Native American Colorism: From Historical Manifestations to the Current Era

Abstract

Following conquest by European settlers Native Americans internalized Euro-American traditions and ideals. Salient among such ideals was the internalization of a bias as pertains to skin color defined as colorism. Colorism is a quasi-manifestation of racism carried out by victim-group populations. Subsequently, light skin was idealized and dark skin denigrated. Initially the idealization of light skin was dramatically displayed in the school setting. Internal confrontations between Cherokee tribal members were frequent. In the modern era, per confrontations such idealization is exacerbated by the complexity of tribal membership. Said complexity is acted out where those of Euro-American (light-skinned) mixed blood are more favored compared with those of African American (dark-skinned) mixed blood. The accountability of the Euro-American influenced relative to the aforementioned confrontations must be addressed in the quest for resolution.