两个 宾州州立大学阿宾顿分校 students explored Black women’s experiences of colorism for their 阿宾顿 College Undergraduate 研究 Activities (讴歌)项目. Colorism is skin color stratification that systemically privileges lighter skin given its perceived proximity to whiteness.
According to seniors Brianna Carroll and Falande Decaze, colorism offers lighter-skinned individuals greater access to resources and opportunities as well as social advantages. American slavery created a legacy of valuing Eurocentric features including lighter skin that is perceived to physically approximate whiteness. Colorism is particularly salient for Black women in the realm of beauty and attractiveness.
They drew on interviews with Black American women with diverse skin shades to understand how colorism shapes their body image and what social factors facilitate skin color satisfaction. They found that colorism shaped the types of messages Black women receive about their skin color that casted them as either undesirable or racially inauthentic. 适合肤色较深的女性, colorism engendered developing strategies to mitigate negative messages revolving around their skin color.
The pair concluded that for Black women the messages received are painful reminders that their appearance has historically been deemed unattractive. Thus, some darker skinned women contemplate ways to alter their skin to be more accepted by society. 然而, some women reject these ideals and values and instead discover self-acceptance over time and through exposure to positive reinforcement.
“We found that a lot of the self-acceptance had taken some resiliency on the part of these women to learn to love themselves because in society their skin color is not viewed as beautiful. They have to struggle through that internally to find beauty within themselves,” Carroll said.
“我认为谈论肤色歧视很重要. Even though there have been movements about being more accepting and celebrating 多样性, darker skinned women are still getting messages that lighter skin is more valued. 生活已经够艰难的了, 种族歧视是另一个难题, 无论是对内还是对外,”她说。.
“We found that a lot of the self-acceptance had taken some resiliency on the part of these women to learn to love themselves because in society their skin color is not viewed as beautiful."
——威尼斯人娱乐信誉平台分校大四学生布里安娜·卡罗尔
伊丽莎白·休斯, assistant professor of sociology and the faculty mentor on the project, had collected the data the students used as part of the research for her dissertation.
“我对31名黑人女性进行了深入采访. This was a chunk of a project that examined Black women’s body image mainly on body shape and size, 但在面试中，肤色是自然出现的,”她说。. “I saved the colorism data because I knew then that I wanted to further research it and collaborate with 本科研究 students. I thought it would be a great way to involve students who are interested in body image and colorism and gender and racial inequality.”
开始项目, Decaze immersed herself in reviewing the literature on body image and skin color stratification during the spring of 2020.
我的出发点是读了一些文章. 休斯 provided, and I would write summaries, and she would respond,”她说。.
The next step for Carroll and Decaze was coding the data this past fall.
“我们从Dr. 休斯, 我们分析了它，看看哪些主题突出, 那些女人在说些什么呀, 流行的是什么?, 他们的回答有什么共同之处. We found that body image s太d out and the process of self-acceptance,” Carroll said.
休斯 found that working with undergraduates on research is a great way to advance their qualitative skills.
“讴歌是一个很好的机会, 太, to develop research and potentially publish the results with the students as co-authors in a scholarly journal,”她说。.
关于讴歌
The mission of 阿宾顿 College Undergraduate 研究 Activities (讴歌) is to develop students who are critical thinkers and creative scholars by engagement in scientific experimentation, 探究性研究, and exploration of the arts through two- and three-semester research experiences within our community of teacher-scholars.
关于宾大阿宾顿
威尼斯人娱乐信誉平台分校提供了一个负担得起的, accessible and high-impact education resulting in the success of a diverse student body. It is committed to student success through innovative approaches to 21st-century public higher education within a world-class research university. 有近3个,500名学生, 宾州州立大学阿宾顿分校 is a residential campus that offers baccalaureate degrees in 23 majors, 本科研究, 施赖尔荣誉学院, NCAA三级田径和更多.
