest sister, who is some years older than me, told me I was Eyoung, gifted and black and should not let anyone convince me otherwise. That positive affirmation of my blackness has carried me throughout my life and served as a shield of resistance against any negativity I encountered as a result of my ebony hue. )ut I have not been oblivious to the many manifestations of colourism I have witnessed, no matter how subtle, here in the AL, during the twenty months I lived and worked in Bamaica as television producer and freelance writer, or during my $ournalistic travels to the African continent. )ut I am ever conscious that colourism is part of the comple' and inter-linked history of African peoples. 8riting this book has re>uired the piecing together of this $igsaw, to arrive at a broad perspective on how colourism began, how it has evolved and the impact it has on the lives of the African %iaspora today.
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and economic e'ploitation. In doing so, this brought about a profound change in human relations* Ethe white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist sub$ect representOedP the standard for human, or the figure of a whole person, and everyone else OwasP a fragment.Q The chattel enslavement of Africans, commonly referred to as the Transatlantic 2lave Trade is generally regarded as a defining period in history, in terms of establishing the foundations of the systematic and globali ed domination of African peoples and the perpetuation of ideologies which claimed white superiority. In describing an encounter between Africans and Huropeans in the 57th century, the historian Bordan, remarked that Huropeans were struck by the colour of the Africans skinN and thereafter whenever a traveller referred to Africans they always mentioned their colour. @owever* E8ell before the encounter with Africans in the si'teenth century, the Hnglish had already assigned a variety of negative aesthetic and moral values to the word 9black.: To be black was to be dirty, ugly, evil, deadly, devilish. To be white was to be clean, beautiful, good, lively and godlyFM )lackness ac>uired negative connotations in the Huropean psyche as early as the 6rd century, through the writings of the early +hristian &athers who depicted blackness as being synonymous with sin. The theme of darkness was introduced as the antithesis of spiritual light by Rrigen, head of the catechetical school in Ale'andria. Initially the theme of darkness had nothing to do with skin colour but over time became associated with racial representations. Harly ;edieval paintings often depicted black devils as +hrists tormentors during the #assion. Celigious folklore is littered with negative connotations of blackness from stories of sin turning men black, to stories of black people being born in hell, to tales of
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Fbecause you twisted your head around to see my nakedness, your grandchildrens hair shall be twisted into kinks and their eyes redN again because your lips $ested at my misfortune, theirs shall swellFtheir male members shall be shamefully elongatedS ;en of this race are called 1egrosF/ %uring the ;iddle Ages the Huropean representation of the world depicted the three sons of 1oah as progenitors of the Huropean, African and Asian continents. In 54"6, the production of Iconologia, a book of emblems by +esare Cipa, portrayed Hurope as a Tueen with a crown and golden rod, Asia as a woman adorned with gold $ewellery carrying spices and incense and Africa as an almost naked woman carrying an elephants trunk. In the 57th century after Huropeans Ediscovered America, it was added as the fourth continent. Harly biblical writings made in the -nd century )+H and Mth century )+H that make reference to 2hem, @am and Bapeth depict no links to the continents of Africa, Asia and Hurope = because they did not e'ist at that point in time. This racial and geographical connection was invented by &lavius Bosephus, a @elleni ed Bew towards the end of the first century of the +hristian era. The construction of Huropean representations of the world placed Hurope at the centre of the universe and other continents and races as subordinates. The Bewish version of the curse of @am became popular among +hristians in the 57th century, around the time that Huropeans began their invasion of the African continent and the chattel enslavement of African peoples, serving as a convenient e'planation and $ustification for their actions. According to Cudolph 8indsor in his study of the history of ancient black races, in ancient times blacks did not classify races
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%id ye re$ect faith after accepting it? Taste then the penalty for re$ecting faith. )ut those whose faces will be whitened, they will be in 0od's mercy* therein to dwell.5. Cacist attitudes in Islam used to $ustify the enslavement of Africans including those who had converted to Islam, prompted the 5"th century ;oroccan historian, Ahmad ibn Lhalid al-1asiri to write a strong denunciation of this practice* #eople have become so inured OsoP that generation after generation, that many common folk believe that the reason for being enslaved according to the @oly (aw is merely that a man should be black in colourFThis, by 0ods life, is one of the foulest and gravest evils perpetrated upon 0ods religionF 55 #rior to the advent of Huropean chattel enslavement, much of Africa had already been devastated and destabilised by Arab enslavement. Huropeans often claim that Africans were already Eselling themselves before their arrival, obscuring the crucial fact that many of the Africans in >uestion were arabi ed. ;i'ed race African slave trader Tippu Tip, who was conceived through the rape of his black African mother by an Arab slave raider, grew up to be one of the most successful and well known slave traders who was relentless in his pursuit of Africans to kidnap and enslave. )ut the fact that Tippu Tip was not only ;uslim but a mulatto, who identified with his Arab father, rather than his African mother, is of some significance. As a result of hundreds of years of contact with foreigners from Hurope, Asia and 1orth Africa, Africans were, as
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culture in terms of clothing, diet and behaviour and to adopt the Islamic way of life. As the author of the study observes* E#erhaps even more important at least in terms of the new social system, was the turning of these 8aungwama against their own kinsmen, The 8aungwama seemed to treat most harshly those peoples whom they left to follow the Arabs.5- The significance of these early e'amples of skin tone hierarchies in Africa is often overlooked in discussions on colourism. @owever, they are important in terms of understanding the role that colourism played in the involvement of Africans in Huropean chattel enslavement which resulted in the forced removal of millions of Africans to the 1ew 8orld.
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property, Ein the same category as livestock and household furniture, wagons and goods.Q )ecause of earlier race-mi'ing before slavery became firmly established, many mulattos born to free coloured parents lived as free individuals, as did those who were born to white mothers. )ut they were mostly treated as social pariahs. The 2tate of Iirginia, determined to keep the races apart, introduced the Eone drop rule in 5/.4, which declared any person with the slightest trace of African ancestry to be black. In Iirginia and ;aryland this rule was firmly adhered to, but in the %eep 2outh, including 2outh +arolina, mulattos occupied the middle stratum of society, with some of them even passing for white. +olourism also manifested itself in the division of slave labour, with mulattos being assigned domestic work, whilst dark-skinned slaves toiled in the fields. 2kin colour was used as a mechanism to divide enslaved Africans, thereby minimising the likelihood of slave rebellions. As long as there was disunity and suspicion among the slaves the environment was safer for the whites, who were vastly outnumbered by the blacks. If slavery proved divisive among black Americans, then post slavery, colourism served to intensify those divisions. )efore the American +ivil 8ar, slave masters occasionally paid for their mulatto offspring to have an education and sometimes even assisted in their escape from slavery. 2ome sent their children overseas to be educated in Hurope, who, upon their return to the A2A took up positions as lawyers, doctors and teachers. After the +ivil 8ar, the number of emancipated blacks increased, as those who had served on the side of the )ritish became free upon their surrender, whilst other slaves escaped during the war. A small minority were also freed by their masters when the A2A declared its independence
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@oward Aniversity, light-skinned administrators were often believed to give preferential treatment Eto those who resembled themselves.M @oward Aniversity was not the only higher education institution to e'clude dark-skinned blacks. )iased admission policies in favour of light-skinned blacks were also practiced at many other universities including &isk Aniversity in 1ashville, Atlanta Aniversity in 0eorgia and 8ilberforce Aniversity in Rhio. %ark-skinned students were largely directed towards vocational education and industrial training and many of them ended up at the Tuskegee Institute of Alabama, established by )ooker T 8ashington in 5335. )y the turn of the century, the mulatto class had clearly emerged as leaders of the black community. In 5".6, 8H) %ubois made his famous call for Ethe talented tenth, advocating for an elite class of 1egros = 5. per cent of the black population, to lead and uplift the black masses. @e compiled a list of -5 persons whom he considered worthy of the task, of whom -. were mulattos. @is idea was published in the second chapter of a book by African American scholars called The 1egro #roblem. Around this time, Bamaican born ;arcus 0arvey was fast becoming Ethe apostle of pure blackness, as he called for black pride among African Americans. 0arvey criticised %ubois, suggesting he was trying to be Eeverything else but a 1egro, to which %ubois retaliated by calling 0arvey Efat, black and ugly.4 )y the 5"4.s, the domination of the black middle class by mulattos was beginning to decline. @owever, studies conducted in the 5"7.s showed that skin tone still influenced educational outcomes, employability and social status. A -..7 study conducted at the @arvard (aw 2chool, which e'amined national data compiled in the late 5"".s, found that whilst lighter skin among black Americans does appear to influence
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its own way was a kind of diseaseF/ 0oldens mother made her feel inade>uate and unattractive because of her dark skin, even suggesting that she should marry a light-skinned husband for the sake of her children. +hildren who suffer from negative racial e'periences through parenting as a conse>uence of their skin tone can develop psychological problems and low self-esteem, it has been suggested. EA child who grows up feeling hopeless, helpless and unlovable might later become a parent who feels hopeless, helpless and unlovable, thus perpetuating a discouraging cycle.3 In Thurmans classic novel on colourism* The )lacker the )erry, Hmma (ou, the main character who was socialised by her mother to have negative feelings about her own dark skin as well as dark-skinned people generallyN realises during her teens, that she had internalised these colour and class-based discriminations which had influenced her own pre$udiced behaviour towards people of her comple'ion* EIt was clear to her at last that she had e'ercised the same discrimination against her men and the people she wished for friends that they had e'ercised against her..." ;addo' and 0ray carried out research to e'amine the role that skin tone plays in the perception and representation of Africans Americans. They found that both blacks and whites perceived a cultural distinction between light and dark skinned blacks. In both groups, negative stereotypes of blacks were associated with those with dark skin, including aggressiveness, lack of intelligence, and lack of education. %ark skin was also associated with poverty and unattractiveness. These perceptions may be a conse>uence of representations of darker-skinned black men and women in the popular media, where men are portrayed as gangsters and criminals
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ority. 8hite beauty is therefore Ebased on the racist assumption of black ugliness.56 The mainstream media are particularly culpable in perpetuating colourism by using predominantly light-skinned black models that have Huropean facial features, but it is not only the mainstream media who adopt this practice. )lack maga ines are e>ually at fault. Harly studies of American maga ine Hbony, showed that the black models that graced its pages were invariably lightskinned. This trend was only halted temporarily during the seventies, following the )lack #ower ;ovement of the mid 5"7.s and the accompanying )lack is )eautiful, campaign. )ut by the eighties Hbony had abandoned its use of dark-skinned models and returned to using those with light skin. A 5""M study found that black people portrayed in advertisements were less black than blacks found in editorial photographs. The assumption being made was that black people in editorial photographs represent reality = a more accurate representation of the skin tones of African Americans. +learly, the use of predominantly light-skinned models in advertising is a distortion of reality. The light-skinned black women used in advertisements in the vast ma$ority of cases were several shades lighter than black males, confirming the view that black women suffer more than black men through colourism by being e'cluded from advertisements, sending the message that black is not beautiful in women. 0olden argues that it is >uestionable as to whether a Elegitimate black standard of beauty that is inspired by white female beauty can be created. 2he claims that African Americans have been socialised into accepting light skin and long, straight hair as the defining standards of black beauty and as a conse>uence* EThe Huropean standard of beauty reigns and rules the worldF5M 8hite beauty is big business and white beauty sells. 0lobalisation, multina-
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attractiveness is not endemic to Africans, but is a conse>uence of cultural domination. 2chillers theory on cultural imperialism focused on global power structures in the international communications industry and the relationship between multinational corporations and dominant western nations. @owever, cultural imperialism theories are primarily centred on the dominating influence of western nations on societies within developing countries, rather than the effect of cultural domination on minority communities within western states. 1onetheless theories on cultural imperialism serve to demonstrate the power and modus operandi of white hegemonies. 2chiller himself argued that cultural imperialism was merely the evolution of colonialism which transformed the source of e'ploitation and adapted to a modern system of control. @e astutely contested that the colonial machine, far from being disabled is alive and well in a new form. 1eo-colonialism functions in the modern world through Eeconomic, political and cultural dependencies.54 2reberny;ohammadi in tackling the issue of cultural imperialism argued that developing countries suffered irreparable cultural damage as a conse>uence of slavery and colonisation well in advance of globalisation. 2he therefore e'amined the cultural impact of imperialism on former colonised nations in the developing world. 2he made an interesting observation concerning the pervasive nature of +hristian missionaries, who carried an e'plicit cultural message, which was the concept of Africa as a primitive and backward society which needed to be Eredeemed and Ecivilised through the +hristian faith. )ut the most interesting aspect of her investigation was on black American missionary activity in Africa, which she argues demonstrates the degree to which imperialism impacts on an individuals
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6M6- voyages from Africa shipped "54,-.M Africans to Bamaica, who were captured from the )ight of )iafra, the 0old +oast, 8est +entral Africa and the )ight of )enin. )etween a >uarter and a half of all enslaved Africans arriving in Bamaica died within three years of arrival. The construct of race served the purpose of establishing the foundations of white supremacy in Bamaica. )iological difference = skin colour was used to impose the assumed positive attributes of whiteness and negative attributes of blackness. This construct was then used to form the basis of white domination and oppression of African peoples* In this manner, a racist social system is developed on an ongoing basis by a colonial elite = i.e., an e'ternal group that migrates to another society, con>uers the local population and imports other race groups for economic-labour purposes, and develops a racist economic and social structure to ensure its super ordinate position.< )oth by custom and law anyone of Huropean ancestry was born into a system of privilege and high social and economic status. 2kin colour in Bamaica represented enforced labour and denial of human rights if you were black and e'traordinary wealth and carefree leisure, if you were white. 8hites regarded blacks as innately inferior and ideally suited for the task of physically demanding labour. It was not uncommon for a Bamaican household to have forty slaves. ;iscegenation between Africans and whites, often through rape, produced a new racial group as in the A2A = the mulattos. As with the division of slave labour in the A2, mulattos
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became valued for itself, and status became e>uated with lightness.Q The same social hierarchy based on skin tone that characterised Bamaican life during enslavement also operated during the emancipation period. The protection of the offspring of whites was written into the original colonial charters, which gave certain privileges to mulattos, such as a higher social status than dark-skinned blacks. +oncubinage in Bamaica was not only sanctioned but almost encouraged. The historian Hdward (ong, wrote in Iolume II of The @istory of Bamaica* @e who should presume to shew any displeasure against such a thing as simple fornication, would for his pains be accounted a simple blockheadN since not one in twenty can be persuaded, that there is either sinN or shame in cohabiting with his slave.M ;any mulattos inherited property from their white ancestors, sometimes when there were no legitimate heirs to white estates, as illegitimate heirs, they were granted an inheritance and began to ac>uire great wealth. %uring a @ouse of +ommons debate in 53-/, %r (ushington reported several wealthy individuals among the mulatto population who had inherited estates worth !5-.,..., !54.,..., !-..,... and !-4.,.... ;ulattos entered the professions, trades and administrative $obs mostly in urban areas and before apprenticeships began, made up the ma$ority of voters in Lingston and three of the #arishes. After the decline of the planter class, the roles of mulattos increased. ;any became educated, ac>uired property in urban areas and inter-married. Bohn )igelow, owner and editor of the 1ew Uork #ost reported after a visit to
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large proportion of mulattos. As a result of this legacy, Bamaican society is characterised by a Estruggle between Emiddle and upper class, )ritish-educated Bamaicans who subscribe to the 9superiority: of )ritish culture andFa peoples culture whose defiance of the 9super-culture: is e'pressed most artfully in the reggae music of )ob ;arley, Bimmy +liff and %on %rummond.7 ;arcus 0arvey lamented in 5"57, that despite /3 years having passed since emancipation, Bamaica had not managed to produce a credible black leader. In a letter he wrote that year to )ooker T 8ashingtons successor at the Tuskegee Institute, 0arvey shared his concerns about the widespread impact of colourism on Bamaican society* The whites claim superiority, as is done all over the world, and, unlike other parts, the coloured, who ancestrally are the illegitimate off-springs of black and white, claim a positive superiority over the blacks. They train themselves to believe that in the slightest shade the coloured man is above the black man and so it runs right up to whiteF / (ike Bohn )igelow 77 years earlier, 0arvey observed that mulattos dominated the administrative and professional occupations. To 0arvey, blacks in Bamaica inherited a damaged psychology as a result of being enslaved and colonised by whites, which resulted in the self-negation of black identity and black interests* 8henever a black man enters the professions, he per force, thinks from a white and coloured mindF 8henever the black man gets money and education he thinks himself white and coloured, and he wants a white and coloured wife,
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any individual, group or indeed the entire race of Africans, or to argue against uniting or working for common goals with people of African descent.5%erogatory insults like Eblak like sin and Eblak and ugly are evidence that AARC2 pervades Ethe sub-consciousness of masses of African people in Bamaica and manifests itself in attitudes that are like second nature to them.56 2kin bleaching is often cited as evidence of the psychological damage caused by slavery and colonisation. +hildren are told by their mothers that white is superior to black and that dark skin, along with natural hair, is bad. In a letter to the Bamaica Rbserver in -..5, a reader, a young black woman wrote* EI realise why my friends used to spend so much time bleachingF.fairer is better in our country, the guys say so, dancehall OmusicP says so, beauty contests say so, my friends say soS5M The media and popular culture play a part in reinforcing the notion that light skin e>uates with beauty and superiority through the images that they portray of success, which is most often of light skinned persons. %onna ;c&arlane, %irector and +urator of (iberty @all* The (egacy of ;arcus 0arvey, suggests that skin bleaching is popular, once again among men as well as women, particularly in Bamaica's inner-city communities. 2he said* EIts not $ust that so many of our children are bleaching but their mothers and their fathers are bleaching. It is really widespread. 2he argues that the preference for lighter skin in Bamaican society is a legacy of African chattel enslavement, as demonising Africa Epermeated the whole of the education system for the M.. years that we were enslaved and the 5.. or so years after slavery that we were under colonial rule. 2he ruefully admitted that during teaching sessions when she asks
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people among the rural population. Cesearchers asked the sample of children to describe their actual skin colour and to state their ideal skin colour = that is, the colour they would prefer to be. The findings revealed that children who self-identified as white had higher levels of self-esteem than those who self-identified as black. A clear link was established between social stigma related to dark skin and self-esteem. @owever, overall, the rural Bamaican children showed higher levels of self-esteem than the privileged urban children. )ut light-skinned rural children had greater levels of selfesteem than dark-skinned rural children. This finding has led the authors to conclude that stigmatised children compare themselves with other children in their own group Jrural communityK rather than those outside the group Jin the urban communityK. The findings confirm that a stigma against dark skin in Bamaica does e'ist and impacts the self-esteem of young children, who show a definite preference for lightWwhite skin. &erguson and +ramer argue that the solution is not to encourage children to self-identify as black, because this could be psychologically damaging for children living in a society in which whiteness is the cultural ideal. Their solution is therefore that EThe Bamaican society as a whole must move towards a black skin colour preference if it hopes to assist its children in doing so.5/ Rn M &ebruary -../, former Bamaican #rime ;inister Hdward 2eaga, writing in the Bamaica 0leaner about the legacies of slavery, stated*
There is no greater sin of slavery than the systematic brain washing that occurred for over 6.. years that instilled a belief in the second class character of the people of African de-
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a civilised nation of any other comple'ion than whiteF.There are 1egro slaves dispersed all over Hurope, of whom none ever discovered any symptoms of ingenuity.< Immnauel Lant, the 0erman philosopher strove to make a correlation between whiteness and intellect and therefore attested that blackness was the antithesis of reason. @e is credited with saying* EThis fellow was >uite blackFa clear proof that what he said was stupid,G The Hnlightenment was a close knit movement with philosophers often using each other to back up their theories. In 5/7M, in an essay entitled* Rbservations on the &eeling of the )eautiful and 2ublime, Lant claimed that Africans are incapable of aesthetic and moral feeling which he referred to the beautiful and sublime* The 1egros of Africa have by nature no feeling that rises above the trifling. ;r @ume challenges anyone to cite a single e'ample in which a 1egro has shown talents and asserts that among the hundreds of thousands of blacks who are transported elsewhere from other countries, although many of them have been set free, still not a single one was ever found who presented anything great in art or science or any other praiseworthy >uality.Q The first encyclopaedia, called the Hncyclopaedie, created by &rench philosophers published between 5/45 to 5/4- had this entry for 1egre J1egroK* EIf one moves further away from the H>uator towards the Antarctic, the black skin becomes lighter, but the ugliness remains* one finds there this same wicked people that
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shaping perceptions of people of African descent amongst the educated classes and they continued through to the Iictorian era, shaping the discourse on slavery and colonialism. The denigration of blackness was at its height during the Iictorian era. Hven though the Hmancipation Act was passed in 5366, EIn the )ritish mind he was still mentally, morally and physically a slave.3 &rom the 5/".s to the 53M.s, ironically the most detrimental literature on Africans which had a profound influence on Hnglish society came from the abolitionists. Their portrayals of Africans were often derogatory, even if this was not the intention. Africans were often portrayed as Esimple savages who need to be civilised." Thomas &owell )u'ton, leader of the )ritish Anti-slavery ;ovement after 8illiam 8ilberforce, initiated the 1iger H'pedition of 53M5 to spread commerce and +hristianity throughout the continent. @e wrote in graphic detail about ritual human practices of some nation groups as being representative of the entire continent* E2uch atrocious deeds as have been detailed in the foregoing pages, keep the African population in a state of callous barbarity, which can only be effectually counteracted by +hristian civilisation5.. These ideas conveniently served as moral $ustification for the colonisation of Africa by reinforcing the notion of Africans as primitive pagans who could only be saved through the civili ing missions of Huropeans. The myth of the %ark +ontinent, a label which has survived well into the -5st century, has its origins in the Iictorian era. Iarious e'plorers wrote accounts of their e'peditions to Africa, which they portrayed as an ungodly place inhabited by savages and barbarians, which became best sellers. These included %avid (ivingstones ;issionary Travels J534/K, Boseph Thompsons To the +entral African (akes and )ack J5335K and @enry 2tanleys In
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returns the town is in flames, the residents have been sold into slavery and his bride to be has been murdered. @e plans to sell himself into slavery to provide for his mother but is unsuccessful* EFfor he is considered too light-skinned to be truly hardy = a reflection of the belief that the dark-skinned African is closest to the brute and so most fitted for the brutish work of slavery.56 In 53-4, the light-skinned American actor Ira Aldridge appeared in a 8est Indian ;elodrama called The Cevolt of 2urinam or A 2laves Cevenge. A Times reviewer is scathing in his criticism, but makes reference to his skin tone* EFthe reviewer once again turns the attack onto Aldridges skin colour. @e is not black enough to fit the preconception.5M )y 5367, new racial attitudes rooted in Bim +row laws on segregation made their way to Hngland from across the Atlantic* It was a trend that incorporated a new conception of the black individual as no longer the vengeful African of yesteryear but a comic black American slave, grotes>ue in appearance, manners and language. Its effect was to render the black as a species apartN it was a conception that >uickly rooted itself into popular culture and continued to grow there.54 As the influence of the anti-slavery movement permeated the theatre, plays re>uired serious dramatic treatment to capture the mood. )ut due to the prior degradation of the black character and its association with evil, the mulatto, nearest in colour to whites, were called upon to represent the acceptable face of the black race. The mulatto character brought to the stage both a black representation of beauty and of morality. Uoung, beautiful women who were
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former )ritish +aribbean colonies in the 5"4.s. )ut coming from countries where social hierarchies based on skin colour e'isted, it was not only dreams for a better life that some immigrants brought with them, but their own form of pre$udice which valued light skin and derided blackness. %ami Akinusi, producer of a television documentary on skin bleaching confessed to trying to bleach her own skin as a teenager. EI was branded too dark by people that I met at the time OandP contemplated was I too dark to be successful? Too dark to be pretty? All of these different things.53 %escribing the documentary as a Epersonal $ourney she stated that it was only in her adult life that she developed positive self-perception about being dark-skinned. +ounsellor and psychotherapist Iernon %e ;aynard argues that many of the negative perceptions that darkskinned people have of themselves are gained through socialisation within their own communities, Ein black households where children are sub$ected to the devaluation of their own skin colour as e'pressed by family and friends and people the child meets during the course of their everyday life. As a result of living in a society where Huropean features are more revered, some black women turn to skin bleaching as they come to resent their own physical features and black skin. 8riting in The Times, e' architect, model and writer )en Arogundade said that Ean undisclosed caste system e'ists in the modelling world. 8hite female models occupy the top strata whilst black females and black males occupy the bottom two rungs. The insecurities e'emplified by skin bleaching are symptoms of the process in which people of African descent internalise white values on beauty, which is unsurprising, argues Arogundade, given that we live Ein a culture which has historically derided blackness.5" a As a result, African representations of beauty in terms of dark skin,
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presence in (iverpool has e'isted for over 5.. years. #rofessor 2tephen 2mall, also a (iverpool born black, states that when African +aribbeans migrated to the AL in the 5"4.s from Bamaica, Trinidad, 2t. (ucia and other islandsN they came with the assumption that light skinned blacks received preferential treatment, but for (iverpool born blacks their e'perience was the opposite* ERur e'perience in (iverpool is one of being despised, vilified and oppressed as light-skinned people.-6 The similarities in the e'perience of (iverpool born blacks and other black communities in the AL were characterised by high unemployment, racism and tensions with the police, at the height of the 2us law. In the 5"M.s and 5"4.s, unemployment in (iverpool was twice the national average. +onflicts broke out in To'teth, (iverpool in 5"35 -M and in )ri'ton during the same year.-4 In e'plaining why light-skinned blacks in (iverpool shared the same e'periences of racism and social disadvantage as other black populations in the AL, %r +hristian argues* In terms of the black e'perience in (iverpool, the division in relation to colour is not the ma$or criteria for social privilege. 8hite supremacy in the history of (iverpool is the unwritten mode of social franchise. If you are white, you are alrightN if you are black, you are supposed to stand back. There is no privilege in between, only added racism. -7 The e'perience of (iverpool born blacks may well provide a vital clue in determining whether mi'ed race and by definition lightskinned blacks, fare better than those with dark skin within the areas of education and employment. 8hilst there is no data in the AL which categorises people on the basis of skin tone, it is possible to
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+aribbean boys. &igures are higher for African groups with 44.5 per cent of AfricanWwhite girls achieving 4 or more good 0+2HsW01ITs compared with M7.3 per cent of African girls. &or boys the rates were 6".4 per cent for AfricanWwhite boys compared with 6M.5 per cent of African boys. It should be noted that within different local education authorities, the results are variable. &or e'ample, in (HA 4, where the percentage of pupils achieving 4 good 0+2HsW01ITs was 63.7 per cent, African +aribbean boys and African +aribbeanWwhite boys achieved e'actly the same results = 66.6 per cent. )ut this is still below the national average for all boys which is M4.4 per cent. )ut what do these results mean in terms of colourism and whether it plays a role in the educational outcomes of black children? Rne interesting pattern that emerges is that in each ethnic group =mi'ed race pupils outperform black pupils, at least on a national level. ;i'ed AfricanWwhite pupils did better than African pupils and mi'ed African +aribbeanWwhite pupils did better than African +aribbean pupils. )ut in e'amining the group as a whole, African girls had the same attainment level as African +aribbeanWwhite girls and African boys had a higher attainment than mi'ed African +aribbeanWwhite boys. &rom these results and given the fact that there is only a very marginal difference between the educational attainment of mi'ed race pupils and black pupils, the logical conclusion would be that deep rooted problems e'perienced by African +aribbean pupils are shared by mi'ed AfricanW+aribbeanWwhite pupils. If African pupils have higher educational outcomes than certain pupils of mi'ed race with light skin, then colourism is not a contributory factor, but socialisation and e'periences of institutional racism and social disadvantage are the primary forces at work here. This theory is borne out by the level of
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compared with 55.3 per cent for African +aribbeans and 56 per cent for Africans. )oth Africans and people of mi'ed heritage were e>ually employed in the business, financial and private sector industries J-4 per centK, compared with -- per cent of African +aribbeans. ;uch higher numbers of Africans J6/ per centK and African +aribbeans JM. per centK worked in public administration, education and social care, compared with -" per cent of the mi'ed race population. &inally, the average ;edian earnings per hour for people over 53 in -..M showed that people of mi'ed heritage earned !/.7. per hour, compared with the black population which earned !/.66 per hour. )ut again, what does the data tell us about colourism? 0iven the marginal differences between people of mi'ed heritage and the African and African +aribbean groups, there is very little evidence to suggest that people with a lighter comple'ion fare any better in employment that those with darker skin, a crude assumption made on the premise that the persons within the mi'ed race population are likely to have lighter comple'ions than persons within the black population, as a whole. It is also important to note that the mi'ed race group in these statistics include people who are not of African ancestry and it is possible that mi'ed race persons of African ancestry may have more similar e'periences to African and African +aribbeans if they were e'amined separately. Rnce again, the data appears to suggest that mi'ed race persons share similar e'periences to Africans and African +aribbeans in the employment arena as they do within the education system. )ased on the analysis of data available, it is reasonable to conclude on e'amining the e'periences of the African %iaspora in the AL, that persons with light skin are not in an elite class within the AL. (ight-skinned individuals of African descent do not show
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makers was to treat the non-white population as a homogenous group, in stark contrast to the skin tone hierarchies they created in their former colonies. This is supported by the e'perience of the (iverpool born black community, which comprise a significant number of mi'ed race persons, but who shared similar e'periences of social and economic disadvantage with blacks in other parts of the AL. As a result of this policy, people of African descent have for decades been regarded by whites as black, whether they are of mi'ed African ancestry or not. This is evidenced by the fact that a category was only created for mi'ed race people in the +ensus in -..5. @owever, shared e'periences of racial disadvantage have sometimes been obscured by the perception among some people of African descent that light-skinned blacks are treated more favourably within )ritish society and are regarded as being more attractive. 2ome of these ideas occurred through the socialisation of children whose parents were born in the +aribbean and who had been accustomed to social hierarchies based on skin tone. )ut perceptions are also based on images of beauty portrayed in the media and popular culture, which clearly promotes the Huropean standard of beauty as the ideal. It is clear from these findings that although colourism does not e'ist on the same scale within the AL, as it does in the A2A and the +aribbean, it still undermines the efforts of the African %iaspora to free itself from the shackles of the past. +olourism, as an internalised form of racism, is undeniably a legacy of the dehumanising process of chattel enslavement and colonisation.
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tempts to persuade the Ling to revoke the freedom of slave children born to Indian mothers met with stern resistance from the +ouncil of Indies. The children of 1egro men and Indian women continued to be born free and the mi'ing was the principal source of the Afromesti o population of the colonial period, a population which remained under the protection of the 1ative mother and inherited the indigenous cultural patterns.< )y the 53th century the number of Afro and Indian mestios rose enormously and individuals crossed from one category to another as they were able. Hventually by the end of the colonial period, racial classifications were $ust names and did not necessarily reflect the reality of a persons ancestry. In ;e'ico it was decided that all citi ens who were neither Indians nor dark skinned could be considered as 2paniards. ;any mulattos took the opportunity to Ecross over into the Huropean category to escape the social and economic life of subordination and discrimination that came with being classed as black. &or e'ample, in +ordoba in Argentina, black women whether free or enslaved, were prohibited from wearing fine imported clothes. 8omen who refused to dress according to their social position could be undressed, whipped and burned, as was the case of a mulatto woman, according to +oncolorcorvo in 5"MM. In 54/. in (atin America there were around 5M.,... whites, -7-,... blacks and mulattos and 5- million Indians. )y 53-4 the racial composition had changed to 56 Y million whites, 5- million blacks and mulattos and less than " million Indians. The reason for the dramatic rise in the number of whites is believed to be through light
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black population are without basic public utilities, compared with $ust 7 per cent of whites. These e'amples are representative of the e'periences of Afro descendants throughout the region. The notion of white supremacy has characterised the style of governance in (atin America by white hegemonies for over 4.. years, since the e'pulsion of the black ;oors from the Iberian peninsular in 5M"which aimed to eradicate Africans and blacks from the colonies* 2panish American societies have consciously and unconsciously continued this process and sought to support embla>uecimiento or Ewhitening of their populations. This is an elevation of all things white and Huropean, whilst denigrating and e'cluding other non-white cultures and races.6 0overnments of all (atin American countries took drastic steps to whiten the black population by encouraging white Huropean immigration. %escendants of former enslaved Africans make up the ma$ority of the Afro descendant communities and the oppression and discrimination they e'perience on a daily basis are a direct conse>uence of Huropean chattel enslavement. #eople of African descent were denied full rights of citi enship through being prohibited from owning property, from receiving education, from having banking facilities and from obtaining $obs in the government, church or the military. Today, these prohibitions may not be legally enforced but e'clusion still remains on a de facto basis. @owever, (atin American governments have sought to disguise this type of racial oppression and segregation through the careful construction of a mythical raceless society. Rnly in recent years have +ensuses started to include racial monitoring. ;any people of African
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board, indigenous men earn 67-74 per cent less than whites, whilst in )ra il, men and women of African descent earn M4 per cent of the wages of whites. )ut the figures disguise the fact that many of the privileged members of (atin American countries racialised and self-classified as white are of African ancestry and are able to escape poverty, e'clusion and discrimination because they have light skin and less obvious African racial features. The report makes no reference to colourism nor e'amines its impact on the social and economic disparities imposed by skin colour. Hduardo )onilla-2ilva, in making a comparison between race relations in the A2A and (atin America, argues that the A2A is turning into a pigmentocracy, because the population is becoming darker, with non-whites accounting for a third of the population. #redictions on future populations suggest that by -.4., ethnic minorities may become the ma$ority, as indeed they are on a global scale. According to )onilla-2ilva, the solution is to adopt the strategy used by (atin American governments and Ewhiten the population. This involves establishing a Etri-racial system of social stratification which comprises whites at the top of the hierarchy = Huro-Americans, Huropeans, assimilated white (atinos, some multiracials Jmi'ed raceK and a few people of Asian origin. The second tier, known as Ehonorary whites consists of white middle class (atinos, Bapanese Americans, Lorean Americans, Asian Indians, +hinese Americans and Arab Americans. #redictably, those at the bottom of the social ladder are Ecollective blacks which include &ilipinos, Iietnamese, dark skinned and poor (atinos, African Americans and blacks, +aribbean and African immigrants and 1ative Americans who live on reservations. This is effectively a replica of the colour-coded system which governs every aspect of
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%r +arlos, 2pain and #ortugal learnt much from the Arab enslavement of African peoples, which was a way of life for them. @e states that four million Africans were captured and brought to the Iberian #eninsular. 8hen Huropeans defeated the Arabs, they simply adopted the Arab model of slavery. %r ;oore also believes that the middle stratum of the colour-coded hierarchy occupied by mulattos is viewed as a rung on the social ladder that leads upwards. Hssentially, the mulatto class is viewed as a social buffer that enables whites to avoid contact with blacks and dark-skinned people. The first slaves brought to (atin America were not transported from Africa, but were enslaved Africans who had already been brought to the Iberian #eninsula by the Arabs and who spoke 2panish and #ortuguese. @e observed a ma$or difference between the attitude on race mi'ing held by 1orth Americans and that held by (atin American governments* EIn the A2 one drop of black blood makes someone black. In (atin America one drop of white blood makes you white. 7 8riting in the 1ew Uork #ost in &ebruary of this year, Tego +alderon, the #uerto Cican rapper spoke out against the stigma of being black in (atin America and the discrimination and oppression e'perienced by (atin Americans* 8e are treated like second class citi ens. They tell blacks in (atin America that we are better off than A2 blacks or Africans and that we have it better here, but its a false sense of being. )ecause here, its worse. They have raised us to be ashamed of our blackness. Its in the language too. Take the word denigrate - denigrarwhich is to be less than a 1egro./
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Administration denied black Americans civil rights through Bim +row laws that they were compelled to fight for to win the right to be treated as e>ual under the A2 +onstitution. )y contrast, (atin American governments have not relied on legislation to deny e>ual rights to Afro descendants. Rppression has been far more subtle. Instead of denying human rights through laws, (atin American governments do so on the basis of colour, whilst simultaneously promoting a false sense of nationalism. )y heaping privileges upon white and light members of society and denying these privileges largely to Afro-descendants, this has fuelled the desire for those with light skin and a willingness to discard their blackness like garbage to leave their black communities and $oin the ranks of the social climbers. %espite the de facto segregation that occurred in some parts of the A2A among the black population, the one drop rule in some respects helped to maintain a fragile but effective solidarity. ;any mulattos were some of the most outspoken leaders against racism, such as 8H) %ubois, &rederick %ouglas, to name but two. In (atin America, the option to identify as white, removed that sense of shared oppression that kept a sense of unity and spirit of resistance amongst black Americans. )onilla-2ilva has argued that 1orth America is heading in this direction and the studies on colourism which reveal the large e'tent to which skin colour determines educational, social and economic outcomes would seem to suggest some validity to )onilla-2ilvas claims.
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climates. )ut within the African continent, which has the largest e>uatorial land mass, there is great diversity of skin colours, with the darkest colours occurring in open grasslands, rather than in the lowest latitudes. In their analysis of the human evolution of skin, Dihlman and +ohn begin with their theory on the evolution of the human species from the hominids = members of the hominidae Jgreat apesK family, which includes humans. &ossil finds between two and four million years old were located in several areas across eastern and southern Africa. @ominids lost body hair and developed dark skin pigmentation to protect their skin from the ultra violet rays of the sun. At the same time, the reduction of body hair allowed the development of sweat glands, as sweating cools the body down. Archaeological evidence suggests that the hominids were vegetarians who survived on a diet of plant foods. A distinguishing characteristic of the hominids in their evolution from the great apes is their bipedal ability = standing, walking and running, which marked the beginning of a new life mode that depended on dwelling on the ground and travelling around. Anatomical studies indicate that human skin is very similar to that of African apes and molecular evidence points to the ape-human evolution occurring between M and 3 million years ago. The great variation in human skin colour is due to the amount of pigment melanin in the epidermis Jouter layer of skinK. #igment-producing cells known as melanocytes that are found in the basal layer of the epidermis, produce cell structures called organelles and it is on these structures that melanin is formed through a series of chemical reactions. ;elanosomes are cell structures that contain melanin. In light skin they are confined to the basal layer of the skin, but in dark skin they are dispersed
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the beginning of mankind. They were upright walkers who occupied open savannah and woodland and lived in hunter-gatherer societies. (ike the pygmies of central Africa they are short in stature and do not grow to a height greater than 6 Y to 4 feet. Their present day descendants are believed to be the 2an community, also known as the )ushmen of )otswana. &inch argues that* The earliest humans had black skinsN in the environment in which they evolved it could not have been otherwiseFhad the original human population not developed this melanin cover as black skin, it would be reasonable to surmise that there would be no human race today.G A study in -..4 carried out by a cancer research team at #enn 2tate Aniversity found that that key to the human genetics of skin colour are present in the genetic information of the ebrafish. The researchers found that a single human gene accounts for 6. per cent of the difference in skin colour between Africans and Huropeans. The colour difference is caused by two versions of a single gene called 2(+-MA4. Rne version is common among people of African descent causing more melanin = the dark pigment, to be present in skin cells. The other version of the gene is common among people of Huropean descent and causes less melanin in skin cells. The research points to the earliest humans living in Africa carrying the first version of 2(+-MA4. )iologists believe that humans began to migrate out of Africa between 44,... and 34,... years ago, with some of them ending up in the colder climates of Hurope. At some point either before or after the migration, it is believed that a mutation of the gene occurred in one of the ancestors of modern
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&inch notes EIt is fair to say that the change in skin colour more than any other single feature put its stamp on the individual races.Q It is precisely because of this ignorance of the black origins of mankind, that individuals racialised at white, sub-consciously or otherwise, often buy into the notion of black inferiority, which sows the seeds of racism. 2imon %yson, is a sociologist at %e ;ontfort Aniversity in (eicester with a special interest in sickle cell. @e recently conducted research based on the e'periences of African and African +aribbean sickle cell counsellors. Although sickle cell is predominantly found in people of African descent, the genes associated with it are inherited separately from the genes that are associated with skin colour. It is therefore possible to have blonde hair, blue eyes and white skin and either be a carrier of sickle cell, or contract sickle cell anaemia. %uring the research the counsellors told %yson that in some cases, mothers who come for counselling who regard themselves as white Hnglish become very hostile and unleash their racial pre$udices when they discover they have the sickle cell gene. 2ome have complained of feeling Epolluted and Econtaminated because they see sickle cell as a black disease, %yson said. EThey say that it cant be true, I dont have any black blood in me. It even led to one woman storming home to fetch her husband, her in-laws and her own parents and dragging them back to the counsellors office to prove they have no blacks in the family* 9look, all my family going back generations are white. 8e cant possibly have this sickle cell gene,:M the woman had said. In many instances, the only way to restore calm is by distancing the sickle cell from any association with black African ancestry. According to %yson, associating the gene with ;editerranean groups distances it from African Ancestry, which makes it easier for white women to
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;any non-whites seldom consider whiteness as an ideal that influences their thoughts and feelings about self, because its so taken for granted, nature renders it the norm and that makes it dangerous to all of us. That is why whiteness as an anti Afrikan presence in the black imagination needs to be considered in any discussion of the power of white privilege. %r 8illiam J(e K @enry.5
8hiteness is often viewed from a one-dimensional perspective as simply a social identity ascribed to individuals racialised as white. @owever, in reality, it is a multi-faceted construct which serves both to maintain white supremacy = the structured and systematic social, political, cultural and economic domination of non-white peoples, and to confer advantage and privilege upon those classed as white. There are several key elements that determine how whiteness functions within society. In the first instance, it shapes the world view and understanding of self and society of whites. )ecause whiteness is portrayed as universal when really it e'cludes the perspectives of other cultures, its viewpoint is decidedly narrow and limited. )y default, whiteness functions as a tool of racial oppression because it only e'ists within a hierarchy of colour placing itself at the top and non-whites in subordinate positions. As Rwen argues* E)eing located in a social position by whiteness is not merely a location of difference, but it is also a location of economic,
%eborah 0abriel
political, social and cultural advantage, relative to those locations defined by non-whiteness.- Rne of the most potent aspects of whiteness is its invisibility. This is largely because it is defined as normal and therefore is incorporated into the mainstream, where it is never >uestioned or held to account. As a conse>uence, whiteness becomes invisible to whites, yet is highly visible to non-whites. 8hiteness is highly visible to non-whites because it is easy for them to recognise when their interests are e'cluded from the mainstream. )lack feminist and womanist writers have been particularly adept at articulating how whiteness functions to the e'clusion of black people. Hvelyn )rooks @igginbottom speaks of the resistance among black women feminists to the homogenising of white womanhood which rests on the presumption of the universal oppression of all women and accuses white feminists of being unable to separate their whiteness from their womanhood. )ell @ooks describes the way in which a white woman can publish a book which purports to be about the universal e'perience of women, but which in fact is only about the e'perience of white women = who by virtue of their whiteness are deemed to represent the norm. @ow many black women could publish a book that was only about black women yet did not carry the word black in the books title? Ryeronke Ryewumi sums up the e'clusionary facet of whiteness perfectly as* EThe ethnocentric idea that the white woman Jor manK is the normFQ 8hiteness is not $ust a skin colour as has been mentioned earlier, but nonetheless it is still Egrounded in the interests, needs and values of those racialised as white.M 8hiteness should not be regarded as static, but something which has a sociohistorical e'istence that is constantly being redefined. It should not be seen as something which ac>uires privilege through perceptions
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= freedom fighters who put up a resistance to )ritish colonial rule and their supporters, suffered the brunt of white brutality. At least 55,... were murdered after the )ritish hunted them down in the forests and butchered them. Around 57.,... were rounded up and placed in concentration camps where they were sub$ected to all manner of human rights abuses including rape, torture and severe beatings. The reason for the violence = to dispossess blacks from their land and secure economic and political advantage for white settlers. 8hiteness contains a structuring element which places nonwhites in a subordinate position within a hierarchical structure that locates whites in a position of social, economic and political superiority and advantage. This structuring property operates within all modern social systems and influences the social practices of those who operate within the systems and institutions. This occurs as the members of societies in the western world and where colonisation has occurred are automatically socialised and acculturated into whiteness, which is established as the norm. This is why, Bamaicans, for e'ample, as was discussed earlier in this book, have been left with the legacy of colourism, because the enforced social stratification based on skin colour that occurred during slavery became the norm. The organisational structure of Bamaican society was based on white supremacy, white superiority and white privilege. The fact that the ma$ority of Bamaicans are black does not prevent whiteness from imposing its destructive nature. Rf greater significance is the reality that Bamaicans were acculturated by law and custom into a social hierarchy where the social order was determined on the premise of white superiority.
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but not as white./ The social, cultural and historical dynamics of whiteness as has been mentioned in this chapter ensure the reproductive nature of whiteness which results in Ede facto social, economic, political and cultural supremacy of those racialised as white.3 Therefore race relations laws are rendered ineffective, which is why institutional racism continues to flourish, because whiteness ensures the maintenance of white supremacy which undermines the legislation and policies that are supposed to address racial ine>ualities. 0illborn provides an e'cellent e'ample of how whiteness and white supremacy functions within the )ritish education system whilst maintaining a discreet invisibility. 8ithin the school system white supremacy is achieved through maintaining high intellectual and educational achievement among white pupils and the low educational achievement, or under-achievement as is commonly referred to, of non-white pupils, especially those of African +aribbean descent. The most widely used mode of comparison of educational achievement is the 0+2H and as has been discussed in an earlier chapter, pupils are assessed and $udged based on the number of five 0+2Hs they obtain between grades A-+. As 0ilborn highlights, 0+2Hs are tiered, which means that within each band there is a ma'imum grade that can be obtained. In most cases in the lowest tier, the highest grade that can be obtained is +. )ut for mathematics, it is lower than +. An investigation conducted on two (ondon schools revealed that two thirds of black students were placed in the lowest tier for mathematics. Therefore, even if they scored a perfect 5.. per cent in their e'amination, they could never achieve grade +, much less grades A and ). Therefore, in placing black students in the lowest tier = and we are talking about a
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placing of a significant number of black children in low tiers for mathematics ensures that they could never achieve a Egood 0+2H in mathematics. In the second e'ample, the black pupils were outperforming white children, so the assessment had to be changed = and altered radically to a totally sub$ective mode, so that black pupils could be labelled as low achievers. As 0illborn concluded EThese changes appear to have resulted from the normal workings of the education systemFdoes assessment do more than merely record ine>uity, or does assessment produce ine>uity?55 +olour-blind ideology is an area of critical race theory that is increasingly being e'plored by scholars and can arguably be regarded as a mechanism which disguises the racial oppression caused by whiteness and white supremacy. Limberley Hbert writes about how colour-blind ideology operates within American society, but her arguments could e>ually apply to )ritish society. A colour-blind perspective refuses to acknowledge that individuals are disadvantaged by race, preferring instead to accept the notion that western societies are structured as meritocracies, with those who educate themselves and work hard being rewarded economically and socially. 2uch a viewpoint is founded on the belief that ine>ualities e'perienced by racial groups are due to individual shortcomings. The danger of colour-blind ideology is in masking the underlying structures and systematic workings of white supremacy, as has been described earlier, while all manner of arguments are put forward for why a particular race is not advancing. If we apply this theory to the under-achievement of African +aribbean children in the )ritish school system, as argued by 0illborn, where the system is manipulated to the disadvantage of black pupils = this goes unnoticed, whilst all too often the performance of black pupils is blamed on a
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ates find it harder to gain managerial and e'ecutive positions and even when they do they still earn less than whites. Analysis of employees in managerial $obs reveals that over the last 5. years there has been an increase in upward mobility among African and African +aribbean men. @owever, black professionals still earn much less than their white counterparts. African and African +aribbean men earn -4 per cent and 54 per cent less respectively than whites. The danger of colour blindness is that it allows us to ignore the racial construction of whiteness and reinforces its privileges and oppressive position. Thus whiteness remains the normative standard and blackness remains different, other and marginal. Hven worse, by insisting on a rhetoric that disallows reference to race, blacks can no longer name their reality or point out racism. 56 In the past white privilege was secured through violence = chattel enslavement and colonisation = but in contemporary western societies it is achieved through subtle methods which disguise white supremacy under the cloak of whiteness, which itself is hidden in the mainstream. 8hite supremacy is able to maintain its power as people of African descent and other non-white groups buy into the dominant western ideology of individualism, believing in the notion of e>uality of opportunity. In this manner, blacks lose the power of a collective identity which seeks to secure e>uality for the entire race, whilst individuals seek personal success and gratification. It becomes easy then to use the argument that all blacks need are role models to inspire them to achieve. @owever, whilst a handful of
3-
36
%eborah 0abriel
family is based on the manner in which whiteness operates, because whiteness categorises who is human and who is non-human.57 #eople are not necessarily aware of whiteness even though they are living through it, %r @enry argues. This is also true of the yardsticks by which black some people measure themselves. In another e'ample he spoke of the decision by a black mother to take her child out of a certain primary school because the child has an IT of 57.. )ut as he pointed out = who invented IT tests and for what purpose? According to %r @enry they were created by a certain class of white people for a specific purpose. EIts about perpetuating this idea of natural superiority. At a business event, the ma$ority of the black men had white female partners and a si eable number of the black women had white male partners. %r @enry asked and answered the >uestion as to why the black men and women could not find each other* E8hat whiteness does, is that it does not matter how much you see in someone who looks like you, they will never measure up because the standard is white. I believe that a ma$or problem in terms of the impact of whiteness in the black imagination is the failure by people of African descent to challenge its core value that places individuals within a racialised social hierarchy. I see very few of my black contemporaries challenging white supremacy but far greater numbers looking to secure a Esafe position within the very system that subordinates them and other people of African descent. This individualistic attitude to me typifies the white imagination in the African psyche.
3M
%eborah 0abriel
and decoloni ing the mind is the first and most important step in repairing the psychological damage that causes individuals within the same racial group to $udge others based on the shade of their skin. In order to appreciate blackness one has to remove the lens of whiteness and discard its limited visibility and narrow perspective and adopt a universal view of the world. @owever, as blackness both defines and represents people of African descent = wherever they are in the %iaspora, it is also necessary to accept the relationship between blackness and African heritage in order to appreciate the historical significance of blackness. 1ationality and heritage are not the same and ought not to be confused. )eing born in )ritain as a black person denotes ones nationality as )ritish, but this should not sever African ancestral ties. As I; 1ur e'plains* )eing Afrikan represents our relationship from a geographical, political and cultural perspective, with the landmass we call Afrika. The term also links us with her resources and with other Afrikans, historically and culturally. Therefore, Afrikans are individuals who, by virtue of common cultural roots, history, political interests and genetic linkage, have a rightful claimFto the ;otherland, materially and psychologically.G I should make it clear at this point that I am not suggesting that only people of African descent should be e>uated with blackness, but as this book is concerned with the African %iaspora, this chapter on blackness makes reference solely to people of African descent. In this respect I believe that the self-denial of ones African heritage brings with it confusion and displacement as well as a
37
3/
%eborah 0abriel
sation of African peoples, as we have read in earlier chapters. @ence, at the beginning of his article, 1ascimento makes a plea for Ethe urgent need of the )ra ilian black people to win back their memory, which has been systematically assaulted by )ra ilian 8estern-inspired structures of domination for almost 4.. years.4 )eing detached from an African heritage therefore places an individual in the precarious position of being a black man or woman in a white world. As whiteness only functions in opposition to blackness, which it subordinates, under these circumstances a black person can never value blackness but can only despise it, or at best tolerate it. As &anon states* &rom the moment the 1egro accepts the separation imposed by the Huropean he has no further respite, and 9is it not understandable that thenceforward he will try to elevate himself to the white mans level? To elevate himself in the range of colours to which he attributes a kind of hierarchy?:7 ;uch that has been written about blackness has been written by Huropeans to denigrate, rather than to celebrate it. This book has already demonstrated how and why this occurred and how it contributed towards the internalisation of these negative associations with blackness by people of African descent, affecting intra group relations. @owever, this chapter is not concerned with these e'ternal depictions of blackness = it is a dangerous proposition to allow others to define you and tell you what you are or are not. This needs to be remembered when faced with what generations of scholars have proven to be false, Hurocentric and racist dogmas on black inferiority. This chapter is concerned with how we have
33
3"
%eborah 0abriel
probably as they more closely resembled the %ivine gods whom they worshipped. The African presence in India is also linked with the origins of )uddhism which emerged in India around the 7th century )+H. +heikh Anta %iop attributes the )uddha to a black Hgyptian priest who fled Hgypt when the #ersian known as +ambyses attacked Hgypt in the year 4-4 )+H and crowned himself Ling of Hgypt and the first of the -/th dynasty. %iop argues that this would e'plain the portrayal of the )uddha with afro hair. This view is endorsed by another scholar, %r Iulindlela 8obogo, who posits that the Hgyptian priests brought to Asia their spiritual knowledge from Africa and that many aspects of )uddhism such as meditation have their origins in Hgyptian spirituality. 0erald ;assey goes even further in asserting the identity of the )uddha in saying* Fit is certain that the )lack )uddha of India was imaged in the Africoid type. In the )lack OAfricanP god, whether called )uddha or 2ut-1ahsi, we have a datum. they carry in their colour the proof of their origin. The people who first fashioned and worshipped the divine image in the Africoid mould of humanity must, according to all knowledge of human nature, have been Africans themselves. &or the )lackness is not merely mystical, the features and the hair of )uddha belong to the )lack race.3 +hapter one of this book looked at the origins of colourism and how the ethnic transformation of ancient Hgypt caused by Arab invasions brought conflict between the Afro-Asians and pure black Hgyptians. This is discussed later in %r 8illiams book in reference to the divisions between the southern black Hgyptians and northern
".
"5
%eborah 0abriel
I am a +anadian of +aribbean descentN my mother is from )arbados Jmy father is from HnglandK. I have a white faceN and truth be told, a white body too. The fact is however, that I am black. @ow do I know? )ecause my mother told me so.55 )aylis asserts that it is lived e'perience that shapes racial identity through interaction and engagement with others. E;y racial identity as a black person was Jand isK carefully constructed by and for me.5- As is often the case, most black families do not conform to a uniform shade of black and this was the case with )ayliss family. @er black mother socialised her from a young age to accept her blackness and not to try and conceal it even though she could pass for white. Throughout her childhood )aylis felt the need to reveal her blackness to everyone well into her teens until a friend told her it was Etiresome. &or )aylis E)eing a black identity is hard work when you have white skin.56 +rucially, )aylis recalls that as a child her mother saw all of her children as black regardless of their skin tone. )aylis claims her black identity through her genetic makeup, through her culture, ties with the black community and through her e'perience of racism. In her paper she recalls an interesting encounter on a plane $ourney seated ne't to two white women from Dimbabwe who spoke about Africans in derogatory terms. Rffended their bigotry )aylis rebuked them, telling them she was black only to have them respond in disbelief by refusing to accept that she was a black woman. +learly what was crucial to her sense of blackness for )aylis was her socialisation, her lived e'perience and collective sense of belonging. &or %r @enry blackness encompasses
"-
"6
%eborah 0abriel
"M
Conclusion
8hether we are light, yellow, black or what not, there is but one thing for us to do, and that is to get together and build up a race. 0od made us in @is own image and @e had some purpose when @e thus created us. ;arcus 0arvey, 5"-6.< 8hatever ones religious or spiritual beliefs may be, one cannot argue against the validity of 0arveys words for people of African descent. @is clarion call for black people across the world to unite to defeat the common enemy of white supremacy has been influential in my view of the world and my place within it as a member of the global African community. It is from this perspective in the #an African tradition that the idea for this book was conceivedN to e'amine the issue of colourism as it impacts the African %iaspora. Cather than focus solely on the AL, as other writers have focused on the countries in which they were born and raised, I have chosen to focus on the African %iaspora, of which I am a part. At the beginning of this book, the foundations were laid for an e'amination of colourism as a legacy of enslavement and colonisation and as an internalised form of racism. It is internalised because the individual absorbs the dehumanising nature of enslavement as well as the stigma towards blackness that occurs through a collaborative denigration of blackness and black identity entrenched in religion, science, literature, media and popular culture. That in itself provides some measure of the deep psychological damage that has been perpetuated through the generations, reinforcing the message that blackness is inferior to whiteness. It was
%eborah 0abriel
necessary to establish the foundations of colourism by delving as far back as possible into our historical past to establish how it is that as a global black community we still bear the scars of a traumatic past. In recent years there has been a preoccupation within the mainstream media with colour issues, particularly skin bleaching, but on the whole the treatment has been more sensational than constructive and informative. There is never any attempt at e'plaining what drives non-white people to burn their skin with chemicals other than subtle attempts to suggest it is borne of a desire to be white, thereby reinforcing the concept of the white beauty ideal. 8hilst this book has focused on Huropean enslavement and colonisation in its e'amination of certain black communities within the African %iaspora, it also aimed to demonstrate in the first chapter the role that Arab enslavement played in the destabilisation of African communities on the continent, which paved the way for Huropean chattel enslavement. The chapters on 1orth America, Bamaica and (atin America demonstrate a consistent pattern of the diversity of skin tone among Africans being used as a divisive tool to foster disunity, mistrust and suspicion and to minimise resistance to the social order. That these colour-coded patterns remained intact following emancipation bear testimony to the evolutionary strategies used to maintain white supremacy. Bust because white Huropean hegemonies stopped transporting enslaved Africans to the 1ew 8orld did not mean that notions of white superiority had been discarded, nor that there was any intention of relin>uishing social and economic power over people of colour. If we e'amine the history of racism in )ritain as demonstrated in chapter four, the denigration of people of African descent was most intense during the 53th and 5"th centuries when scientific racism emerged, both to
"7
+onclusion
$ustify slavery and to lobby against abolition. )ritain passed the Abolition Act after it had already set its sights on the colonisation of the African and Asian continents which occurred with as much brutality as did chattel enslavement. +olonisation in many ways replicated the colour stratification that characterised the governance of slave colonies as was evidenced by the creation of Apartheid in 2outh Africa and Bim +row laws in the A2A. In other colonised societies, whilst colour stratification may not have been embedded in laws and customs it nonetheless maintained a de facto e'istence. In (atin America white hegemonies chose the lure of white privilege and the opportunity for membership of the white elite as a superficial means of maintaining a white ma$ority and safeguarding the interests of what is in reality a white minority. Allowing certain members of the black and Indian population, notably the mesti os, to cross over the colour line essentially ensured that the system of white supremacy was defended and supported by a large number of blacks, who might otherwise form part of a challenge to the system of oppression. H'amining human evolution and skin colour was included as a reminder of the fact that contrary to the theories espoused during the e'plosion of scientific racism, that there is a wide consensus today amongst anthropologists and geneticists that point to the black African origins of mankind. It was also intend to reinforce the message that regardless of our skin colour or facial features all peoples whether African, Asian or Huropean are members of one human family, which is the human race. As 0arvey states in the >uotation at the beginning of this chapter, the +reator made us = black-skinned people of African descent in @is own image and had a purpose for doing so. This is not emphasised to confer any claim to superiority by virtue of this reality, $ust that it
"/
%eborah 0abriel
had its purposeN it is part of black African ancestral history and is something to be acknowledged as a source of pride. The chapter on whiteness and white supremacy is central to understanding the concept of colourism as without it colourism would not e'ist. The purpose of this chapter was to deconstruct the subtle and latent manner in which whiteness functions as a means of e'plaining how people of African descent can succumb to the subordinating values of white supremacy by devaluing blackness without realising that they are endorsing white supremacy. 8hiteness and the privilege and social advantage that it confers upon people racialised as white is not only invisible to the white group but also to many blacks who are the very ones being disadvantaged by its discriminatory nature. If white supremacy is to be effectively e'posed, challenged and destabilised, then people need to be aware of how it operates in the first instance. )ut at the same time people of African descent have to wake up and take stock of the immense disadvantage and discrimination that is robbing them and other non-white peoples of e>uality of opportunity and the right to an e>uitable share of the worlds resources. As 0arvey urged* E8hether we are light, yellow, black or what not, there is but one thing for us to do, and that is to get together and build up a race. The chapter on whiteness and white supremacy also serves as a warning to those who succumb to the na[ve notion that we are living in times where colour is unimportant. 1othing could be further from the truth. The fact that race e'ists merely as a construct rather than of any biological reality does not change the reality of the social disadvantage, e'clusion and discrimination that globally, dark-skinned and black people live with every day of their lives. Ander these oppressive circumstances as people of African descent we have no alternative but to fight for
"3
+onclusion
social $ustice and to liberate ourselves and the rest of humanity from the immoral and violent clutches of white supremacy. That involves a move away from the individualistic and self-obsessed attitudes that pervade black communities across the world as a result of western influence, to one that is altogether more in keeping with our cultural heritage as a people of a collective and community-oriented nature. The last chapter on blackness and black identity was specifically intended to focus on blackness from an African perspective, that is not to suggest a homogenous concept of blackness from what is by all accounts the most diverse continent on the planet - ethnically, linguistically and in terms of skin colourN but in e'amining a few e'amples of how Africans saw themselves prior to their enslavement by Arabs and Huropeans. This chapter intentionally avoids definitions of blackness that result from e'ternally imposed concepts and definitions and instead focuses on how we have seen and understood our blackness both historically and in contemporary times. In order to resist the destructive nature of white supremacy and the negativity and inferiority it aims to impose on people of African descent, individuals need to be well grounded in their sense of identity and to have reached a level of consciousness where they are able to accept their blackness and wear it with a sense of pride = not to seek to mask their black identity under bleaching creams, cosmetic powders that lighten the appearance of the skin, or weaves and chemical straighteners that disguise natural hair. I am by no means suggesting that all women who opt to straighten their hair or to wear wigs or weaves are trying to be white. As one who has worn hair weaves in the past I am in no position to cast stones. @owever, I am conscious of the fact we are hardly emulating blackness when we do so. It is more honest to accept that we are
""
%eborah 0abriel
still locked into Huropean standards of beauty and need to work at appreciating beauty in our own image = because as long as we are worshipping images of other people we will never worship ourselves. The concept of blackness to the ancient Hgyptians was ine'tricably linked to the belief that their blackness was a blessing from the 2un 0od and was therefore a source of great of pride. In recent years following the tireless work of past great scholars such as %r +hancellor 8illiams and +heikh Anta %iop, the ancient Hgyptians have come to symbolise a great period in history that denotes the contribution of African peoples to the history of humanity. The ancient Hgyptians have inspired several contemporary scholars and Afro-centric enthusiasts to use their history as an ego booster in a reactionary manner to Hurocentric dogma by professing that we are worth something as African peoples as we once ruled ancient civilisations. )ut as Amos 8ilson, another great scholar once wrote, history is important for the lessons that it teaches us. ;y inclusion of the ancient Hgyptians in this book was for that specific purpose - to give us some perspective about our black skin. The ancients knew that to be black is not to be ugly, inferior or cursed, but to be black is to be blessed = blessed with the blackness that gave rise to creation = for all human life began with the black skin of Africans as did the ancient civilisations that we so revere today. As globalisation continues to dominate the social, cultural, economic and political landscape in the -5st century, there is an urgent need for people of African descent scattered across the globe to draw upon our common history and ancestry as a source of collective strength in order to overcome the disparities and ine>ualities that pervade the lives of the global African community. @owev-
5..
+onclusion
er, organising collective resistance on a global scale re>uires an understanding and acceptance of the great diversity among African peoples that is of language, ethnicity and culture as well as of skin tone. The damaging legacy of chattel enslavement for which Huropeans utilised divisive strategies to control and subordinate enslaved Africans still persists within black communities today throughout the world, as studies on the impact of colourism have shown. It is important therefore, that in e'amining colourism, which has clearly arisen from a shared e'perience of slavery, colonisation, neocolonialism and white supremacy, that as people of African descent, we look beyond the respective nationalities of our geographical locations and seek solutions as global African citi ens, which is vital to ensure our survival as a people.
5.5
"eferences
I*TRO&UCTIO* 5. )laisdell, ed. -..M p.5M6 -. Anited 1ations, -..5
CHAPT!R + 5. @unter -..4, p.-. 0ilborn, -..4 p.M34 6. (eonardo, -..M p.56" M. Adams, 5""7 p.-. 4. (ively, 5""" p.-. 7. )en-Bochannan, 5""7 p.5/ /. ". )en-Bochannan, 5""7 p.5/ 3. 8illiams, 5"3/ p.4" ". 8illiams 5"3/ p./6 5.. The @oly Turan, 6*5.7-5./ 55. 56. 2egal, -..5 p. 74 5-. #age, 5"/M p./" CHAPT!R T#O 5. (ushena )ooks 5""" pp.3-" -. Cussell, 8ilson and @all, 5""-, p." 6. Cussell, 8ilson Z @all, 5""-, p.55 M. Lerr, -..7 p.3"
%eborah 0abriel
4. Cussell, 8ilson Z @all, 5""- p.66 7. 0olden, -..M, p.5. /. ;acdonald -..7, p."M 3. Thurman, 5""7, p.-5" ". Thompson and Leith -..5, p.645.. @erring, @orton Z Leith, -..6 p.45 55. @erring, @orton Z Leith, -..6 p.45 5-. @unter -..4, p.-/ 56. @unter, -..- p.5/" 5M. 0olden, -..M p."/ 54. 2chiller, 5"/7 p./. 57. &anon, 5"37 p.53 CHAPT!R THR!! 5. @eadley, 5"3M p.-5. -. @igman, 5""4 p.53" 6. )room, 5"4M p.55/ M. Bordan, 5"7- p.5"M 4. )room, 5"4M p.5-M 7. @eadley, 5"3M p. -5" /. ;atthew, 5"/M p.5/3. ;atthew, 5"/M p.5/6 ". @utton, 5""/ p.-. 5.. @utton, 5""/ p.-5 55. @utton, 5""/ p.-5-. @utton, 5"3/ p.-56. @utton, 5""/ p.-5M. +harles, -..6, p./57
5.7
Ceferences
54. ;c &arlane, %onna J-..7K %irector +urator of (iberty @all* The (egacy of ;arcus 0arveyN Telephone interview on 6rd August -..7 57. &erguson, 0. A Z +ramer, #, -../ p.5/. &erguson, A Z +ramer, #, -../ p.553. 2eaga, HN -../ CHAPT!R (OUR 5. H e, 5""/ p.66 -. H e, 5""/ p.63 6. H e, 5""/ p.44 M. H e, 5""/ p."5 4. H e, 5""/ p."M 7. H e, 5""/ p.5-/-5-3 /. H e, 5""/ p.5-3 3. )rantlinger, 5"34, p.573 ". )rantlinger 5"34 5.. )rantlinger, 5"34 p.5/M 55. )rantlinger, 5"34, p.5"3 5-. 8aters, -../, p.3 56. 8aters, -../ p.M. 5M. 8aters, -../ p.75 54. 8aters, -../ p.3" 57. 8aters, -../ p.5MM 5/. )ernal, 5""5 p. -M5 53. 0abriel, -..4 5". Arogundade-... a. -.. Arogundade, -... b p.5MM
5./
%eborah 0abriel
-5. Arogundade -... a --. 5""3, p.-"" -6. 0abriel, -..7 a -M. ))+ 1ews J 4th Buly -..5 -4. ))+ 1ewsN 5"35 -7. +hristian 5""3, p.6.. -/. Tikly et al -..M p.6. CHAPT!R (I,! 5. (ove, 5"7/ p.5.5 -. %iggs, -..6 p. M-/ 6. )ryan, ; Z 2anche ; -..6, p.4 M. )ryan, ; Z 2anche ; -..6, p.7 4. @erring, @orton Z Leith, -..6 p.--" 7. ;usselman, A J-..6K /. +alderon, T J-../K CHAPT!R SI5. Bablonski -..M, p.7.5 -. Ian 2ertima, 5"34 p.-"M 6. Ian 2ertima, 5"34, p.5/ M. 0abriel, % J-../K 4. 0abriel, % J-../K 7. 0abriel, % J-../K
5.3
Ceferences
CHAPT!R S!,!* 5. 0abriel, J-..7 cK -. Rwen -../ p.-.7 6. Ryewumi -..6, p.-3 M. Rwen, -../ p.-.7 4. Rwen -../, p.-.7 7. Rwen, -../ p.-." /. Rwen, -../ p.-5. 3. Rwen, -../ p.57 ". 0ilborn, -../ p.6-" 5.. 0ilborn -../ p.666 55. 0ilborn -../ p.664 5-. @erring, @orton Z Leith, eds -..M p.5/3 56. @erring, @orton Z Leith, eds. -..M p.5/" 5M. @erring, @orton Z Leith, eds -..M p.533 54 Rwen -../, p.-53 57. @enry, ( J-../K 2ociologist, +ultural @istorian, %ancehall %ee$ayN Telephone interview on 4th Bune -../
CHAPT!R !I.HT 5. R. ;. 1ash, -../ -. 1ur -..6 p.-/6 6. 8ilson -..-, p.6" M. 1ascimento 5"3. p.5M4. 1ascimento 5"3. p.5M5 7. &anon 5"37 pp.35-3-
5."
%eborah 0abriel
/. Cashidi, 5""3 3. Cashidi, 5""3 ". 8illiams 5"3/ p.5-5.. 8illiams, p.5---5-6 55. )aylis -..6 p.5M6 5-. )aylis -..6 p.5MM 56. )aylis -..6 p. 5MM 5M. @enry, ( J-../K 2ociologist, +ultural @istorian, %ancehall %ee$ayN Telephone interview on 4th Bune -../ 54. @enry, ( J-../K 2ociologist, +ultural @istorian, %ancehall %ee$ayN Telephone interview on 4th Bune -../ CO*C USIO* 5. )laisdellN ed. -..M p.5M7
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%eborah 0abriel
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+harles, +.A.%N 2kin )leaching, 2elf-@ate Z )lack Identity in BamaicaN Bournal of )lack 2tudiesN -..6N Iol 66N 1o.7N pp./55-/-3 +hristian, ;N An African-+entred Approach to the )lack )ritish H'perience* 8ith 2pecial Ceference to (iverpoolN Bournal of )lack 2tudiesN Iol.-3 1o.6N JBan 5""3K pp.-"5-6.3 +ommission for Cacial H>ualityN Hmployment and HthnicityN &actfile \http*WWwww.cre.gov.ukWdownloadsWfactfile.5`employment`an d`ethnicity.pdf ] Oaccessed on 6WMW./P +rawford, BN Rn the +lassification of the Caces of ;an According to the &orm of the 2kullN Transactions of the Hthnological 2ocietyN 5373 Iol. 7 pp.5-/-56M %arkwah, 1.) J-...K Africans 8ho 8rote the )ibleN A2AN Aduana #ublishing %ulit ky, Ariel H. J-..4K. A Cegion in %enial* Cacial %iscrimination and Cacism in (atin AmericaNin Anani % id ienyo and 2u anne Rboler JedsK 1either Hnemies nor &riends, (atinos, )lack, Afro-(atinos. 1ew Uork* #algrave ;acmillan. H e, H.+ J5""/K Cace and the HnlightenmentN R'fordN )lackwell
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&anon, & J5"37K )lack 2kin, 8hite ;asksN (ondonN #luto &erguson, 0. A Z +ramer, #N 2elf-esteem among Bamaican children* H'ploring the impact of skin +olour and CuralWArban Cesidence. Bournal of Applied %evelopmental #sychology J-../K 0abriel, %N J-..4K )leach ;y 2kin 8hite? Is 2kin )leaching Ceally as #opular as Tanning? )lack )ritain, 5Mth 2eptember, \http*WWwww.blackbritain.co.ukWnewsWdetails.asp'?i^5/-4Zc^u kZh^)leach_my_skin_whitea6A_is_skin_bleaching_really_a s_common_as_tanninga6&] 0abriel, % J-..7 aK %econstructing the (iverpool )lack IdentityN )lack )ritain, 3th Buly http*WWwww.blackbritain.co.ukWfeatureWdetails.asp'?i^73Zc^Cac eZh^%econstructing_the_(iverpool_black_identity 0abriel, % J-..7 bK &oreign office served writ for ;au ;au atrocities after wa'ing lyrical over world human rights abusesN )lack )ritain, -.th Rctober \http*WWwww.blackbritain.co.ukWnewsWdetails.asp'?i^-6./Zc^u kZh^&oreign_office_served_writ_for_;au_;au_atrocities_a fter_wa'ing_lyrical_over_world_human_rights_abuses] 0abriel, J-..7 cK A@-&CHH- LA* +ombating 8hiteness in the )lack Imagination* Hmpowering and uplifting the black psycheN )lack )ritain, 5/th Buly
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\http*WWwww.blackbritain.co.ukWfeatureWdetails.asp'?i^74Zc^C aceZh^A@-&CHH_LAa6a_+ombating_8hiteness_in_the_)lack_Imagination a6a_Hmpowering_and_uplifting_the_black_psyche] 0abriel, % J-../K 2kin +olour* 2hould It ;atter? )lack )ritain, 3th ;ay \http*WWwww.blackbritain.co.ukWfeatureWdetails.asp'?i^5 .MZc^CaceZh^2kin_coloura6a_should_it_mattera6f] 0adalla, ; J5"""K H'iled Hgyptians* The @eart of AfricaN A2AN TehutiN 0ardener, % Z +onnolly @N J-..4K 8ho Are the Rther Hthnic 0roups?N Rffice for 1ational 2tatisticsN 0illan A J-..MK Islam, +olourism and the ;yth of )lack African 2lave Traders. Cootswomen.com, 5.th &ebruary -..M http*WWwww.rootswomen.comWayannaWarticlesW5..--..M.html Oaccessed on 54 April -../P 0ilborn, %N Hducation #olicy as an Act of 8hite 2upremacy* 8hiteness, +ritical Cace Theory and Hducation CeformN Bournal of Hducation #olicyN Buly -..4N ppM.4-4.4 0ilborn, % J-..7K Cethinking 8hite 2upremacy* 8ho +ounts In 8hite 8orldN HthnicitiesN J-..7K Iol 7N 1o.6 pp.6536M.
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@ersch, BN 2kin Tone Hffects Among African Americans* #erception Z CealityN @arvard (aw CeviewN -..7N %iscussion #aper 1o. M4 @igginbottom, H.) African American 8omans @istory and the ;etalanguage of CaceN 2ignsN Iol 5/N 1o.- J5""-K pp -45--/M @igman, )8 J5""4K 2lave #opulation and Hconomy in Bamaica 53./-536MN Aniversity of the 8est Indies #ress @ooks, ) J5"35K Aint I A 8oman* )lack 8omen and &eminismN (ondonN #luto @unter ; J-..4K Cace, 0ender Z the #olitics of 2kin ToneN (ondonN Coutledge @unter, ;N If Uoure (ight Uoure Alright* (ight 2kin +olour as 2ocial +apital for 8omen of +olourN 0ender and 2ocietyN -..-N Iol 57N 1o.-N pp.5/4-5"6 @utton, +N Ac>uired Anti-Rwn Cace 2yndromeN African #eoples CeviewN 5""/N ;ay-AugN pp.-.--Bablonski, 1.0 The Hvolution of @uman 2kin +olourN Annual Ceview of AnthropologyN Iol.66 JRct -..MK pp.436-7-6
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%eborah 0abriel
;atthew, +.2N ;arcus 0arvey 8rites from Bamaica on the ;ulatto Hscape @atchN Bournal of 1egro @istoryN Iol 4"N 1o.-N JApril 5"/MKN pp.5/.-5/7 ;c%onald, BAN #otential Influence of Cacism and 2kin Tone on Harly #ersonality &ormationN #sychoanalytic CeviewN -..7N Iol "6* 1o.5N pp."6-557 ;c &arlane, %onna J-..7K %irector of the African +aribbean Institute of BamaicaN Telephone interview on 6rd August -..7 ;usselman, A J-..6K The 2ubtle Cacism of (atin AmericaN A+(A International InstituteN http*WWwww.international.ucla.edu Oaccessed /th Bune -../P 1ascimento, A.%N Afro-)ra ilian H'perience and #roposals for 2ocial +hangeN Bournal of )lack 2tudies, Iol. 55, 1o. -N J%ec., 5"3.K, pp. 5M5-5/3. 1ash, R.; J-../K )lack Is, )lack AintN\ http*WWwww.solarsouls.comWessaysWblack-is-black-aintW] Oaccessed on 6.W4W./P 1ur, I; J-..6K The ;eaning of )lacknessN 0eorgiaN A1A 8orld Rffice for 1ational 2tatistics J-..4K &ocus on Hthnicity and IdentityN
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5-5
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The @oly TuranN Hlectronic Te't +enter, Aniversity of Iirginia (ibraryN \http*WWete't.virginia.eduWetcbinWtoccernew-?id^@olLora.sgmZimages^imagesWmodengZdata^Wte'tsW englishWmodengWparsedZtag^publicZpart^6Zdivision^div5Oaccess ed on -5W4W./P Cashidi, C J5""3K The African #resence in India* An @istorical RverviewN 2a'ali #ublications* \http*WWwww.sa'akali.comW2a'akali#ublicationsWrunoko5".htm] Oaccessed on 5W7W./P Cussell et al J5""-K The +olour +omple'* The #olitics of 2kin +olour Among African AmericansN A2A* Anchor )ooks 2artwell, 2hrage Z Dack, JedsK J5""3K Cace, +lass 0ender and 2e'uality, the )ig TuestionsN )lackwellN ;assachusetts 2chiller, @ I J5"/7K +ommunication and +ultural %ominationN 1ew UorkN #antheon 2eaga, HN J-../K 2ome 2hameful 2ins of 2laveryN Bamaica 0leanerN Mth &ebruaryN\http*WWwww.$amaicagleaner.comWgleanerW-../.-.MWfocusWfocus6.Whtml] Oaccessed on 5M April -../P 2egal, C J-..5K Islams )lack 2lavesN 1ew UorkN &arrar, 2trauss Z 0irou'
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.5.%./++//+5-47A+6..47.%/M?opendocument] Oaccessed on -M April -../P Ian 2ertima, I J5"34K African #resence in Harly HuropeN 1ew BerseyN Cutgers 2tate Aniversity 8aters, @ J-../K Cacism on the Iictorian 2tage* Cepresentation of 2lavery Z the )lack +haracterN +ambridgeN +ambridge Aniversity #ress 8esley, +.@N The Hmancipation of the &ree +oloured #opulation in the )ritish HmpireN Bournal of 1egro @istoryN Iol 5"N 1o.- JApril 5"6MK pp.56/-5/. 8illiams, + J5"3/K The %estruction of )lack +ivili ation* 0reat Issues of a Cace from M4.. ).+ to -... A.%N +hicagoN Third 8orld #ress 8ilson, A J5""6K The &alsification of the Afrikan +onsciousnessN 1ew UorkN Afrikan 8orld Info 2ystems 8indsor, C J-..6K &rom )abylon to Timbuktu* A @istory of the Ancient )lack* Caces Including the )lack @ebrewsN -.th edN AtlantaN 8indors 0olden 2eries 8orld )ank J-..6K Ine>uality in (atin America and the +aribbean* )reaking 8ith @istoryN http*WWweb.worldbank.orgW8)2ITHWHcTHC1A(W+RA1TCI H2W(A+HcTW.,,content;%L*-.63M3"/dpage#L*5M7/67dpi#
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5-4
Inde*
African Americans, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 60, 117, 118, 122 African Diaspora, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4, 25, 49, 50, 52, 65, 86, 95, 103, 129 Africans, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 32, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 45, 49, 50, 51, 55, 58, 62, 63, 68, 81, 87, 89, 90, 92, 96, 101, 112, 114 Afro descendants, 57, 59, 64, 87 colo r blindness, 82 Bible, 7, 114 # ba, 61 Black B dd!a, 90 c lt ral imperialism, 21, 22 black skin, 34, 38, 44, 57, 68, 69, 85, 91, 100 Blackness, 2, 3, 5, 6, 85, 90, 103, 119, 120, 129 Bra"il, 57, 59, 87 Britain, 1, 2, 25, 43, 45, 51, 77, 86, 96, 112, 115, 116 Britis!, 3, 14, 25, 27, 29, 40, 41, 43, 51, 75, 77, 78, 80, 86, 114, 119, 124 #arl $on %innae s, 37 *nli+!tenment, 37, 38, 114 #a casian, 37, 69 * ropean standard of bea t,, 20, 52 #!arles &inc!, 67 facial str ct res, 69 -illborn, 78, 79, 80 Dark skin, 18, 67 Da'id ( me, 37 Dr #!ancellor )illiams, 9, 100 Dra'idians, 89 D bois, 16, 64 ed cational o tcomes, 1, 16, 17, 48 *mancipation Act, 40 c!attel ensla'ement, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10, 32, 51, 52, 58, 63, 77, 82, 85, 96, 101 #!eik! Anta Diop, 67, 77, 89, 90, 100 #!ristian, 2, 6, 8, 13, 22, 40, 41, 45, 108, 114 colonisation, 2, 22, 25, 32, 40, 52, 57, 65, 76, 77, 82, 85, 88, 95, 101
(e+el, 39 (ominids, 66 .mmna el /ant, 38 .slam, 10, 11, 116, 122 0amaica, 5, 2, 3, 4, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 32, 33, 46, 51, 63, 96, 113, 114, 117, 118, 120, 122 %atin America, 5, 2, 3, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 87, 96, 113, 114, 117, 120, 124 li+!ter skinned, 19, 33, 65 1arc s -ar'e,2s, 1 melanin, 66, 68 1elanosomes, 66 1e3ico, 55, 56, 59, 119 1isce+enation, 26 m lattos, 3, 13, 14, 15, 16, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 55, 56, 62, 64 m,t! of t!e c rse of (am, 7 4rofessor 5tep!en 5mall, 46
racism, 1, 2, 5, 19, 21, 37, 43, 46, 47, 52, 64, 65, 70, 71, 77, 79, 82, 83, 85, 92, 95 6eli+io s folklore, 6 5cientific racism, 71 skin bleac!in+, 21, 23, 32, 44, 96 skin colo r, 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 21, 26, 27, 29, 34, 37, 42, 44, 55, 57, 59, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 74, 76, 81, 85, 97 sla'es, 7, 11, 13, 14, 25, 26, 27, 38, 55, 62, 63 stereot,pes, 18 7!e m,t! of t!e Dark #ontinent, 40 8!ite pri'ile+e, 63, 73, 76, 82, 97 8!ite s premac,, 2, 5, 25, 26, 51, 58, 61, 63, 65, 71, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 95, 101 8!iteness, 3, 19, 26, 27, 34, 37, 38, 71, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 93, 95 8!ites, 7, 13, 14, 15, 18, 26, 27, 29, 30, 37, 42, 52, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 62, 71, 73, 76, 77, 81, 83, 112
%eborah 0abriel is currently a lecturer in $ournalism at the Aniversity of 2alford in ;anchester, Anited Lingdom, where she is undertaking a #h% in media and cultural studies. J-.55K 2he is also the %irector of #eople with Ioices +I+, a social enterprise and +ommunity Interest +ompany which aims to widen access to $ournalism for people from working class, black and minority ethnic backgrounds who are under-represented as $ournalists in the AL mainstream news media. Layers of Blackness: Colourism in the African Diaspora, evolved from the dissertation she produced for her )A in Bournalism 2tudies in -../. 8ebsite* http*WWdeborahgabriel.comW