I have enjoyed my research into colorism.  Just as we were discussing in class how people with black names got fewer interviews than white people, the same thing happens with race.  People of varying shades of color are definitely discriminated against based on color versus their capability to do the job.  Although it is wrong, it still happens.  People have not fully moved past racism from so many years ago.  These articles proved that.

I have been finding some good articles regarding colorism.  It still amazes me how much discrimination there is even in our generation.  You would think that there would be more equality these days.  There aren't a huge number of websites with studies, so I may widen my search to include colorism in the workplace in addition to job selection.  I look forward to seeing what other articles and information is out there.

I have found some interesting articles about colorism and how it relates to job selection, self-confidence due to discrimination, and other aspects of life. I find it interesting upon first looks that everyone who writes articles and does studies seems to be quite against colorism and wants it to end.  If so many people don't agree with it, it shouldn't be so prevalent in our society still today.   I think I may be surprised at just how many people are discriminated against just because of their skin color.

For my project, I will be looking further at articles regarding colorism.  I will be investigating colorism as it relates to job selection and other relations. Other people have done intense studies on this topic, so I will be reading those and analyzing them. This is a very interesting topic and look forward to further my investigation.

                               

http://www.theroot.com/buzz/olympian-ignored-because-colorism


This article talks about the fame discrepancy between two Olympic athletes.  Lolo Jones (left) has lighter skin than Dawn Harper (right). Obviously.  But what isn't as obvious is why Jones seems to be getting more love and publicity.  Publicity people think that Jones is more beautiful than Harper.  Why? It seems to be because her skin is lighter.  Harper is also lacking in endorsements. It seems that companies think that people will want to look at Jones on ads and billboards more than Harper.  I think this is ridiculous.  It should only matter who is the better athlete that decides how much publicity she gets.  If Jones is in fact a better athlete than Harper, then fine.  But I don't think this is the case.  Harper is being discriminated against.  Also in the article, it mentions that a credential for a commercial is "friendly, but not too dark".  Companies think we think that dark skinned people are not to be trusted and therefore shouldn't be in commercials.  In today's society, you would think that people could look past skin color and try to treat everyone equally.  Wouldn't that be nice.

This article I found is quite interesting. It is about a woman in Virginia who is fighting colorism, but not without controversy.  In her church and workshops, she uses the paper bag test (as described in previous post).  She gauges people by their color and give lighter skinned people rewards, while shoving the darker skinned people to the back of the class.  She herself is dark skinned.  People obviously think this is wrong, which it is, but she is just highlighting what is going on all around us.  She used it as an example of how people treat others.  Everyone seems to do their own "paper bag test".  She is just making obvious what people do, and trying to make people aware of colorism in our society.  I think it is an interesting idea.

http://wtvr.com/2012/12/10/richmond-woman-fights-colorism-within-african-american-community/

http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/05/31/the-stupidity-of-black-colorism-.html


This article is an opinion piece about colorism in response to a documentary about dark skinned women called "Dark Girls".  It talks about how even though blacks are still looked down upon by some whites, they are even now being figuratively segregated by other races and cultures.  As I talked about in a previous blog,  Beyonce is a lighter dark skinned person, and sometimes they lighten her more, and some people don't appreciate that.  They think that people view her as what all dark skinned people should look like, which obviously is not the case.  In the documentary, it shows girls who want to bleach their skin so they can look lighter and "beautiful".  That is really tragic to think that people will go to such poisonous lengths to look like how they think society wants them to look.  Even though this article is biased, the point is true enough.  It is ridiculous for minorities to be racist themselves, when they don't like being looked down upon because of their race.  In order to have worldwide respect and peace, everyone needs to move on and not care about a color.  It's just a color.