oneintheblack

thisiswhitehistory:

Day 12 of White History Month: The Imposition of Colorism and Colonial Beauty Standards on People of Color

This is a long post adapted from a longer essay which references a lot of studies so you might notice there’s no works cited, but if you really want it, send me an ask.

Related to racism and colonialism, colorism is the discrimination against darker skin and preference for lighter skin among people of color. Colorism was created by European colonial standards. It was engineered by white people and white people continue to harm people of color with colorism in the media, workplace, and in their own minds.

White people tend to be unaware of the nature of colorism because of the popularity of tanning. Within mainstream white American culture, tanning has become a trend, leading many white people to be ignorant of how prized fair skin is. A preference for tanned (white) skin among white people does not negate colorism. Tanned skin is a trend and is also tied to class and status (time for leisure) while in the past, tanned skin was linked to working outdoors. When white people are aware of colorism, they often try to portray it as a tragic phenomenon among people of color and not one that is the result of whiteness, racism, and colonialism.

Many people of color are also unaware of the true nature of colorism, as well; some believe it to simply be a harmless “feud” between lighter and darker skinned people of color. This is not the case. While many light-skinned and white passing people of color may feel a disconnect from their racial identity due to their skin color, this does not negate the privilege they have. Colorism is directly related to  colonialism, showing tangible effects on people of color. Communities of color are divided by skin color and given privilege based on their proximity to whiteness.

Historically

Racist colonial logic emerging from slavery associated Blackness with savagery and ugliness, as opposed to whiteness which was associated with civilization and beauty. From this logic emerged features associated with whiteness – light eyes, straight/long hair, narrow nose, and thin lips – being considered good, while features associated with Blackness – dark eyes, kinky/short hair, wider nose, and full lips – being considered bad. 

Historically, during slavery, light-skinned Black people were treated less violently by overseers, were more likely to be given household duties instead of more difficult work, had better living conditions, and had more possibilities for education and eventual manumission (Rockquemore and Brunsma). After slavery, lighter-skinned Black people had more opportunities for prestige and success. 

Hypodescent - the “one-drop” rule - meant that anyone with Black ancestry would be considered Black, no matter what their appearance was. Light-skinned Black people were encouraged to think highly of themselves and were literally “valued” at higher prices during slavery. Those classified as “Mulatto” were more likely to be freed; mixed Black people (classified using the antiquated term “mulatto”) made up 10-15% of the total Black population, but 37% of all free Black people. 

Freed Black people during slavery and those were well established after slavery tended to be light-skinned. Paper bag tests were used in Black communities to establish admission to social events, fraternities/sororities, and more, shutting out darker-skinned Black Americans from networking opportunities. Noting that lighter skinned Black people were more likely to successful, sociologist E.B. Reuter (1918) noted that even some “white blood” would “improve” Black people (rather than the obvious fact that lighter skinned Black people were treated better).

White colonizers created caste systems and categorizations deriving from this racist logic, and from it emerged the categories of quadroons, Mestizos, and Mullatoes. In the Southwest United States, Mexicans were more likely to receive United States citizenship if they had lighter skin or passed for white. Colonizers in Africa, the Americas, and Asia treated lighter skinned people with more “European” features better than those with medium or dark skin and indigenous features.

People often try to absolve white people of responsibility for colorism that existed in Asian societies before European colonial contact, but it was not racially-based. The concept of race itself is a European and Western construction. Lighter skin was a class marker just as in European societies - darker skin was linked to laboring in the sun rather than proximity to whiteness. Even when lighter skin color was preferred, indigenous hair and eye color and facial features were previously the standard of beauty.

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(via kipling)

fuckyeshuaxia:

the yellow river | 黄河

The Yellow River, so named because of the loess that colours the waters  of the lower river yellow, is one of the most important rivers in China. It has its origins in the Bayan Har Mountains of Qinghai in western China and empties into the Bohai Sea in Shandong, and is known to the Chinese as the (supposed) cradle of the Chinese civilisation, as the Wei River Valley is the location of the earliest Chinese civilisations that prospered. 

It made the soil of North China arid and fertile and farmable, leading to the development of the majority agriculture-based civilisation we have today, and allowed for the food production necessary to a quickly growing population.

Despite this, the Yellow River has a sorrowful history as well. Very prone to flooding (estimates put it as having flooded around 1,600 times in the 2,540 years before 1946), it is also known as “China’s Sorrow” (in conjuncture with “Mother River” and “China’s Pride”) and the “Scourge of the Sons of Han,” and has changed its course 35 times (9 times severely). In part because of the high erosiveness of soil of the Loess Plateau through which it flows, the river is also known for its high level of silt.

The Yellow River has influenced and become a very large part of Chinese culture and the national psyche, and is the subject of many poems and allusions and stories. For example, the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Zhihuan wrote,

白 日 依 山 尽，
黄 河 入 海 流。
欲 穷 千 里 目，
更 上 一 层 楼。

The provinces of Hebei (lit. “north of the river”) and Henan (lit. “south of the river”) are both in reference to their positions to the north and the south of the Yellow River. 

It was once believed that the Yellow River was a continuation of the Milky Way, which we called the 银河, or the Silver River. Legend goes that when the famous explorer Zhang Qian, who made the first extensive voyages outside of China, was commissioned to find the source of the Yellow River, he found instead a cowherd and a beautiful girl, who was spinning something. She made no reply when he asked her where he was, and instead presented him with her shuttle to give to an astrologer at court. The astrologer recognised it as the shuttle of the Weaving Girl, the deity who was separated from her lover by the Milky Way.

The modern river offers a far less romantic view, however, as the overfarming and the factories that spill their sewage and toxic waste in the river are quickly rendering the river unfit for agricultural or industrial use, and it’s likely that the deserts that have already started to reach across North China will spread into the region if measures are not taken. 

(via asiansnotstudying)

dyuslovethebeauties:

Vietnamese Costumes Through The Ages

(via inifty)

overseas-chinese-balloon:

tweed-eyes:

Chinese women’s costumes of different dynasties:

1. Han Dynasty

2. Dynasty Wei-Jin

3. Period of six dynasties

4. Sui dynasty

5. The Tang Dynasty

6. The era of the Five Dynasties

7. Song Dynasty

8. The Yuan Dynasty (Mongolian)

9. The Ming Dynasty

10. The Qing Dynasty (Manchu)

The last one isn’t from the Qing Dynasty, but the second-to-last is. The order seems a little mixed up since the last one should be first.

(via asiansnotstudying)

mydarkenedeyes:

Juxtaposing Vietnam’s incredible past and present.

Vietnamese photographer Khánh Hmoong combines visuals from two eras within one frame. By holding a superimposed photograph from the past over his chosen landscape, Hmoong merges two periods of time, juxtaposing their similarities and differences. Each photograph is meticulously aligned within its original destination, exposing the changes that have occurred in the area. The effects of time are visible through the environment’s shift in architecture, the people’s fashion choices, and the transformation in transportation - whether it be a modernization from horses to vehicles or simply from dated automotive models to modern design.  

Regardless of location, comparing the past and present through images is always a fascinating look at history and change. Hmoong’s series reveals so much about the history of Vietnam without words and actually makes the viewer want to learn more.

Via My Modern Met.

(via monkeyknifefight)

nevver:

Front pages

(via stfuconservatives)

(via obbligatos)