Colorism and its impact on anti-Black racism in Asia.

It’s the end of the summer, and as often at the end of a summer, my skin is a dark, golden brown. As a child growing up in sunny Arizona, I cherish my memories of playing outside, swimming in neighborhood pools, and hiking in the hot sun. I love my brown color and think nothing of the shades it turns based on the seasons of the year. But this year, similar to the many years I would return as a child to my mother’s native Taiwan, I field many questions about my skin color.

“Are you mixed?”

“You don’t look like you are from here”

“Your skin is so dark.”

And my favorite…

“You look like a Black person.” (Ni kan qi lai shi hei ren).

There are some very veiled and not so veiled biases in these comments and brings up the centuries-old ideallogy in Asia that lighter skin is better than darker skin.

At its root, colorism, and the resulting discrimination and bias that is a result of colorism has its roots in classism in Asia. Unlike the racist ideology that was a direct result of the rationalism of slavery by Western European countries of Portugal, Spain, Great Britain (Kendi, 2016), colorism in Asia came from the idea that lower-wage workers had to work in the fields and had darker skin as a result. Lighter-skinned people were able to stay out of the sun. “Having white skin isn’t only about being Western. In Asia, there is a deeply rooted cultural notion that associates dark skin with poverty and working in the fields, whereas pale skin reflects a more comfortable life out of the sun and, therefore, a higher socioeconomic status.” from SCMP.

This line-of-reasoning, when taken even further, results in anti-black racism. In many countries in Asia, the population is very homogenous, resulting in the perpetuation of this stereotype and the further objectification of people with darker skin; indigenous communities, South East Asians, and people of African descent.

These cultural beliefs are deeply ingrained in the minds of many Asian communities. It is difficult to discuss this idea because it is easy to dismiss it as “cultural”. We just don’t like dark skin because the sun can cause skin cancer. We just don’t like dark skin because we don’t want to get sun damage.

There is a difference between wanting healthy skin and colorism. Having healthy skin is something that folks of all colors…