Skin color

In the comments section is a link to an article about a school in Prescott, Arizona; the school has a mural on one of its outside walls and the principal asked the artists of the mural to lighten the skin color of the children in it.

Sadly, this did not surprise me. Racism may not be like it was 40 years ago, but racism and interracial relations are so tightly woven into our lives that we don't even recognize it most of the time. But you have to go beneath the surface and keep digging, to see that we still hold expectations and stereotypes regarding groups different from us, and actually, pretty racist values. Skin color is one.

I think that of the two genders, women are the underdogs in most cultures. But feminism cannot be examined without the issue of race. As such some of the biggest and recent scholars in the psychology literature actually stress the importance of examining the intersectionality of race and gender, not gender alone. Women certainly are expected to maintain a certain physical look, bodily ideal, in all cultures, much more than men. In addition, women in non-Western cultures have to deal with being expected to have light-colored skin. It's desirable of the men as well, but for some reason, men feel they are entitled to trophy wives no matter how out of shape they themselves are. And a woman who has a man who "will take her" has a lot to be thankful for. George on Seinfeld is a completely annoying jerk at times, but unfortunately his behavior isn't far out there. There probably are many bald men for whom it's important to have women with "thick lustrous hair."

But where did this value for light skin come from? Part of it might have to do with that dark skin implies lower status from having to work in the fields. Part of it might have to do with light skin being equated with power, given the spread of the British empire. When I was in Ghana we noticed that the people on the billboards had lighter skin, and someone had told us that darker-skinned Ghanaians didn't make it in their mainstream media. Many Asian Indians avoid fun activities like hiking because they don't want a tan darkening their skin. I'm not kidding.

So racism is embedded so deeply that we consciously think we're not racist when in a way, we all are. Even someone like me, an ethnic minority in the U.S. Let me explain. Back in college a friend of mine recommended that I buy a foundation that to me, appeared to be too dark and not match my skin tone (and another friend agreed with me about that later). I was offended. Lately I've been asking myself why. I think there are many layers as to why. One, I felt misunderstood and not acknowledged by someone who was supposedly a friend; she assumed I had dark skin just cuz I'm from India without really noticing that my skin is not that dark and that I just tan easily in the summer. Another layer beneath that is that I was hurt that she didn't trust that I knew my own skin tone. And perhaps the deepest layer is that I secretly liked being "the fair skinned one" in my family and didn't like being considered as having dark skin. And being from an orthodox Hindu family where dating is a no-no and marriages are arranged by looks, you can see how I'd been conditioned to value my lighter skin.

Yes it's messed up, but there it is. And it would certainly be the pot calling the kettle black if an American said that that aspect of the Indian culture is messed up, because look at what happened in Prescott. Or having mostly skinny, light-skinned, women do make-up commericals. Or having make-up commercials period. Or almost all sitcoms having all white folks. And all of them look similar with similar clothes and similar haircuts. I mean, you could probably switch out Jennifer Aniston with Christina Applegate and not notice a difference. And we celebrate diversity how?

And many Whites might say, "I don't judge by skin color. I actually look forward to getting a tan in the summer." Well they haven't scratched below the surface and really examined their feelings on the issue. Further, they have the option to darken their skin whereas Blacks can't lighten theirs. And more options means more power. It's easy for someone at the top of the ladder to look down and say "I wouldn't mind being down there as a break every now and then." As such it would be very condescending of me if I wasn't honest and didn't acknowledge that I am a "model minority" and have more opportunities, and more positive assumptions made about me, compared to other minorities just because of my background. To put it yet another way, those who are privileged have been so for so long that the fact that they are privileged is not at the forefront of their minds. And having white skin has shown to have much privilege in many cultures. Thus, we often operate in a racist way without realizing that we are.

I think if we really face how racist we can be, then it won't be such a monster for us, leading us to cultivate relationships with those different from us even more strongly. There's nothing wrong with having generalizations. For the most part they're true. But what's important is that we don't stereotype an individual based on that generalization. After all, within-group variation is greater than between-group variation. For example, it's a safe generalization to make that most Asian Indians have arranged marriages. Just don't assume that I want to have one. Someone asking me, "Is it true for you?" is much more with the spirit of getting to know me versus, "So, will you be going to India to marry someone?" The latter is more presumptuous, and we all know what it feels like when people assume things about us. (And as a side note on the within-group variation thing, biology is a very tiny tiny part of ethnicity. I get mistaken for being Latina or Italian American all the time. The idea of don't judge a book by its cover is probably even more poignant when it comes to humans.)

Racism is not something that is tangible and we have to be willing to really think about it to really understand how complicated the world can be. Being honest with myself on my view of my own skin color was hard, but I'm proud of the courage it took. Only with such courage can we *get it* and *get* others different from us.