{"id":48687,"date":"2016-08-16T01:30:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T01:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=48687"},"modified":"2016-08-16T01:30:57","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T01:30:57","slug":"if-you-is-white-yous-alright-stories-about-colorism-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=48687","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;If You Is White, You\u2019s Alright. . . .\u201d Stories About Colorism in America"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/openscholarship.wustl.edu\/law_globalstudies\/vol14\/iss4\/8\/\" target=\"_blank\"><em><strong>&#8220;If You Is White, You\u2019s Alright. . . .\u201d Stories About Colorism in America<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/openscholarship.wustl.edu\/law_globalstudies\" target=\"_blank\">Washington University Global Studies Law Review<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/openscholarship.wustl.edu\/law_globalstudies\/vol14\/iss4\" target=\"_blank\">Volume 14, Issue 4: Global Perspectives on Colorism<\/a> (Symposium Edition) (2015)<br \/>\npages 585-607<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/law.wustl.edu\/faculty\/pages.aspx?id=303\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Kimberly Jade Norwood<\/strong><\/a>, Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law; Professor of African &amp; African American Studies<br \/>\n<em>Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Discrimination_based_on_skin_color\" target=\"_blank\">Colorism<\/a>, a term believed to be first coined in 1982 by Pulitzer Prize winner <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Alice_Walker\" target=\"_blank\">Alice Walker<\/a>, was defined by her to mean the \u201cprejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color.\u201d It is not racism although there is a clear relationship. A clear example of racism would involve a business that refuses to hire black people. Colorism would not preclude the hiring of a black person, but there would be a preference for a black person with a lighter skin tone than a darker skinned person. From this example one can see too that colorism can not only occur within same-raced peoples but also across races. Colorism also is often gendered. Because of its unique relationship to who and what is beautiful, it has a tendency, although not exclusively, to affect and infect women more than men.<\/p>\n<p>Although my first experience with colorism occurred very early in life, it never went away or otherwise resolved itself. Rather, it grew with me. And in many ways, I grew to understand that the color hierarchy was simply the way of the world. I would eventually marry and have children of my own. And through those children, I would again see colorism grow and sting. I knew that, some day, one day when I had time, I would spend time discussing, highlighting and helping to eradicate colorism. This paper offers some of my experiences with colorism and my continued growth in understanding its complexities.<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/openscholarship.wustl.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1547&amp;context=law_globalstudies\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;If You Is White, You\u2019s Alright. . . .\u201d Stories About Colorism in America Washington University Global Studies Law Review Volume 14, Issue 4: Global Perspectives on Colorism (Symposium Edition) (2015) pages 585-607 Kimberly Jade Norwood, Henry H. Oberschelp Professor of Law; Professor of African &amp; African American Studies Washington University School of Law, St. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,395,1467,1196,8,20],"tags":[240,24760,24751],"class_list":["post-48687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-autobiography","category-law","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-colorism","tag-kimberly-jade-norwood","tag-washington-university-global-studies-law-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48688,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48687\/revisions\/48688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}