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 is actually really interesting! A lot of people know about Lolo Jones because she was all over the media during the summer for the Olympics, but when you put her in this perspective it is surprising that there is this underlying case of colorism. The fact that it is even stated in endorsement contracts makes me think back to segregation. You would never think that there would be discrimination within a race!
ReplyDeletei never really thought about this when I was watching the Olympics this summer, but it's true that I've never even heard of Harper while I have heard of Jones. I thought it was because her personal life was such a focus, but I can also see the colorism. After all, even though Jeter was one of the best athletes out there she got way less screen time than Jones did. It's incredibly sad that there is still discrimination, especially between people in the same race group.
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