According to the article, “Colorism within the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)” by Marybeth Gasman and Ufuoma Abiola, colorism is termed as a form of discrimination that is primarily based on skin tone, whereby, lighter skinned blacks are privilege while on the other hand, dark-skinned blacks are penalized (Gasman, " Abiola, 2016). In addition, other physical characteristics that generally act alongside skin tone are such as eye color and the texture of the hair. As a result, the idea of Europeans features and lighter skin being better has led to disproportionate advancement as well as positive representation of light-skinned blacks as compared to darker-skinned blacks in various life aspects such as the workplace, media outlets inclusive of education. The authors point out that issues of colorism in the education sector manifests itself through things such as elevated suspension rates for darker toned youth, moreover, historically, among the Black College and University (HBCU), such discrimination was also commonly identifiable within student leadership positions, fraternities and sororities as well as in homecoming queen competitions (Gasman, " Abiola, 2016).
In accordance to the article, throughout history, dark-skinned Blacks in the US are considered as inferior as compared to their lighter toned counterparts. The ideology colorism stems from slavery, whereby, the closer an individual was to being “White” phenotypically the better, during this period, colorism also manifested itself in the preferential treatment of lighter toned slaves. Light-toned Blacks were also believed to be more suited for both skilled and intellectual tasks while their counterparts were considered as an epitome of labor (Gasman, " Abiola, 2016). The authors also assert that social scientists also documented that people from the Black community also exhibited these biases, whereby, light-toned Africa Americas often distanced themselves from their counterparts through marriage preferences, fraternal organizations inclusive of blue vein societies. Historically, the brown paper test was one of the common methods of determining the skin color of a Black person; hence, emerging as a common method of baring dark-toned Blacks from making entry into churches, social clubs, fraternities and sororities as such colorism operated both intraracially and interracially which contributed to social division, hostility, animosity, and spurring intergroup friction.
In their article, the authors argue that, although HBCUs provided education, they also allowed people from the Black community to differentiate themselves, which, in, turn resulted in a rift among Black communities. After the decline of slavery, light-toned Blacks used their informal education, skin color as well as the adoption of White values in order to be assimilated into the “White Culture” (Gasman, " Abiola, 2016). As such the fair-skinned Blacks inclusive of mulattoes had a greater advantage; hence, gained better paying and favorable employment opportunities, traveled overseas, received better formal education and were generally more accepted by Whites. The authors maintain that HBCUs also significantly contributed to the development of Black bourgeoisie which was grounded on skin tone bias. Concerning this, extracurricular outlets in the HBCUs served as a forum for propagating skin tone discrimination. Despite the fact that, Black Greek organizations worked towards uniting Blacks by creating a sense of solidarity, most of the potential sorority sisters were heavily subjected to either blue vein or brown bag tests for the purpose of determining whether or not they were too dark to be incorporated into the organizations (Gasman, " Abiola, 2016). According to the authors, the politics of colorism to a great extent also came into play in cinematic form and while Blacks worked towards stamping out racial discrimination and prejudice, ironically most of them engaged in color prejudice which was a remnant of slavery.
The authors point out that, skin tone politics ultimately changed in the HBCU campuses during the Civil Rights Movements. With the great onset of Black Power Movement, Black students began embracing and taking pride in their natural hair and their darker hues and ultimately in their African heritage (Gasman, " Abiola, 2016). As a result, dark-skinned students often suspected and questioned the lighter skinned students in regard to the authenticity of their Blackness inclusive of their allegiance not only to the Black cultures but also traditions. As a consequence, there was a shift in the dimension of colorism which began to encompass backlash whereby, light-skinned Blacks perceived being marginalized, thus within their communities.
Conclusively, in regard to combating colorism in HBCUs, the authors provide a number of recommendations such as providing regularly structured opportunities in order to allow students to actively participate in the topic primarily through instruction and course offerings. HBCUs can also create professional opportunities that primarily focus on colorism, take part in critical self-studies, and also acknowledge and shift the topic of colorism into campuswide spaces through discussions of films, brown bag gatherings or having invited speaker series (Gasman, " Abiola, 2016).
Reference
Gasman, M., " Abiola, U. (2016). Colorism within the historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). Theory Into Practice, 55(1), 39-45.
