Annie Husted

In looking back on history, it is imperative to acknowledge the great strides that have been made. In a world that was once entirely racially segregated, we now live in a world that is deemed racially equal; a world that views people on more than just the color of their skin. However, to say that all races are granted the same opportunities and that people no longer take race into account when viewing someone would be incorrect. As discussed in the Introduction chapter and the chapter on “Dating and Mating: a Question of Color in the book, The Color Complex, as well as in the article “Yearning for Lightness” by Evelyn Nakano Glenn, we learn that many people still view their own racial identity or someone else’s as a lingering, unsatisfactory trait. 

In the book The Color Complex, the concept of internal traits being overlooked by the obvious external traits is brazenly addressed. In the Introduction chapter, the meaning behind the term “the color complex” is defined. The color complex is a “psychological fixation about color and features that leads Blacks to discriminate against each other” (2). This complex takes an already somewhat racially segregated society, and then goes further to establish new segregational tendencies within those races. One aspect that is asserted in this chapter is the idea that lighter skin toned individuals are somehow more inherently good than those born with darker skin tones. This chapter also talks about the double-edge sword that this ideology can institute, providing many more opportunities (whether in the job market, or in the search for a significant other) for some individuals merely based on their race. In the chapter titled “Dating and Mating: A Question of Color,” the implications of race within the dating world are explored, as well as the variety of different reasons for choosing or not choosing someone of a certain race for a romantic partner. This chapter examines how, specially in the African American community, “skin color and feature preferences are not just personal; they are political” (107). I thought that it was intriguing that the dating website, Chocolate Singles, reported that women who labeled themselves as “‘light-skinned’ seem[ed] to elicit considerably more responses than other ads” (108). This highlights the underlying prevalence of race and privilege that people with lighter-skin are endowed with when looking for a partner. This chapter also talked about how much of the craze over believing that light-skin toned individuals possess better qualities is rooted in Black men feeling that “light-skinned women are more attractive...because [they are] closer to white women” (109). However, racial differences can produce new problems in some relationships, one being the “painful self-doubt” than makes the Black man “start to question whether a beautiful light-skinned woman could ever really love a dark-skinned man like himself” (109). Several stories that related to this fabricated “self-doubt” that interracial couples experience were discussed, and I found them appalling. The story of the black-skinned business man from Los Angeles brutally beating his white-skinned wife and saying “how beautiful the love marks looked against my ‘white’ skin” (110). One theory as to why Black men feel certain emotions when they are with White women states “that White women were historically forbidden to Black men” thus making White women “much more desirable” (113) I found this very interesting, and this was an angle of viewing interracial relationships that had never crossed my mind. This concept alludes to the idea that so much of the awful racial tensions that were created through segregation and slavery in history still linger in the mentalities of how Blacks view Whites. Paula Giddings, a Black historian, believes that “this pattern of interracial romance began when liberal northern White women when south to work in the civil rights movement” only further stating the prevalence that history plays (112). I also thought that it was interesting that individuals who were more proud of their ethnicity and race were “less likely to be attracted to light-skinned women” and in some cases even “seek out dark-skinned women to communicate their ‘pro-Black’ stance...” (114). Learning the motives, emotions, and statistics of interracial marriages was extremely interesting to me-- especially seeing as I had always just viewed interracial couples as simply falling in-love with someone who happened to be of a different race. 

The second reading, “Yearning for Lightness” focuses primarily on the booming cosmetics industry that targets skin bleaching. The article opens up by addressing the main reason for this skin bleaching craze, being “colorism” and the “preference for and privileging of light skin and discrimination against those with darker skin” ( 281). This article hones in on how prevalent the use of these cosmetics are, the driving forces promoting the skin bleaching, and the overarching implications tied with these practices. In looking back on history, during the “beginning of the twenty-first century, the search for light skin, free of imperfections...has accelerated, and the market for skin-lightening products has mushroomed in all other parts of the world” (283). This multi-billion dollar beauty industry has been promoted through many different outlets. One of those being the internet, serving as a “major tool/highway/engine for the globalized, segmented, lightening market” (283) Not only does the internet serve as an online mall for buyers to seek out skin bleaching products, but it also serves as a place where potential buys can discusses their experiences and thoughts about certain products. Another mass media tool that is used to promote skin lightening is through beauty pageants, as well as for a country like India, where the skin bleaching industry thrives, the influence of Bollywood actresses who tend to be lighter skin toned.  We see the results of this through the global fascination and desire to lighten their skin tones. What I found interesting is that although the different regions of the world that partake in skin lightening may all differ drastically on political, economical, and social issues, many regions all feel that one’s skin color elicits implications about their social rank or status. Lighter-skinned people are, again, seen to be “more intelligent and marital and whose women they considered more attractive,” whereas darker-skinned groups are viewed as “lacking intelligence and masculinity, and whose women they considered to be lacking in beauty” (289) What I found most scary about these practices were the danger that they are imposing on human health. Many of the skin bleaching products contain “mercury, corticosteriods, or high does of hydroquinone,” all products that could potentially lead to consequences such as “neurological damage and kidney disease,” “ochronosis,” “eczema, bacterial and fungal infection, Cushing’s syndrome, and skin atrophy” (285). I also found it peculiar that the skin bleaching obsession is primarily with women and not seen in men, and that in America, we see the exact opposite demand--yearning for darker, more tanned skin (that is equally as damaging).

Overall, I found these three readings to provide a lot of insight into the remaining importance regarding skin color in today’s society. It’s interesting that skin color can make or break a relationship, and that it can also be the part of one’s natural body that can be altered in attempt to change stereotypes linked to certain skin colors. I wonder if the people who partake in the cosmetic practices and chose their partner based on race will ever learn to love their natural born skin and live with the knowledge that it is not one’s skin color that makes them a beautiful person, but really their internal qualities.