By Mariah Perkins and Asha Kent, 12th grade
Colorism affects young women of color all around the world. Here are two student perspectives:
Hello, My name is Mariah Perkins and I am 17 years old. I have experienced colorism many times in my life. I grew up in a house where my step-sibling was treated better because of her skin tone. This made me dislike myself at times and even wish that I was lighter or born to at least one white parent. While in middle school, people were very concerned about skin tones for some reason. Some students would express their dislike towards darker women and how they only wanted to date or be intimate with women with lighter skin. A while back I was speaking to someone who claimed that they “don’t even like black bitches.” They continued to express their distaste for women who had darker skin. After this, they expressed how they liked me even though I was darker. This made me feel extremely uncomfortable as a woman with darker skin. It made no sense to me how someone’s skin tone could be equivalent to their beauty. I have noticed the impact of colorism on children as well. While having conversations with my younger sister she has expressed how she feels that being lighter or even white is better. This saddens me because I wish she could see the beauty in her pigmented skin. There were times when she preferred to play with lighter Barbies or even made her character on games like Roblox have lighter skin. There are so many other examples of colorism in the world and especially in media but that would be too much to write. I would like to close off by saying that even though I have had these experienced and witnessed these things, I wouldn’t change my skin tone for all the money in the world. I wish other people would feel the same way too. All skin is good skin.
