Racism and Colorism: Why The Difference Matters
Racism kills more quickly, but is easier to fight
We sat in the doctor’s office, anxious. Our regular doctor was out of town. This was her back-up. And we were worried! Though my wife kept a brave face. My wife is tiny. Typical for her Mandaya (Philippine) tribe’s women. The twins, fathered by a stoutly built American of African descent, were seemingly taking the nutrients her body needed, causing her to lose weight. The office where we sat was small, dark, and crowded. We held each other’s hands not saying much, hoping that we would get a sense of Lina’s ability to carry our children to term, another two months.
The lady sitting next to my wife broke our silence, asking my wife, “Are you worried about having Black babies?” Now the woman asking the question, herself, was what I call light brown. In the States, by skin color alone, she would easily pass for African American. Hearing the question, my face contorted to a noticeable scowl. I could feel my wife’s grip tighten as if to say, calm down Wayne, I got this. “No, we don’t plan to raise them in the Philippines.” she said to the woman. “Yes, I don’t blame you,” the woman replied. “You’re lucky then, you can raise your children in the States.”
Quickly, their conversation became enlightening. The reality: skin color in the Philippines dictates status, relationships, income, employment and career opportunities, regard, and respect. Indeed, challenges my wife and I had already talked about. Many times!
Colorism
Colorism has been in existence for centuries. The continuum being from preference to pigmentocracy. I might say my preference is to date people of a certain skin color. Which is different from saying people should only marry people (produce children) within their socio-economic class. When skin color is a proxy identifier of status, those are pigmentocracies.
In 1944, Chilean anthropologist Alejandro Lipschutz introduced the term pigmentocracy to refer to the ethnic and color-based hierarchies of Latin America based on a color continuum with whites on top, indigenous and black people at the bottom and mestizos in the middle.
And this is what my wife knew was embedded in the woman’s question, which I did not pick up on. Mostly because I’ve spent a lifetime trying to change that which a racist society brings to our lives. People living in pigmentocracies, where colorism is a way of life, spend their lives trying to accept that which they cannot change.
“On my trip to Addis (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)…We both complemented a hairdresser with rich chocolate skin. She shook her head, chuckled and said, ‘I am not beautiful. I am too black,’” — @IwriteMywrongs in Vocal
Racism
Racism is a fairly new phenomenon in world history. In Stamped From The Beginning, by Ibram X. Kendi (2017) the origins of racism are traced to an artificial construct invented to support the enslavement, oppression and ownership of other people. Even though there’s no biological evidence for racism, it’s become a way of being in deed, thought, and regard.
Debilitating to people, communities and society, racism uses skin color as proxy triggers inciting bias, discrimination, and institutionalized/self-selective segregation, fear, self-loathing and red-lines. All these are monstrously stressful, as clear lines of disparity in socioeconomic status, crime and punishment, health care and mortality rates, legacy systems of wealth building, employment and educational opportunity, and more, are traced to race-based constructs.
Colorism and Racism: My Cheat Sheet
I’ve lived in, and traveled through, countries where pigmentocracies are dominant and others plagued by systemic racism. And to be clear, I’m not talking about their citizens’ regard for me. I’m talking about how they treated each other. Here’s my take on the differences.
“Evil others” vs. caste and class standards
Racism as a form of bias and discrimination is heightened by beliefs in white supremacy and in “evil others.” Post slavery legacy systems perpetuate white privilege while normalizing behaviors that create race based hierarchies. And those codified in law or practice are challengeable.
Colorism as a basis for pigmentocracies uses skin color to normalize caste and class standards that are designed to reinforce social status and sustain beliefs that determine the quality of people’s lives. They are ingrained generationally and exist without much challenge.
Fear and hatred vs. belief in the need for a privileged class
Racism’s strength tends to be fear and hatred. The white nationalist chant, “You will not replace us!” is an example.
Colorism is ground in legacy systems of hierarchical dominance and belief in the need for a priviledge class, White, to lead the masses.
Action/reaction vs. status quo
Racism is defined by action and/or reaction. Racist attitudes are generally not known until they are acted upon or manifested in policy or law.
Colorism permeates a society. The roles people play and the opportunities denied and afforded to each strata inform life paths according to skin tones. In general, the caste in which a person is born is generally the socio-economic class a person (and their descendants) stay.
Killing quickly vs. slowly
Racism kills, often quickly.
Colorism kills, often slowly.
Racism, colorism, and beauty standards
Racism easily dismisses color preferences as beauty standards. Thomas Jefferson and Senator Strom Thurmond are notable racists who fathered children by Black women.
Colorism determines one’s attractiveness. Traveling through the Philippines I saw on a busy street a sign looking for a “sexy” waitress. Asking my friend how this was possible, she said they are looking for a White girl.
Yes there’s overlap. And I’m sure others can talk about the differences they know or have seen. Or even argue that differences do not really exist. For me, however, one huge difference is that it’s easier to fight racism than swim upstream in a pigmentocracy. Perhaps I’m just used to fighting. And can’t swim.
Al Fin - A Brief Review of “The End of Race Politics: Arguments For A Color Blind Society”
Author and podcast host Coleman Hughes recently published, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America (Thesis, Feb 6, 2024). In it he writes,
“The more I have studied disparities in multicultural societies, the more I have found the language of “overrepresentation” and “underrepresentation” to be fundamentally misleading. These words assume that there is something normal or “to be expected” about seeing different ethnic groups represented at precisely their share of the total population in every domain, statistic, and occupation, when in fact nothing is more normal than for different subcultures to specialize in particular sectors and occupations and experience very different group-wide statistics as a result.”
In the Philippines I’ve yet to board a flight with a dark skin Filipino serving as a flight attendant. Or seen a doctor, nurse, or technician who was not white or extremely light brown. According to Mr. Hughes, if I was color blind, I would not care. In other words, if I only see qualified workers, regardless of skin color, then the absence of the country’s sub-cultures in any particular profession, or worse being relegated to a few jobs, would cause my consciousness and belief that diversity, equity and inclusion are essential to multicultural societies to go away.
Seems like burying my head in the sand to me. Because knowing people of full Filipino descent — whose skin tends to be tan or dark brown, their hair thicker and their noses flatter, their tribes being Mandaya, Aeta, Badjao, Illongo and others — are typically only seen begging, in the fields, driving taxis. or finding their daily needs in the land, makes me believe that maintaining the pigmentocracy is the reason the Philippines has the most persistent poverty in South-East Asia.
Raising our children in a pigmentocracy was the reason for the concern expressed by the woman in the waiting room talking to my pregnant wife. Where race politics are concerned, the question must be asked: if I don’t see the trees as being different, how can I survive and thrive in the forest?
For more stories about what’s wrong with the world, and how to make it right, follow Fourth Wave. Have you got a story or poem that focuses on women or other disempowered groups? Submit to the Wave!
