The Color Complex (Revised): The Politics of Skin Color in a New Millennium

Color capital: Examining the racialized nature of beauty via colorism and skin bleaching

“…(2013) note “over 30% of half a billion females in India admit to using skin‐lightening products on a daily basis. As of 2010, the skin‐lightening market in India alone was estimated to be well over $432 million, with 80% of that market controlled by Hindustan Unilever, the India‐based division of the massive European Corporation, Unilever which make Fair & Lovely “fairness cream.” Al‐Ahram (the Arab's world's most influential news medium) blames the desire to be lighter on a color hierarchy imprinted in our psyches through centuries of White colonial supremacy” (Cole et al., 2013). Similar to the experiences of both Black and Indian women, the threat of dark skin is further problematized among Mexican women.…”

“…Scholars conclude that bleaching is denigrating and the commodity of lightness centralizes the legacies of white supremacy. Cole et al (2013) argues "a bleaching syndrome is the conscious and systematic process of self-denigration and aspiring to assimilation on the basis of alien ideals, resulting from colonial domination" (Cole et al, 2013). Scholars question if the desire for bleaching is grounded in pathology or mass media, but gives rise to the conceptualization that skin tone equates capital (Dixon & Telles, 2017).…”

“…Sociological examinations of race, skin bleaching and capital displays the legacy of colonialism and the global repercussions of identity erasure. Cole et al (2013) focuses on the modernity of identity erasure and its significance on an international scale.…”

Racial Integration and the Problem of Relational Devaluation

“…21 Now though I have claimed that African Americans have had some success in protecting themselves against stigmatization and phenotypic devaluation, I do not want to claim that they have been wholly successful in this regard. In particular, phenotypic devaluationas expressed in any context or media, not just interpersonal relations seems to have already had a great impact on them, influencing their judgements of physical attractiveness, especially for women, who are more likely to be judged on their physical appearance (see, e.g., Neal & Wilson, 1989;Parmer et al, 2004;Russell et al, 2013). As one team of researchers has bluntly stated, "females with lighter skin, long silky hair, and White European facial features are considered as the standard for physical attractiveness among African Americans" (Parmer et al, 2004, p. 234).…”

“…Cf. (Russell et al, 2013): "A program director at an urban clinic told us that she has witnessed teenage Black girls who intentionally got pregnant by a light-skinned boy in the hope that a lightskinned baby would bring them loveboth from their mothers as well as their babies" (p. 140).…”