My name is Olivia Laughlin and I study communication and media, and am particularly interested in social justice issues. I am indeed white so I cannot speak about issues of racism from experience but I do speak from a place of concern and obligation to use my privilege to take action. This website is a place to discuss colorism targeting black women, specifically in the spheres of hip hop culture, female rap culture, as well as beauty culture on Instagram. Colorism is a form of racism that values lighter skin tones over darker ones and grants light skin black people some privileges dark skin black people do not experience. Alice Walker is most often credited for first using this word colorism. In her 1983 book titled In Search of Our Mother's Gardens , there is an essay where Walker defined colorism as “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their color.” Colorism is not even officially recognized as a real word yet, but it is a real issue that infects our society and plagues black people. The intersection of race and gender burden black women with eurocentric beauty standards. Colorism is experienced differently through black men and women. Hip hop glamorizes light skin black women while mostly excluding dark skin black women. In addition to hip hop's promotion of lighter skin women, Instagram's beauty culture values light skin black women in an almost fetishizing way. The racially ambiguous light skin black woman is prioritized as the image of black beauty while dark skin is demonized. This is not to disregard the racism all black people experience regardless of their skin tone. It is very important to acknowledge that colorism is a stem of racism and light-skin black privilege is very different from white-skin privilege. I will delve into these topics in more detail throughout my website. My mission is to raise awareness and consciousness about this issue and start a discussion on how to dissemble white supremacy. No one is exempt from the negative impact of colorism because it plagues every society and reinforces hatefulness. As Martin Luther King said, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and that's why colorism is everyone's business to proactively combat. It is black voices that need to be prioritized but it is white ears that need to listen. I hope I can be a gateway between the two.

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