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Layers of Blackness

Colourism in the African Diaspora

By Deborah Gabriel



(ayers of )lackness* +olourism in the African %iaspora

+opyright / by %eborah 0abriel

Originally published by Imani Media Ltd.

All rights reserved. 1o part of this book may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means without writtenpermission of the author.

)ritish (ibrary +ataloguing-in-#ublication %ata

A catalogue record for this book is available from the )ritish

(ibrary

I2)1 "/3--"44/-5-/



Table of Contents

Introduction ......................................................................................... 5

The Origins of Colourism................................................................ 4

Colourism in the USA .................................................................... 56

Skin Tone Hierarchies in Jamaica ............................................. 4

Racism and Colourism in the UK .............................................. 6/ Pigmentocracy in atin America ................................................ 44

Human !"olution and Skin Colour ........................................... 74

#hiteness and #hite Su$remacy ............................................... /6

%lackness and %lack Identity ...................................................... 34

Conclusion ........................................................................................ "4 Taking the &e'ate (or)ard....................................................... 56 References ....................................................................................... 54

%i'liogra$hy ................................................................................... 555



Introduction

2ome of us in America, the 8est Indies and Africa believe

that the nearer we approach the white man in colour the

greater our social standing and privilege and that we should

build up an 9aristocracy: based upon caste of colour and not

achievement in race. ;arcus 0arvey, 5"6.<

;arcus 0arvey’s observations in 5"6 are an apt description

of the topic of this book. )ut why write a book about colourism = a

term that is rarely used in public spheres and a topic that is e>ually

rarely discussed in private circles? As a $ournalist who writes pre-dominantly about issues that impact on the African %iaspora, I am

acutely aware that a lot of attention is devoted by community

leaders into addressing issues of racism that disadvantage the black

community and in fighting for social, economic and political

e>uality that is routinely denied to people of colour. )ut we never

stop to eamine the ine>ualities and pre$udices that eist within our

communities that are related to our skin colour, which generally

regards light skin more favourably than dark compleions. @aving

researched the sub$ect for a dissertation pro$ect, I found that there

was an abundance of information on the 2A and numerous

studies which prove that people with darker skin earn less and have

lower educational outcomes that light skinned persons. I was

curious to discover whether the same could be said of )ritain,

whether we too have reached the stage where blackness has become

so devalued that the shade of our skin literally controls our present



%eborah 0abriel

condition and future prospects. )ut aside from eamining other

regions in the African %iaspora, namely the +aribbean and (atin

America, I wanted to bring a historical and political perspective to

the story. I have written numerous articles about the legacies of

chattel enslavement and colonisation that mostly manifest them-

selves in terms of the institutional racism that people of African

descent eperience everywhere in the %iaspora and in the continued

economic eploitation of the African continent. +olourism fits intothat picture as a manifestation of the psychological damage caused

by centuries of enslavement which created social hierarchies based

on skin colour, that maintain an invisible presence in our psyches.

This book therefore aims to eamine the origins of colour-

ism, how it has evolved among people of African descent in the

2A, (atin America, Bamaica and )ritain and to eamine its presentimpact on the African %iaspora. At the nited 1ations 8orld

+onference Against Cacism in %urban, 2outh Africa, in 5, the

conference president, 1kosaana %lamini Duma, said in his closing

statement* E8e have agreed thatFthe systems of slavery and

colonialism had the degrading and debilitating impact on those who

are blackF’G @e went on to say that remedial action is necessary Etocorrect the legacy of slavery and colonialism and all other forms of

racism.’ This book takes the link between slavery and racism as a

starting point from which to eamine colourism as an internalised

form of racism.

The first chapter eamines the link between colourism, rac-

ism and white supremacy, negative associations of blackness in+hristian symbolism and in Bewish and ;uslim tets. It also looks at

historical eamples of colourism during pre-Huropean slavery on

the African continent. +hapter two eamines the beginnings of



Introduction

6

colourism in the 2A from the 5/th century, when enslaved

Africans were first shipped to irginia. It also eplores the way in

which social hierarchies among enslaved Africans established by

slave owners, persisted after emancipation and have continued to

eist right up to the present time. +hapter three eamines the same

scenario in the +aribbean island of Bamaica, where during slavery,

the racialised categorisation of individuals according to the degree

of whiteness in the skin, determined the social order. It also traceshow mulattos Jmied race personsK emerged as the elite class within

Bamaican society after emancipation and eplores the effect that the

denigration of blackness has had on the psyche of dark-skinned

Bamaicans. +hapter four eamines racism and colourism in the L

and looks at how scientific racism shaped the colonial discourse and

influenced the portrayal of people of African descent in popularculture, particularly during the ictorian era. It also eamines

official statistics to assess whether skin tone has an impact on the

educational and employment outcomes of African descendants in

the L and analyses the differences in the way that colourism

evolved in the L, compared with Bamaica and the 2A. +hapter

five eamines the pigmentocracy in (atin America and analyses themyth of raceless societies and the reality of social, economic and

political eclusion on the basis of colour. +hapter si eamines the

human evolution of skin colour and provides both anthropological

and biological theories on the black origins of mankind. +hapter

seven analyses theories on whiteness and white supremacy and

looks at how they function simultaneously within contemporarysocieties to disadvantage non-white peoples. +hapter eight eamines

the meaning of blackness and its historical, spiritual and cultural

significance. The final chapter summarises the findings of this book.



%eborah 0abriel

M

As a dark-skinned black woman from the African %iaspora,

the issue of colourism is of immense importance to me on a per-

sonal level. I do not consider my eperience as an African woman

to be divorced from the eperiences of Africans on the continent or

elsewhere in the %iaspora, but inetricably linked. At the age of five

during the sities )lack #ride era, my eldest sister, who is some

years older than me, told me I was Eyoung, gifted and black’ and

should not let anyone convince me otherwise. That positive affirma-tion of my blackness has carried me throughout my life and served

as a shield of resistance against any negativity I encountered as a

result of my ebony hue. )ut I have not been oblivious to the many

manifestations of colourism I have witnessed, no matter how subtle,

here in the L, during the twenty months I lived and worked in

Bamaica as television producer and freelance writer, or during my$ournalistic travels to the African continent. )ut I am ever conscious

that colourism is part of the comple and inter-linked history of

African peoples. 8riting this book has re>uired the piecing together

of this $igsaw, to arrive at a broad perspective on how colourism

began, how it has evolved and the impact it has on the lives of the

African %iaspora today.



The Origins of Colourism

+olourism, shadism, skin tone bias, pigmentocracy and the

colour comple, are $ust a few of the terms used to describe the

system of privilege and discrimination based on the degree of

lightness in the colour of a person’s skin. )ut whatever label is used,

it remains a pernicious, internalised form of racism which involvespre$udice, stereotyping and perceptions of beauty among members

of the same racial group, whereby light skin is more highly valued

than dark skin. It is important to note that colourism, the term the

author of this work will use, does not eist and did not evolve

independently of the wider system of white supremacy and racism.

An apt description of the interdependence between the two is thatEwhite racism is the fundamental building block of colourism.’<

8hite supremacy is often associated with overt displays of racism

from certain groups such as neo-1ai etremists and the Lu Llu

LlanN but a more accurate definition is Ethe taken-for-granted

routine privileging of white interests that goes un-remarked in the

political mainstream,’ which is both Estructured in domination’ and

represents Ea form of tacit intentionality on the part of white power

holders and policy-makers.’G

8hite supremacy is the process of domination which in-

cludes structures, systems, decisions and policies imposed on people

of colour by white hegemonies. 8hite privilege occurs as a result of

white supremacy through a process which places a higher value on

white skin colour. )oth early Americans and Huropeans were

involved in the dehumanisation of African peoples by reducing

them to the status of chattel for the purpose of their enslavement



%eborah 0abriel

7

and economic eploitation. In doing so, this brought about a

profound change in human relations* Ethe white supremacist,

patriarchal, capitalist sub$ect representOedP the standard for human,

or the figure of a whole person, and everyone else OwasP a frag-

ment.’Q The chattel enslavement of Africans, commonly referred to

as the Transatlantic 2lave Trade is generally regarded as a defining

period in history, in terms of establishing the foundations of the

systematic and globalied domination of African peoples and theperpetuation of ideologies which claimed white superiority. In

describing an encounter between Africans and Huropeans in the

57th century, the historian Bordan, remarked that Huropeans were

struck by the colour of the African’s skinN and thereafter whenever a

traveller referred to Africans they always mentioned their colour.

@owever* E8ell before the encounter with Africans in the siteenthcentury, the Hnglish had already assigned a variety of negative

aesthetic and moral values to the word 9black.: To be black was to

be dirty, ugly, evil, deadly, devilish. To be white was to be clean,

beautiful, good, lively and godlyF’M

)lackness ac>uired negative connotations in the Huropean

psyche as early as the 6rd century, through the writings of the early+hristian &athers who depicted blackness as being synonymous with

sin. The theme of darkness was introduced as the antithesis of

spiritual light by Rrigen, head of the catechetical school in Alean-

dria. Initially the theme of darkness had nothing to do with skin

colour but over time became associated with racial representations.

Harly ;edieval paintings often depicted black devils as +hrist’stormentors during the #assion. Celigious folklore is littered with

negative connotations of blackness from stories of sin turning men

black, to stories of black people being born in hell, to tales of



The Rrigins of +olourism

/

Rrmad and Ahriman = +hildren of (ight and +hildren of %ark-

ness. According to 0reek legend, #haeton’s chariot drew the sun

too close to the earth, resulting in the blackening of the faces of the

Hthiopians. )iological differences between blacks and whites have

been used historically as a $ustification for imposing negative values

on people of colour which in turn are used to $ustify the sub$uga-

tion, oppression and economic domination of so-called inferior

races by white hegemonies. In the 7th century, the myth of thecurse of @am = son of 1oah, who is regarded as progenitor of the

black race, was created by Huropean rabbis and Talmudists. In the

+hristian version of the )ible in 0enesis "*-4, after the flood has

taken place 1oah falls into a drunken stupor in his tent, naked.

8hen one of his sons, @am, discovers him he tells his brothers who

bring a cloak and cover 1oah’s body, being careful not to look attheir father’s nakedness. 8hen 1oah discovers what @am did he

scolds him, saying E+ursed be +anaan, slave of slaves, shall he be to

his brothers.’ There is no mention of skin colour.4 )ut in the Bewish

version of 0enesis "* 4-/ in the )abylonian Talmud, 1oah says*

1ow I cannot beget the fourth son whose children I wouldhave ordered to serve you and your brothers. Therefore it

must be +anaan, your first born, whom they enslave. And

since you have disabled meFdoing ugly things in blackness

of night, +anaan’s children shall be born ugly and blackS 7

The Talmudic version also suggests that African facial fea-tures are a curse from 1oah, along with oversied seual organs*



%eborah 0abriel

3

Fbecause you twisted your head around to see my naked-

ness, your grandchildren’s hair shall be twisted into kinks and

their eyes redN again because your lips $ested at my misfortune,

theirs shall swellFtheir male members shall be shamefully

elongatedS ;en of this race are called 1egrosF/

%uring the ;iddle Ages the Huropean representation of the

world depicted the three sons of 1oah as progenitors of theHuropean, African and Asian continents. In 54"6, the production of

Iconologia, a book of emblems by +esare Cipa, portrayed Hurope as

a ueen with a crown and golden rod, Asia as a woman adorned

with gold $ewellery carrying spices and incense and Africa as an

almost naked woman carrying an elephant’s trunk. In the 57th

century after Huropeans Ediscovered’ America, it was added as thefourth continent. Harly biblical writings made in the nd century

)+H and Mth century )+H that make reference to 2hem, @am and

Bapeth depict no links to the continents of Africa, Asia and Hurope

= because they did not eist at that point in time. This racial and

geographical connection was invented by &lavius Bosephus, a

@ellenied Bew towards the end of the first century of the +hristianera. The construction of Huropean representations of the world

placed Hurope at the centre of the universe and other continents

and races as subordinates. The Bewish version of the curse of @am

became popular among +hristians in the 57th century, around the

time that Huropeans began their invasion of the African continent

and the chattel enslavement of African peoples, serving as a conven-ient eplanation and $ustification for their actions.

According to Cudolph 8indsor in his study of the history

of ancient black races, in ancient times blacks did not classify races




"

according to skin colour. Instead, national or clan names were the

means by which individuals were identified. It is important at this

point to note that even though Huropeans are most associated with

structural and systemied forms of racial domination in the 5st

century, some scholars have highlighted the fact that colourism

occurred in Africa well before the invasion of the Huropeans. %r

+hancellor 8illiams alludes to colourism and its role in the ethnic

transformation of Hgypt, which once formed the north-easternregion of ancient Hthiopia. As a result of relentless con>uests,

Asians came to occupy a >uarter of Hgypt in the 6rd millennium

).+. The intermiing between Africans and Asians produced a new

mied class, but in the new imposed social order, black Africans, the

darkest Hgyptians were Epushed to the bottom of the social, eco-

nomic and political ladder wherever the Asians and their mulattooffspring gained control.’3 8hilst the sons took the identity of their

Asian fathers and were born free, their black African mothers

remained enslaved. E2ince the first to be called Hgyptians eclusively

were half-African and half-Asian, their general hostility to their

mothers’ race was a social phenomenon that should not be passed

over lightlyF’" It becomes clear when looking at these eamples ofcolourism prior to the chattel enslavement of Africans by Hurope-

ans, that eternal forces were largely responsible for its introduction.

It is only following the inter-miing of Asians with Africans, that

colour and race entered the dynamics of human relations. The

ideology of blackness being synonymous with evil is carried in

certain scriptures in The ur’an*

Rn the day when some faces will be whitened and some

faces will be blackened, say to those whose faces will be blackened*



%eborah 0abriel

5

%id ye re$ect faith after accepting it? Taste then the penalty for

re$ecting faith. )ut those whose faces will be whitened, they will be

in 0od's mercy* therein to dwell.5

Cacist attitudes in Islam used to $ustify the enslavement of

Africans including those who had converted to Islam, prompted the

5"th century ;oroccan historian, Ahmad ibn Lhalid al-1asiri to

write a strong denunciation of this practice*

#eople have become so inured OsoP that generation after gen-

eration, that many common folk believe that the reason for

being enslaved according to the @oly (aw is merely that a

man should be black in colourFThis, by 0od’s life, is one of

the foulest and gravest evils perpetrated upon 0od’s reli-gionF 55

#rior to the advent of Huropean chattel enslavement, much

of Africa had already been devastated and destabilised by Arab

enslavement. Huropeans often claim that Africans were already

Eselling themselves’ before their arrival, obscuring the crucial factthat many of the Africans in >uestion were arabied. ;ied race

African slave trader Tippu Tip, who was conceived through the rape

of his black African mother by an Arab slave raider, grew up to be

one of the most successful and well known slave traders who was

relentless in his pursuit of Africans to kidnap and enslave. )ut the

fact that Tippu Tip was not only ;uslim but a mulatto, whoidentified with his Arab father, rather than his African mother, is of

some significance. As a result of hundreds of years of contact with

foreigners from Hurope, Asia and 1orth Africa, Africans were, as




55

today, not one shade of black but comprised various gradients from

dark to light. As Islam swept across the Hastern and 8estern

regions of Africa, villages came under military control and economic

domination and the inter-miing of ;uslim traders with indigenous

Africans produced a lighter-skinned group that formed both the

elite of African society as well as the slave trading class. It is there-

fore not a coincidence that the ma$ority of Africans who were

enslaved were the darkest black Africans, a fact that is evidenced bythe maps of early Huropean eplorers, which show that the 8estern

and +entral African regions were seen as the domain of 1egros,

which Huropeans saw as distinct from the Arabied 1orth African

region. Tippu Tip was well established as a slave merchant by the

537s, operating to the west of (ake Tanganyika, in the region

formerly known as Daire Jmodern %C +ongoK. A study of Tippu Tipp’s followers in the ;anyema region of eastern Daire found that

the impact of Islamic slave trading by this distinct class had a

profound impact on the social order. The rapid growth of the

Islamic slave trade re>uired more manpower to transfer slaves to

Danibar and the coast. 8hat developed was a new class called the

8aungwama, some of whom were occasionally slaves. Arabs usedto induct them into the most basic tenets of the Islamic faith,

teaching them to repeat certain words and phrases. This set them

apart from indigenous Africans and was a tactic to divide the

8aungwama from the rest of the African population. Uoung

adolescent males were readily enlisted because they were easy to

indoctrinate into the ways of Islam and easy to manipulate. Theredeveloped a three tier social system which comprised Arabs and

their indoctrinated followers, slaves and indigenous Africans. The

8aungwama were encouraged to discard their traditional African



%eborah 0abriel

5

culture in terms of clothing, diet and behaviour and to adopt the

Islamic way of life. As the author of the study observes* E#erhaps

even more important at least in terms of the new social system, was

the turning of these 8aungwama against their own kinsmen, The

8aungwama seemed to treat most harshly those peoples whom

they left to follow the Arabs.’5 The significance of these early

eamples of skin tone hierarchies in Africa is often overlooked in

discussions on colourism. @owever, they are important in terms ofunderstanding the role that colourism played in the involvement of

Africans in Huropean chattel enslavement which resulted in the

forced removal of millions of Africans to the 1ew 8orld.



Colourism in the USA

I have a foolproof method for controlling your black

slavesFit will control the slaves for at least 6 yearsFI take

these differences and make them biggerFyou must use the

dark skin slaves vs. the light skin slaves and the light skin

slaves vs. the dark skin slaves. 8illiam (ynch 5/5<

The above etract was taken from a speech by 8illiam

(ynch, a white slave owner, on the bank of the Bames Civer in 5/5

and although in recent times its authenticity has been hotly contest-

ed, whether or not 8illiam (ynch actually eisted, the fact remains

that among the white plantation owners and colonial administrators,there was a deliberate strategy employed of using skin tone to divide

and control enslaved Africans. The origins of colourism in the 2A

can be traced back to 57/ when the first Hnglish colony was

established in Bamestown, irginia. In 575", the %utch brought the

first shipment of Africans to +hesapeake )ay from 2anto %omingo

where they had been enslaved on sugar plantations. 2ome of them

spoke Hnglish and had even converted to +hristianity which gave

them the right to freedom after serving a specified term as a slave.

Cace miing between whites, Africans and 1ative Americans was

widespread during this period, which resulted in Ea kaleidoscope of

skin tones and features.’G In 577", the 2tate of irginia ruled that

any non-+hristian servant arriving by ship would be enslaved for life

and by 5/ slavery was well established. The fate of Africans was

further sealed in 5/4 when the irginia 0eneral Assembly ruled

that all 1egros, mulattos and Indian slaves were to be classed as



%eborah 0abriel

5M

property, Ein the same category as livestock and household furniture,

wagons and goods.’Q

)ecause of earlier race-miing before slavery became firmly

established, many mulattos born to free coloured parents lived as

free individuals, as did those who were born to white mothers. )ut

they were mostly treated as social pariahs. The 2tate of irginia,

determined to keep the races apart, introduced the Eone drop rule’ in

5/4, which declared any person with the slightest trace of Africanancestry to be black. In irginia and ;aryland this rule was firmly

adhered to, but in the %eep 2outh, including 2outh +arolina,

mulattos occupied the middle stratum of society, with some of them

even passing for white. +olourism also manifested itself in the

division of slave labour, with mulattos being assigned domestic

work, whilst dark-skinned slaves toiled in the fields. 2kin colour wasused as a mechanism to divide enslaved Africans, thereby minimis-

ing the likelihood of slave rebellions. As long as there was disunity

and suspicion among the slaves the environment was safer for the

whites, who were vastly outnumbered by the blacks.

If slavery proved divisive among black Americans, then post

slavery, colourism served to intensify those divisions. )efore the American +ivil 8ar, slave masters occasionally paid for their

mulatto offspring to have an education and sometimes even assisted

in their escape from slavery. 2ome sent their children overseas to be

educated in Hurope, who, upon their return to the 2A took up

positions as lawyers, doctors and teachers. After the +ivil 8ar, the

number of emancipated blacks increased, as those who had servedon the side of the )ritish became free upon their surrender, whilst

other slaves escaped during the war. A small minority were also

freed by their masters when the 2A declared its independence



+olourism in the 2A

54

from Hngland. 8ith the huge increase in the number of free, dark-

skinned blacks, the mulattos moved swiftly to distance themselves

from the newly freed and darker black population. 0radually, free

dark-skinned blacks were ecluded from every realm of society by

light-skinned mulattos, who were keen to retain their position in

society - below whites, but above dark skinned members of the

black population. %uring this time, many preparatory schools,

colleges, business networks, churches and other institutions earnedthe nickname Eblue vein,’ denoting that only an individual who was

light enough for their veins to show through their skin were admit-

ted. #aper bag tests were also used as a mechanism for ecluding

anyone whose skin was darker. In the early 5"th century, de facto

segregation was in eistence in 8ashington %.+ among the black

population, including places of worship. The 2t. Thomas +hurchearned a reputation for colour elitism because the vast ma$ority of

its worshippers were mulattos. The 1ineteenth 2treet )aptist

+hurch was thought to eclude dark-skinned blacks by introducing

a Ecomb test’ at the entrance to the church. Those whose hair was

considered to be too Enappy’ Jkinky or friy, as is usually the case

with natural, African hairK were refused entry. ;ulatto ownedbarber shops in 8est 8ashington refused to shave or cut the hair

of dark-skinned men, catering only for light-skinned black men and

whites.

In the mid 5"s, %unbar @igh 2chool was considered to

be the best high school for black students and as such attracted

children from black middle class families in 8ashington. 2everalformer students of %unbar suggested that dark-skinned students

had to be etremely intelligent to be accepted at the school, whereas

light-skinned students with average grades were readily admitted. At



%eborah 0abriel

57

@oward niversity, light-skinned administrators were often believed

to give preferential treatment Eto those who resembled themselves.’M

@oward niversity was not the only higher education institution to

eclude dark-skinned blacks. )iased admission policies in favour of

light-skinned blacks were also practiced at many other universities

including &isk niversity in 1ashville, Atlanta niversity in 0eorgia

and 8ilberforce niversity in Rhio. %ark-skinned students were

largely directed towards vocational education and industrial trainingand many of them ended up at the Tuskegee Institute of Alabama,

established by )ooker T 8ashington in 5335. )y the turn of the

century, the mulatto class had clearly emerged as leaders of the

black community. In 5"6, 8H) %ubois made his famous call for

Ethe talented tenth,’ advocating for an elite class of 1egros = 5 per

cent of the black population, to lead and uplift the black masses. @ecompiled a list of 5 persons whom he considered worthy of the

task, of whom were mulattos. @is idea was published in the

second chapter of a book by African American scholars called The

1egro #roblem. Around this time, Bamaican born ;arcus 0arvey

was fast becoming Ethe apostle of pure blackness,’ as he called for

black pride among African Americans. 0arvey criticised %ubois,suggesting he was trying to be Eeverything else but a 1egro,’ to

which %ubois retaliated by calling 0arvey Efat, black and ugly.’4 )y

the 5"4s, the domination of the black middle class by mulattos was

beginning to decline. @owever, studies conducted in the 5"7s

showed that skin tone still influenced educational outcomes,

employability and social status. A 7 study conducted at the @arvard (aw 2chool, which

eamined national data compiled in the late 5""s, found that whilst

lighter skin among black Americans does appear to influence



+olourism in the 2A

5/

educational outcomes, it has a lesser impact on wages. It seems that

the perception of preferential outcomes for light-skinned African

Americans is more pronounced than the reality. 8omen with fair

skin average 5./ years more education than dark-skinned women,

while for men the differential is 5.6 years greater for those with light

skin. In the labour market, women with very dark skin are especially

disadvantaged, with the employment rate being 54- per cent lower

than that of light- skinned women. )ut there is limited evidence thatskin tone affects wages - in fact women with a medium skin tone

had the lowest average wage. Rne of the ways in which skin tone

can influence economic outcomes is through access to mainstream

educational and work environments. The study showed that women

with lighter skin were less likely to attend all-black schools whilst

light-skinned men are less likely to work for a predominantly blackorganisation. Bobs within mainstream organisations tend to pay

higher wages, whilst predominantly black businesses pay less. 8hilst

studies show that there is a link between skin tone and socio-

economic status, it is not easy to determine whether this is due to

the historical advantage that lighter-skinned individuals gain through

being born into the wealthier and highly-educated mulatto class, or whether it is through the daily eperiences of discrimination and

disadvantage that dark-skinned blacks eperience. #arents of

African American children are often more caring and supportive

towards light-skinned offspring than they are towards children with

dark skin. ;arita 0olden, a professional dark-skinned black Ameri-

can, wrote a book about her eperience of colourism. @er accountof her childhood provides a perfect eample of how negative

associations with dark skin are perpetuated through the generations,

in her description of how EFfor my mother, darkness, blackness, in



%eborah 0abriel

53

its own way was a kind of diseaseF’/ 0olden’s mother made her

feel inade>uate and unattractive because of her dark skin, even

suggesting that she should marry a light-skinned husband for the

sake of her children.

+hildren who suffer from negative racial eperiences

through parenting as a conse>uence of their skin tone can develop

psychological problems and low self-esteem, it has been suggested.

EA child who grows up feeling hopeless, helpless and unlovablemight later become a parent who feels hopeless, helpless and

unlovable, thus perpetuating a discouraging cycle.’3 In Thurman’s

classic novel on colourism* The )lacker the )erry, Hmma (ou, the

main character who was socialised by her mother to have negative

feelings about her own dark skin as well as dark-skinned people

generallyN realises during her teens, that she had internalised thesecolour and class-based discriminations which had influenced her

own pre$udiced behaviour towards people of her compleion* EIt

was clear to her at last that she had eercised the same discrimina-

tion against her men and the people she wished for friends that they

had eercised against her...’"

;addo and 0ray carried out research to eamine the rolethat skin tone plays in the perception and representation of Africans

Americans. They found that both blacks and whites perceived a

cultural distinction between light and dark skinned blacks. In both

groups, negative stereotypes of blacks were associated with those

with dark skin, including aggressiveness, lack of intelligence, and

lack of education. %ark skin was also associated with poverty andunattractiveness. These perceptions may be a conse>uence of

representations of darker-skinned black men and women in the

popular media, where men are portrayed as gangsters and criminals



+olourism in the 2A

5"

and women as welfare-dependent mothers &urthermore, these

stereotypes may eplain why many employers believe that dark-

skinned African American men are Eviolent, uncooperative, dishon-

est and unstable’ and are therefore less likely to employ them.5

+olourism has more pronounced effects on the self-esteem of dark-

skinned black women than it has on dark-skinned men. +ombined

with racism and seism, colourism functions as Ea triple threat that

lowers self-esteem and feelings of competence among dark black women.’55 8omen are socialised to be more concerned with their

appearance and are more likely to feel that being $udged attractive is

important. @owever, dark-skinned black women with high incomes

who are successful have e>ually high levels of self-esteem as light-

skinned women. 2eism and racism work together to transform

beauty into a form of social capital. )ecause white skin is personi-fied as the beauty ideal, lighter skinned women are seen as more

beautiful than darker skinned women. )eauty functions as social

capital because it has an impact on the type of $ob a woman can

secure as well as the social and economic status of a marriage

partner. (ighter skinned women can get well-paying $obs and marry

wealthy husbands to a greater etent than dark-skinned women,because in general most men buy into the Huropean beauty stand-

ard. As @unter argues* E)ecause beauty is a racist construct, many

women of colour are not viewed as beautiful by mainstream society

and thus do not possess beauty as a form of capital.’5

%ark-skinned black women are further disadvantaged by the

fact that the Huropean or Anglicised standard of beauty which hasbecome a universal standard, privileges whiteness through the

degradation of blackness. This is because white beauty is not $udged

in isolation but in relation to blackness, over which it claims superi-



%eborah 0abriel

ority. 8hite beauty is therefore Ebased on the racist assumption of

black ugliness.’56 The mainstream media are particularly culpable in

perpetuating colourism by using predominantly light-skinned black

models that have Huropean facial features, but it is not only the

mainstream media who adopt this practice. )lack magaines are

e>ually at fault. Harly studies of American magaine Hbony, showed

that the black models that graced its pages were invariably light-

skinned. This trend was only halted temporarily during the seven-ties, following the )lack #ower ;ovement of the mid 5"7s and the

accompanying )lack is )eautiful, campaign. )ut by the eighties

Hbony had abandoned its use of dark-skinned models and returned

to using those with light skin. A 5""M study found that black people

portrayed in advertisements were less black than blacks found in

editorial photographs. The assumption being made was that blackpeople in editorial photographs represent reality = a more accurate

representation of the skin tones of African Americans. +learly, the

use of predominantly light-skinned models in advertising is a

distortion of reality. The light-skinned black women used in adver-

tisements in the vast ma$ority of cases were several shades lighter

than black males, confirming the view that black women suffermore than black men through colourism by being ecluded from

advertisements, sending the message that black is not beautiful in

women. 0olden argues that it is >uestionable as to whether a

Elegitimate’ black standard of beauty that is inspired by white female

beauty can be created. 2he claims that African Americans have been

socialised into accepting light skin and long, straight hair as thedefining standards of black beauty and as a conse>uence* EThe

Huropean standard of beauty reigns and rules the worldF’5M 8hite

beauty is big business and white beauty sells. 0lobalisation, multina-



+olourism in the 2A

5

tional media organisations and the new world economy help to

maintain 2 cultural imperialism by eporting images of white

beauty, white affluence and white success whilst at the same time

eporting negative images of black people as criminals or entertain-

ers. )ut because internalised racism is so firmly entrenched in the

consciousness of black people, they are often unaware that they

have a colour comple. This eplains why many black men claim

that in preferring the look of lighter-skinned women, it is simply a>uestion of individual taste.

Conald @all argues that skin bleaching among African

Americans is a response to cultural domination and is carried out as

a means of assimilating into American society. @e suggests that

African Americans have internalised the ideals of white dominated

American society and seek participation in the American %ream bybecoming whiter. As studies provide evidence that black Americans

with lighter skin earn more and are better educated, they feel that by

lightening their skin they can improve their future outcomes in this

respect. )ecause dark skin is e>uated with poverty, low class and

ugliness, African Americans develop an aversion towards dark skin,

replicating dominant cultural values. The aversion towards black-ness is also the outward manifestations of a Epsychic conflict’ which

occurs as a result of never being fully accepted into mainstream

American society, despite the adoption of the dominant cultural

values. That light skin is deemed to be the most attractive among

African American females is a clear sign of the impact of cultural

domination, @all asserts. As 8indsor observed in his study on theancient black races, skin colour was not the means of identification

among black peoples, but shared culture, language and traditions.

@all similarly argues that a preference for lighter skin as a symbol of



%eborah 0abriel

attractiveness is not endemic to Africans, but is a conse>uence of

cultural domination.

2chiller’s theory on cultural imperialism focused on global

power structures in the international communications industry and

the relationship between multinational corporations and dominant

western nations. @owever, cultural imperialism theories are primari-

ly centred on the dominating influence of western nations on

societies within developing countries, rather than the effect ofcultural domination on minority communities within western states.

1onetheless theories on cultural imperialism serve to demonstrate

the power and modus operandi of white hegemonies. 2chiller

himself argued that cultural imperialism was merely the evolution of

colonialism which transformed the source of eploitation and

adapted to a modern system of control. @e astutely contested thatthe colonial machine, far from being disabled is alive and well in a

new form. 1eo-colonialism functions in the modern world through

Eeconomic, political and cultural dependencies.’54 2reberny-

;ohammadi in tackling the issue of cultural imperialism argued that

developing countries suffered irreparable cultural damage as a

conse>uence of slavery and colonisation well in advance of globali-sation. 2he therefore eamined the cultural impact of imperialism

on former colonised nations in the developing world. 2he made an

interesting observation concerning the pervasive nature of +hristian

missionaries, who carried an eplicit cultural message, which was

the concept of Africa as a primitive and backward society which

needed to be Eredeemed’ and Ecivilised’ through the +hristian faith.)ut the most interesting aspect of her investigation was on black

American missionary activity in Africa, which she argues demon-

strates the degree to which imperialism impacts on an individual’s



+olourism in the 2A

6

social consciousness. 2reberny-;ohammadi argues that whilst black

churches in America functioned as centres of social, political and

community activity and places where resistance to racial discrimina-

tion was debated, planned and organisedN black Americans had

nonetheless internalised negative views about Africa and took these

values abroad on their own missions. Although they may have had

shared eperienced of racial discrimination and oppression, they did

not identify with their African counterparts and had little respect forindigenous African culture. They had been socialised into western

culture and therefore shared the imperialist view that Africans

needed to be brought under western paternal influence. 2reberny-

;ohammadi’s study provides evidence of the degree to which

African Americans had internalised the negative views of Africans

held by the American white hegemony in the th century. Theirideas about Africa and Africans had been so profoundly shaped by

the dominant white culture that black Americans were placing

themselves in the role of the white paternal imperialists and embark-

ing on their own Ecivilising’ missions to Africa. This goes some way

to eplaining why, as @all asserts, some African Americans are keen

to find a means of escape from their blackness and may resort toskin bleaching to achieve this* As &anon wrote* EThe colonised is

elevated above his $ungle status in proportion to his adoption of the

mother country’s cultural standards. @e becomes whiter as he

renounces his blackness, his $ungle.’57



Skin Tone ierarchies in !amaica

+olourism eists everywhere in the African %iaspora where

slavery or colonisation brought with it the imposition of western

ideology and white supremacy. )ut if the systems and structures

under which slavery operated can be $udged to have contributed to

colourism in the 2A, then this is e>ually true of the )ritish +arib-bean. Although )ritain established ten territories in the 8est Indies,

Bamaica was the largest. The first Hnglish settlers to arrive on the

island were part of +romwell’s epedition in 5744. In 5775, the

island was turned into a royal colony and by 577 the white popula-

tion stood at 6746. ;any immigrants came to Bamaica from Hng-

land and )arbados during this period and by 573 the whitepopulation had risen to around 5,. It is important to note that

the 2panish invaded Bamaica in 54" and totally decimated the

indigenous Arawak peoples before being defeated by the )ritish in

5744, after which they began to establish a network of sugar planta-

tions. 2lavery was considered to be of vital importance to the )ritish

Hmpire.

Indians were the first non-white peoples to be used as slaves

in the )ritish +aribbean. )etween 57M/ and 574 in )arbados,

slaves were imported from the mainland and other islands. The

)ritish fre>uently raided the ;os>uito +oast of +entral America,

seiing Indians from their settlements, until the practice was eventu-

ally outlawed in 5/M5, when an Act was passed declaring this illegal.

Bamaica had the largest demand for slaves out of all the )ritish

colonies. The labour of enslaved Africans in Bamaica accounted for

M per cent of sugar imported into )ritain. )etween 5744 and 533,



2kin Tone @ierarchies in Bamaica

/

were assigned domestic work, whilst dark-skinned slaves carried out

field work*

EFit was widely held that slaves of colour should not be em-

ployed in field labour and that they should be given prefer-

ence in the training of tradesman, 9the flower of the slave

population.: They were also given preference in the appoint-

ment of headmen, ecept that the 9drivers: of the field slaves were generally black. The resulting hierarchy of supervisory

roles and occupational statuses contained within it the ele-

ments of coercion and the incentives fundamental to the

maimisation of the slaves’ labour output.’G

;anumission did not occur on a fre>uent basis in the )rit-ish +aribbean, but when it did, was usually in favour of mulatto

concubines and mulatto children who were often provided with an

education. In the latter part of the 53th century, many white slave

owners left Bamaica for Hngland to live in luury off the wealth

created from enslaved Africans, as a result of high sugar prices. )ut

when the decline in revenue from the plantations occurred andplantation owners began to sink into debt, some of them left the

colonies. This movement off the island by the whites left a void in

the social hierarchy, which mulattos came to fill. ;any of them were

offspring of the plantation owners and their concubines and some

had been educated in Hurope. In the 53th century, individuals were

categorised by skin colour and degrees of whiteness, as black,mulatto, terceroon, >uadroon, mustee, musteefino and white. The

child of a white and a mustee, musteefino or >uadroon was regarded

as Hnglish and Elightness, valued as a promise of higher status,



%eborah 0abriel

3

became valued for itself, and status became e>uated with lightness.’Q

The same social hierarchy based on skin tone that characterised

Bamaican life during enslavement also operated during the emanci-

pation period. The protection of the offspring of whites was written

into the original colonial charters, which gave certain privileges to

mulattos, such as a higher social status than dark-skinned blacks.

+oncubinage in Bamaica was not only sanctioned but almost en-

couraged. The historian Hdward (ong, wrote in olume II of The@istory of Bamaica*

@e who should presume to shew any displeasure against such

a thing as simple fornication, would for his pains be account-

ed a simple blockheadN since not one in twenty can be per-

suaded, that there is either sinN or shame in cohabiting withhis slave.M

;any mulattos inherited property from their white ances-

tors, sometimes when there were no legitimate heirs to white

estates, as illegitimate heirs, they were granted an inheritance and

began to ac>uire great wealth. %uring a @ouse of +ommons debatein 53/, %r (ushington reported several wealthy individuals among

the mulatto population who had inherited estates worth !5,,

!54,, !, and !4,. ;ulattos entered the profes-

sions, trades and administrative $obs mostly in urban areas and

before apprenticeships began, made up the ma$ority of voters in

Lingston and three of the #arishes. After the decline of the planterclass, the roles of mulattos increased. ;any became educated,

ac>uired property in urban areas and inter-married. Bohn )igelow,

owner and editor of the 1ew Uork #ost reported after a visit to




"

Bamaica in 534 that both revenue officers and the ma$ority of

police officers were mulattos. Inter-marriage was a common feature

between whites and mulattos, whose families regularly moved in the

same social circles.

In the middle of the last century illiteracy rates for children

of seven years and older stood at "3.7 per cent for blacks, compared

with 33." per cent for mulattos, 3/.4 for +hinese, "/./ for Hast

Indians and 63.3 per cent for whites. A survey in 5"4 and 5"45into the compleion of professionals = doctors and lawyers, found

that a large portion was light skinned* Ewho by the attainment of

professional status have validated an elite identity.’4 It should be

noted that despite the distinctions made between dark-skinned

blacks and mulattos which had served to foster divisions between

the two groups, after the Abolition Act was passed in 53/, mulat-tos were not granted full citienship rights. (ike free dark skinned

blacks they were prohibited from giving evidence against a white

person, had to carry their manumission papers with them every-

where they went and were denied the right to vote. They petitioned

the Bamaica Assembly in 536 asking for the removal of restrictions

on their citienship rights, but the Bamaica Assembly refused. Threeyears later Bews were granted full rights, but mulattos continued to

be denied. After this point they $oined with the rest of the black

population to bolster their cause. This led to the partial emancipa-

tion of black Bamaicans in 5366 and full emancipation by 5363.

@owever, class distinctions based on skin colour have been

hard to eradicate. 8hen Bamaica gained independence from the)ritish Hmpire in 5"7, it merely represented the transfer of power

from the white colonial elite to the local black bourgeoisie, but

economic power remained with the local white settler class and a



%eborah 0abriel

6

large proportion of mulattos. As a result of this legacy, Bamaican

society is characterised by a Estruggle’ between Emiddle and upper

class, )ritish-educated Bamaicans who subscribe to the 9superiority:

of )ritish culture andFa people’s culture whose defiance of the

9super-culture: is epressed most artfully in the reggae music of

)ob ;arley, Bimmy +liff and %on %rummond.’7 ;arcus 0arvey

lamented in 5"57, that despite /3 years having passed since emanci-

pation, Bamaica had not managed to produce a credible black leader.In a letter he wrote that year to )ooker T 8ashington’s successor at

the Tuskegee Institute, 0arvey shared his concerns about the

widespread impact of colourism on Bamaican society*

The whites claim superiority, as is done all over the world,

and, unlike other parts, the coloured, who ancestrally are theillegitimate off-springs of black and white, claim a positive

superiority over the blacks. They train themselves to believe

that in the slightest shade the coloured man is above the black

man and so it runs right up to whiteF /

(ike Bohn )igelow 77 years earlier, 0arvey observed thatmulattos dominated the administrative and professional occupa-

tions. To 0arvey, blacks in Bamaica inherited a damaged psychology

as a result of being enslaved and colonised by whites, which resulted

in the self-negation of black identity and black interests*

8henever a black man enters the professions, he perforce, thinks from a white and coloured mindF 8henever

the black man gets money and education he thinks himself

white and coloured, and he wants a white and coloured wife,




65

and he will spend his all to get thisN much to his eternal mis-

ery.3

+ontemporary scholars have observed, like 0arvey, that one

of the most damaging legacies of slavery was its impact on the

psyche of Bamaican people. This is often manifested through a

condition called Ac>uired Anti-Rwn Cace 2yndrome JAARC2K,

which is defined as Ethe philosophy and psychology of assumedHuropean world cultural superiority epressed by African peoples in

their relations with each other and in perceiving and operating in the

world.’" It is characterised by self-denial and self-negation, factors

associated with colourism. In his article published in the African

#eoples Ceview, @utton, a lecturer in political philosophy and

culture at the niversity of the 8est Indies in ;onaN alludes to anovel by Alice 2pinner published in 5"3M called A 2tudy in +olour,

in which the characters were real people interviewed by the author.

Rne of these characters, Bustina, spoke of her desire for a light-

skinned child as opposed to a dark-skinned child, who she felt

would Ebring shame on her,’5 2he confessed that she could not

find it in her heart to love a dark-skinned child and revealed herambition to marry a light-skinned man to improve her social status.

)ut it is not $ust skin tone that colour-conscious Bamaicans are

obsessed with. ETeture and length of hair are linked to the racist

notion of femininity and feminine beauty.’55 AARC2 Jand by

association colourismK have a negative impact on Bamaican society

because of the disunity it fosters amongst black people*

The notion that anything tu blak noh gud Janything too

black is not goodK is often used to $ustify or to predict the failure of



%eborah 0abriel

6

any individual, group or indeed the entire race of Africans, or to

argue against uniting or working for common goals with people of

African descent.5

%erogatory insults like Eblak like sin’ and Eblak and ugly’ are

evidence that AARC2 pervades Ethe sub-consciousness of masses of

African people in Bamaica and manifests itself in attitudes that are

like second nature to them.’56 2kin bleaching is often cited as

evidence of the psychological damage caused by slavery and coloni-sation. +hildren are told by their mothers that white is superior to

black and that dark skin, along with natural hair, is bad. In a letter to

the Bamaica Rbserver in 5, a reader, a young black woman

wrote* EI realise why my friends used to spend so much time

bleachingF.fairer is better in our country, the guys say so, dancehall

OmusicP says so, beauty contests say so, my friends say soS’5M Themedia and popular culture play a part in reinforcing the notion that

light skin e>uates with beauty and superiority through the images

that they portray of success, which is most often of light skinned

persons.

%onna ;c&arlane, %irector and +urator of (iberty @all*

The (egacy of ;arcus 0arvey, suggests that skin bleaching ispopular, once again among men as well as women, particularly in

Bamaica's inner-city communities. 2he said* EIt’s not $ust that so

many of our children are bleaching but their mothers and their

fathers are bleaching. It is really widespread.’ 2he argues that the

preference for lighter skin in Bamaican society is a legacy of African

chattel enslavement, as demonising Africa Epermeated the whole ofthe education system for the M years that we were enslaved and

the 5 or so years after slavery that we were under colonial rule.’

2he ruefully admitted that during teaching sessions when she asks




66

children whether they are black or whether they are African very

few hands go up, but all hands go up when asked if they are brown

or if they are Bamaican. In ;c &arlane’s view*

The images of lighter skinned people seen on music videos

and on advertisement boards promote the message that lighter skin

is more beautiful and desirable to the opposite se, and a prere>ui-

site for access to the Vgood lifeV. #eople don't want to be white,

they $ust want to be light skinned as they perceive it as a means ofsocial and economic upliftment. It was not until the 5"7's that

dark-skinned Bamaicans were allowed to work in banks, government

offices, or in the front offices of private businesses. In spite of the

gains of the )lack #ower era, the mantra of I am )lack and I am

#roud has receded into the background only to be replaced, once

again, by bleaching creams. 54

A recent study by &erguson and +ramer eamined levels of

self-esteem among Bamaican children in rural and urban districts.

The authors note the similarities in the way that colourism manifests

itself in both black 1orth American and Bamaican societies. )oth

societies have, they argue Ea shared negative attitude toward darkskin and a culturally valued preference for whiteWfair skinF’57 The

study focused on Bamaican children of nursery and primary school

age Jbetween three and si years oldKN when awareness of race and

ethnicity is $ust beginning to develop. The study was carried out in

the #arish of 2t. Andrew, which in the urban area boasts highly

reputed schools, two universities Jthere are only three in BamaicaKand large upper and middle class communities. In stark contrast, the

eastern rural area of 2t. Andrew comprises a small farming commu-

nity, smaller schools and a greater proportion of dark-skinned



%eborah 0abriel

6M

people among the rural population. Cesearchers asked the sample of

children to describe their actual skin colour and to state their ideal

skin colour = that is, the colour they would prefer to be. The

findings revealed that children who self-identified as white had

higher levels of self-esteem than those who self-identified as black.

A clear link was established between social stigma related to dark

skin and self-esteem. @owever, overall, the rural Bamaican children

showed higher levels of self-esteem than the privileged urbanchildren. )ut light-skinned rural children had greater levels of self-

esteem than dark-skinned rural children. This finding has led the

authors to conclude that stigmatised children compare themselves

with other children in their own group Jrural communityK rather

than those outside the group Jin the urban communityK. The

findings confirm that a stigma against dark skin in Bamaica doeseist and impacts the self-esteem of young children, who show a

definite preference for lightWwhite skin. &erguson and +ramer argue

that the solution is not to encourage children to self-identify as

black, because this could be psychologically damaging for children

living in a society in which whiteness is the cultural ideal. Their

solution is therefore that EThe Bamaican society as a whole mustmove towards a black skin colour preference if it hopes to assist its

children in doing so.’5/ Rn M &ebruary /, former Bamaican

#rime ;inister Hdward 2eaga, writing in the Bamaica 0leaner about

the legacies of slavery, stated*

There is no greater sin of slavery than the systematic brain

washing that occurred for over 6 years that instilled a belief

in the second class character of the people of African de-




64

scentF.This distorted image received by people of African

descent continues to haunt their psyche until today as an en-

during sin of slavery.53



"acism and Colourism in the U#

The embryonic period of racism in the L can be attributed

to theories of scientific racism claiming the superiority of the white

race, which first emerged in the 53th century. +arl on (innaeus

was the first to divide the human family on the basis of skin colour

in 5/64. @e assigned moral and intellectual characteristics to the white, black, red and yellow races which were profoundly racist.

8hilst whites were said to be Egentle and governed by laws’ blacks

were classified as Ecunning lay, lustful and careless,’ amongst other

things. In 5//4, a 0erman anatomist, )lumenbach, published his

classification of races, which he divided into five groups* +aucasian,

;ongolian, Hthiopian, J1ativeK American and ;alayan. @e claimedthat the white race = whom he called +aucasian, was the original

and superior race, the others occurring through an evolutionary and

degenerative process. ;any of the ideologies that both underpinned

the construct of whiteness and denigrated blackness occurred

during the intellectual movement known as the Age of Hnlighten-

ment. 8ith its self-appointed declaration as the Age of Ceason, the

Hnlightenment demarcated clear boundaries between Huropeans as

possessors of intellect, morality and beauty and Africans as primi-

tive, backward and ugly. In doing so it created the concept of

Huropean racial superiority. &or eample, the #hilosopher %avid

@ume, in his 5/M3 essay entitled* Rf the #opulousness of Ancient

1ations wrote in a footnote*

I am apt to suspect the 1egros and in general all other spe-

cies of menFto be naturally inferior to the whites. There was never



%eborah 0abriel

63

a civilised nation of any other compleion than whiteF.There are

1egro slaves dispersed all over Hurope, of whom none ever discov-

ered any symptoms of ingenuity.<

Immnauel Lant, the 0erman philosopher strove to make a

correlation between whiteness and intellect and therefore attested

that blackness was the antithesis of reason. @e is credited with

saying* EThis fellow was >uite blackFa clear proof that what he said was stupid,’G The Hnlightenment was a close knit movement with

philosophers often using each other to back up their theories. In

5/7M, in an essay entitled* Rbservations on the &eeling of the

)eautiful and 2ublime, Lant claimed that Africans are incapable of

aesthetic and moral feeling which he referred to the beautiful and

sublime*

The 1egros of Africa have by nature no feeling that rises

above the trifling. ;r @ume challenges anyone to cite a single

eample in which a 1egro has shown talents and asserts that

among the hundreds of thousands of blacks who are trans-

ported elsewhere from other countries, although many ofthem have been set free, still not a single one was ever found

who presented anything great in art or science or any other

praiseworthy >uality.Q

The first encyclopaedia, called the Hncyclopaedie, created by

&rench philosophers published between 5/45 to 5/4 had this entryfor 1egre J1egroK* EIf one moves further away from the H>uator

towards the Antarctic, the black skin becomes lighter, but the

ugliness remains* one finds there this same wicked people that



Cacism and +olourism in the L

6"

inhabits the African ;eridian.’M (ittle had changed by 5/"3 when

the American edition of Hncyclopaedia )ritannica was released.

nder 1egro it stated*

ices the most notorious seem to be the portion of this un-

happy race* idleness, treachery, revenge, cruelty, impudence,

stealing, lying, profanity, debauchery, nastiness and intemper-

ance are said to have etinguished the principles of naturallaw and to have silenced the reproofs of conscience.4

@egel, another 0erman philosopher, like @ume and Lant

was a key proponent of Huropean racist dogma. @owever, he went

a step further than claiming Africans are intellectually and morally

inferior to Huropeans. @egel claimed that Africans are less thanhuman, because they are perpetually in a child-like state of con-

sciousness where they are unaware of their eistence as human

beings. This is an etract from (ectures on the #hilosophy of 8orld

@istory 53-3*

The characteristic feature of the 1egros is that their con-sciousness has not yet reached an awareness of any substantial

ob$ectivity = for eample, of 0od or the law = in which the will of

man could participate and in which he could become aware of his

own beingFAll our observations of African man show him as

living in a state of savagery and barbarism and he remains in this

state to the present dayFnothing consonant with humanity is to befound on his character.7

@egel went on to describe this Eprimitive’ condition as Ea

state of animaility.’/ These ideologies played a fundamental role in



%eborah 0abriel

M

shaping perceptions of people of African descent amongst the

educated classes and they continued through to the ictorian era,

shaping the discourse on slavery and colonialism. The denigration

of blackness was at its height during the ictorian era. Hven though

the Hmancipation Act was passed in 5366, EIn the )ritish mind he

was still mentally, morally and physically a slave.’3 &rom the 5/"s

to the 53Ms, ironically the most detrimental literature on Africans

which had a profound influence on Hnglish society came from theabolitionists. Their portrayals of Africans were often derogatory,

even if this was not the intention. Africans were often portrayed as

Esimple savages’ who need to be civilised." Thomas &owell )uton,

leader of the )ritish Anti-slavery ;ovement after 8illiam 8ilber-

force, initiated the 1iger Hpedition of 53M5 to spread commerce

and +hristianity throughout the continent. @e wrote in graphicdetail about ritual human practices of some nation groups as being

representative of the entire continent* E2uch atrocious deeds as have

been detailed in the foregoing pages, keep the African population in

a state of callous barbarity, which can only be effectually counter-

acted by +hristian civilisation’5. These ideas conveniently served as

moral $ustification for the colonisation of Africa by reinforcing thenotion of Africans as primitive pagans who could only be saved

through the civiliing missions of Huropeans.

The myth of the %ark +ontinent, a label which has survived

well into the 5st century, has its origins in the ictorian era.

arious eplorers wrote accounts of their epeditions to Africa,

which they portrayed as an ungodly place inhabited by savages andbarbarians, which became best sellers. These included %avid

(ivingstone’s ;issionary Travels J534/K, Boseph Thompson’s To the

+entral African (akes and )ack J5335K and @enry 2tanley’s In




M5

%arkest Africa. J53"K The myth was part of a wider discourse on

the role of the )ritish Hmpire Eshaped by political and economic

pressures and also by a psychology of blaming the victim through

which Huropeans pro$ected many of their own darkest impulses

onto Africans.’55

Rne of the most popular pastimes during the ictorian era

was the theatre, where before the arrival of the mass media and

universal education, functioned as the primary medium through which ideas were transmitted. The earliest black characters tended

to focus on the evil ;oor. &or eample, plays in the 57th and 5/th

century featuring ;oors, including* The )attle of Alcaar in 543",

(ust’s %ominion in 57, All’s (ost by (ust in 575" and Abdelaer

in 57// all carried the message that black is synonymous with evil *

They were given over almost wholly to monstrous evil and

driven by overwhelming lust. (ust was not only a moral sin in

itself but also a threat to the foundations of +hristian civilised

society. Rutside the moral framework altogether, these black

figures are linked eplicitly to the devil, their black skins

standing in for their evil natures.5

)ecause blackness and dark skin was such a strong a signifi-

er of evil, light skin was initially problematic for black actors. &or

eample, The play The Africans* or, 8ar (ove and %uty at the

@aymarket in 53", followed the passing of the Abolition Act in

53/ when the mood was somewhat sentimental. The main charac-ter 2elico, who is due to be married to the daughter of an Islamic

priest, takes his mother to safety at a house of prayer when the

wedding feast threatens to be interrupted by slave raiders. 8hen he



%eborah 0abriel

M

returns the town is in flames, the residents have been sold into

slavery and his bride to be has been murdered. @e plans to sell

himself into slavery to provide for his mother but is unsuccessful*

EFfor he is considered too light-skinned to be truly hardy = a

reflection of the belief that the dark-skinned African is closest to the

brute and so most fitted for the brutish work of slavery.’56 In 534,

the light-skinned American actor Ira Aldridge appeared in a 8est

Indian ;elodrama called The Cevolt of 2urinam or A 2lave’sCevenge. A Times reviewer is scathing in his criticism, but makes

reference to his skin tone* EFthe reviewer once again turns the

attack onto Aldridge’s skin colour. @e is not black enough to fit the

preconception.’5M )y 5367, new racial attitudes rooted in Bim +row

laws on segregation made their way to Hngland from across the

Atlantic*

It was a trend that incorporated a new conception of the

black individual as no longer the vengeful African of yester-

year but a comic black American slave, grotes>ue in appear-

ance, manners and language. Its effect was to render the black

as a species apartN it was a conception that >uickly rooteditself into popular culture and continued to grow there.54

As the influence of the anti-slavery movement permeated

the theatre, plays re>uired serious dramatic treatment to capture the

mood. )ut due to the prior degradation of the black character and

its association with evil, the mulatto, nearest in colour to whites, were called upon to represent the acceptable face of the black race.

The mulatto character brought to the stage both a black representa-

tion of beauty and of morality. Uoung, beautiful women who were




M6

presented to the audience as octoroons or >uadroons = denoting

part Huropean ancestry, often played the role of innocent characters

that were blissfully unaware that any part of their genetic make-up

was of African origin. Any hopes of a noble stage character for the

dark-skinned black, was finally lost when the ncle Tom character

was introduced through the book of the same name. ncle Tom

plays made their way into the theatre and they had a specific agenda*

EFto retain the stereotype of the black-skinned character as foolishor ineffectual and also retain the stress on the indignity of slavery as

visited on the more intelligent and mied race character.’57 In the

story, the main characters 0eorge and Hlia @arris are attractive,

light-skinned persons, whilst by contrast, the dark-skinned Tom and

his wife +hloe, are comic characters who speak in a strange slave

dialect, while 0eorge and Hlia speak almost perfect Hnglish. Theories on race continued into the 5"th century. 0obi-

neau’s 534M Hssay on the Ine>uality of the @uman Caces had a

profound influence on notions of race during this era, which

centred on his notion of biological differences between the races.

@e wrote* EThe black variety is the lowest and lies at the bottom of

the ladder. The animal character lent to its basic form imposes itsdestiny from the moment of conception.’5/ )y the th century the

political landscape of )ritain was still largely shaped by the colonial

discourse 5 years earlier, where the Ecivilising missions’ of the

anti- slavery movement had served as a $ustification for its colonial

invasions of the African continent. The )ritish Hmpire therefore

stood firmly as the rock of civiliation in the minds of the )ritishpublic.

Anti-black racism was firmly entrenched in )ritish society

before the large-scale migration of African descendants from the




M4

natural hair and strong facial features, have Ebeen almost tuned out

of our beauty consciousness.’ ;ost black models, actresses and

singers widely regarded as beautiful such as )eyoncX Lnowles, @alle

)erry, 1aomi +ampbell and Tyra )anks, to name a few, are light-

skinned or mied race with Huropean features such as straight noses

and high cheekbones. )y contrast, 2udanese model Alek 8ek is

very dark skinned with very short, natural hair, a broad nose and full

lips -very strong African facial features. 8hen 8ek appeared on theRprah 8infrey show, the host confided* EIf you had been on the

cover Oof a magaineP when I was growing up, I would have had a

different concept of who I was.’ It is unsurprising, therefore, that

Arogundade sees Alek 8ek Eas the face of the th century, as her

looks F go against 8estern values about beauty.’5

8hilst in the 2, studies continue to provide evidence thatskin tone does have an impact on social status, educational and

employment outcomes, can the same be said of the L? Are there

particular factors which might have a bearing on the way in which

colourism manifests itself in )ritain? In observing the history of

colourism in the 2 and the +aribbean, many people might assume

that light-skinned blacks en$oy social advantages over those withdark skin in the L as well, even if the reality may be entirely

different. 8hilst no specific studies have been carried out there is

some evidence to support the hypothesis that no such advantages

eist. %r ;ark +hristian, a (iverpool born black, argued that EIn

relation to the Africans of mied origin in (iverpool, there have

certainly been no social privileges awarded to them over their darkercompleioned sisters and brothers.’ The term E(iverpool born

black’ refers to the uni>ue eperience of a black community which

includes a significant population of mied race persons whose



%eborah 0abriel

M7

presence in (iverpool has eisted for over 5 years. #rofessor

2tephen 2mall, also a (iverpool born black, states that when African

+aribbeans migrated to the L in the 5"4s from Bamaica, Trini-

dad, 2t. (ucia and other islandsN they came with the assumption that

light skinned blacks received preferential treatment, but for (iver-

pool born blacks their eperience was the opposite* ERur eperience

in (iverpool is one of being despised, vilified and oppressed as

light-skinned people.’6 The similarities in the eperience of(iverpool born blacks and other black communities in the L were

characterised by high unemployment, racism and tensions with the

police, at the height of the 2us law. In the 5"Ms and 5"4s, unem-

ployment in (iverpool was twice the national average. +onflicts

broke out in Toteth, (iverpool in 5"35 M and in )riton during

the same year.4 In eplaining why light-skinned blacks in (iverpoolshared the same eperiences of racism and social disadvantage as

other black populations in the L, %r +hristian argues*

In terms of the black eperience in (iverpool, the division in

relation to colour is not the ma$or criteria for social privilege. 8hite

supremacy in the history of (iverpool is the unwritten mode ofsocial franchise. If you are white, you are alrightN if you are black,

you are supposed to stand back. There is no privilege in between,

only added racism. 7

The eperience of (iverpool born blacks may well provide a

vital clue in determining whether mied race and by definition light-skinned blacks, fare better than those with dark skin within the areas

of education and employment. 8hilst there is no data in the L

which categorises people on the basis of skin tone, it is possible to




M/

analyse data for the mied race population for the purpose of a

crude comparison with the mulatto classes of the +aribbean and

2A, who have clearly shown historical and contemporary social

and economic advantages over the black populations. The mied

race population in the L for persons of African ancestry stands at

657, of which 6/, are of African +aribbeanWwhite heritage

and /", are of AfricanWwhite heritage. ;ied race persons with

African Ancestry account for M/ per cent of the entire mied racepopulation. The total black population stands at 5.5 million. At

secondary level, pupils of African +aribbeanWwhite heritage number

6,4/ and make up ./ per cent of the secondary school popula-

tion, whilst pupils of AfricanWwhite heritage number 4,63 and

account for . per cent of the secondary school population. The

attainment of both groups at secondary level at key stage M is belowthe national average and the main barriers to achievement are

similar to those eperienced by African +aribbean pupils.

They are both more likely to come from disadvantaged

backgrounds, eperience institutional racism through low teacher

epectations and to be ecluded from school. (ow teacher epecta-

tion is often based Eon a stereotypical view of the fragmented homebackgrounds and 9confused: identities of whiteWblack +aribbean

pupils.’/ @owever, close eamination of Ley stage M results for

6 in terms of the number of 4 or more good 0+2HW 01s

Jgraded between A-+K, reveal that there are marginal differences in

attainment in favour of pupils of mied heritage. &or eample, M7.3

per cent of African +aribbeanWwhite girls achieved 4 good0+2H’sW01s compared with M.6 per cent of African +aribbe-

an girls. 8hilst for boys the rates were 6.6 per cent for African

+aribbeanWwhite boys compared with 4.5 per cent of African



%eborah 0abriel

M3

+aribbean boys. &igures are higher for African groups with 44.5 per

cent of AfricanWwhite girls achieving 4 or more good

0+2HsW01s compared with M7.3 per cent of African girls. &or

boys the rates were 6".4 per cent for AfricanWwhite boys compared

with 6M.5 per cent of African boys. It should be noted that within

different local education authorities, the results are variable. &or

eample, in (HA 4, where the percentage of pupils achieving 4 good

0+2HsW01s was 63.7 per cent, African +aribbean boys and African +aribbeanWwhite boys achieved eactly the same results =

66.6 per cent. )ut this is still below the national average for all boys

which is M4.4 per cent. )ut what do these results mean in terms of

colourism and whether it plays a role in the educational outcomes of

black children? Rne interesting pattern that emerges is that in each

ethnic group =mied race pupils outperform black pupils, at least ona national level. ;ied AfricanWwhite pupils did better than African

pupils and mied African +aribbeanWwhite pupils did better than

African +aribbean pupils. )ut in eamining the group as a whole,

African girls had the same attainment level as African +aribbe-

anWwhite girls and African boys had a higher attainment than mied

African +aribbeanWwhite boys. &rom these results and given thefact that there is only a very marginal difference between the

educational attainment of mied race pupils and black pupils, the

logical conclusion would be that deep rooted problems eperienced

by African +aribbean pupils are shared by mied Afri-

canW+aribbeanWwhite pupils. If African pupils have higher educa-

tional outcomes than certain pupils of mied race with light skin,then colourism is not a contributory factor, but socialisation and

eperiences of institutional racism and social disadvantage are the

primary forces at work here. This theory is borne out by the level of



%eborah 0abriel

4

compared with 55.3 per cent for African +aribbeans and 56 per cent

for Africans. )oth Africans and people of mied heritage were

e>ually employed in the business, financial and private sector

industries J4 per centK, compared with per cent of African

+aribbeans. ;uch higher numbers of Africans J6/ per centK and

African +aribbeans JM per centK worked in public administration,

education and social care, compared with " per cent of the mied

race population. &inally, the average ;edian earnings per hour forpeople over 53 in M showed that people of mied heritage

earned !/.7 per hour, compared with the black population which

earned !/.66 per hour. )ut again, what does the data tell us about

colourism? 0iven the marginal differences between people of mied

heritage and the African and African +aribbean groups, there is very

little evidence to suggest that people with a lighter compleion fareany better in employment that those with darker skin, a crude

assumption made on the premise that the persons within the mied

race population are likely to have lighter compleions than persons

within the black population, as a whole. It is also important to note

that the mied race group in these statistics include people who are

not of African ancestry and it is possible that mied race persons of African ancestry may have more similar eperiences to African and

African +aribbeans if they were eamined separately. Rnce again,

the data appears to suggest that mied race persons share similar

eperiences to Africans and African +aribbeans in the employment

arena as they do within the education system.

)ased on the analysis of data available, it is reasonable toconclude on eamining the eperiences of the African %iaspora in

the L, that persons with light skin are not in an elite class within

the L. (ight-skinned individuals of African descent do not show




45

significantly higher levels of attainment within education, or higher

levels of employment or a marked difference in earnings than their

darker skinned counterparts. Therefore, light skin among persons of

African descent does not confer any marked social or economic

advantage. The fundamental difference between Africans in the

%iaspora residing in Bamaica and the 2A, compared with those

living in the L, is the historical eperience of Huropean chattel

enslavement. In Bamaica and the 2A, enslaved Africans wereshipped to the 1ew 8orld where social hierarchies based on skin

tone were established by the colonial administrations. This divisive

strategy fostered disunity among the enslaved black populations

whilst at the same time reinforcing the ideology of white supremacy.

)lacks closest to Huropeans by virtue of having some white ancestry

in their genes, were considered to be superior to dark- skinned Africans. #ost slavery, these divisions persisted and the mulatto

classes sometimes gained economic advantages through being

allowed an education and by occasionally inheriting money or

property from white relatives. In both societies, the mulatto classes

emerged as the elite after emancipation.

)y contrast, race relations in the L have evolved very dif-ferently to Bamaica and the 2A. Although there have always been

small populations of Africans in )ritain throughout history, black

people only became Eproblematic’ to )ritish society following large

scale migration from former )ritish colonies in the 5"4s, including

those who came from Africa and the +aribbean with the hope of

better prospects. ;embers of the former +ommonwealth wereneeded to help rebuild )ritain after 88II and were invited to come

to the E;other +ountry.’ &aced with a large influ of black immi-

grants from Africa and the +aribbean, the reaction of white policy-



%eborah 0abriel

4

makers was to treat the non-white population as a homogenous

group, in stark contrast to the skin tone hierarchies they created in

their former colonies. This is supported by the eperience of the

(iverpool born black community, which comprise a significant

number of mied race persons, but who shared similar eperiences

of social and economic disadvantage with blacks in other parts of

the L. As a result of this policy, people of African descent have

for decades been regarded by whites as black, whether they are ofmied African ancestry or not. This is evidenced by the fact that a

category was only created for mied race people in the +ensus in

5. @owever, shared eperiences of racial disadvantage have

sometimes been obscured by the perception among some people of

African descent that light-skinned blacks are treated more favoura-

bly within )ritish society and are regarded as being more attractive.2ome of these ideas occurred through the socialisation of children

whose parents were born in the +aribbean and who had been

accustomed to social hierarchies based on skin tone. )ut percep-

tions are also based on images of beauty portrayed in the media and

popular culture, which clearly promotes the Huropean standard of

beauty as the ideal. It is clear from these findings that althoughcolourism does not eist on the same scale within the L, as it does

in the 2A and the +aribbean, it still undermines the efforts of the

African %iaspora to free itself from the shackles of the past.

+olourism, as an internalised form of racism, is undeniably a legacy

of the dehumanising process of chattel enslavement and colonisa-

tion.




46



$igmentocracy in Latin America

#igmentocracy in (atin America = that is the social group-

ings of individuals based on race and colour, was established by the

2panish colonial rulers in the 5/th century. Although the primary

determinant was skin colour, other >ualities included teture and

colour of hair, thickness or thinness of lips, the structure of thenose, width of the face, eye colour and body structure. 8hites were

referred to as 2paniards or Huro-mestios, Africans as Afro-

mestios and Indians Jthe indigenous groupK as Indo-;estios. The

offspring of a black and a white was a mulatto and the offspring of

whites and Indians known as Dambos. )ut as miscegenation took

place fre>uently throwing early classification into disarray, thecolour line became blurred and other racial classifications sprung up

that had a greater emphasis on actual skin tone. There were white,

light and dark mulattos known as mulatos, blancos, claros and

moriscos. In order to prevent the lightest of the mulattos with

blond hair or coloured eyes from passing for white, their owners

branded them on the forehead or the shoulders. (ater classification

included moral $udgements such as scorn, contempt, mockery, sneer

and $est, while other names had animalistic connotations, such as

mulatto, which is a hybrid of a horse and a mule. In ;eico around

5463, many black slaves sought unions with Indian women partly

because of a shortage of black females, because enslaved African

males were brought to ;eico at the ratio of 6*5. )ut a strong

motivating factor for a black male slave choosing a female Indian

partner was because the children of an Indian mother were born

free, because Indian women were considered free sub$ects. At-



%eborah 0abriel

47

tempts to persuade the Ling to revoke the freedom of slave chil-

dren born to Indian mothers met with stern resistance from the

+ouncil of Indies.

The children of 1egro men and Indian women continued to

be born free and the miing was the principal source of the

Afromestio population of the colonial period, a population

which remained under the protection of the 1ative motherand inherited the indigenous cultural patterns.<

)y the 53th century the number of Afro and Indian mesti-

os rose enormously and individuals crossed from one category to

another as they were able. Hventually by the end of the colonial

period, racial classifications were $ust names and did not necessarilyreflect the reality of a person’s ancestry. In ;eico it was decided

that all citiens who were neither Indians nor dark skinned could be

considered as 2paniards. ;any mulattos took the opportunity to

Ecross over’ into the Huropean category to escape the social and

economic life of subordination and discrimination that came with

being classed as black. &or eample, in +ordoba in Argentina, black women whether free or enslaved, were prohibited from wearing fine

imported clothes. 8omen who refused to dress according to their

social position could be undressed, whipped and burned, as was the

case of a mulatto woman, according to +oncolorcorvo in 5"MM. In

54/ in (atin America there were around 5M, whites, 7,

blacks and mulattos and 5 million Indians. )y 534 the racialcomposition had changed to 56 Y million whites, 5 million blacks

and mulattos and less than " million Indians. The reason for the

dramatic rise in the number of whites is believed to be through light



#igmentocracy in (atin America

4/

skinned persons of mied ancestry crossing the colour line and the

whitening of the population through the introduction of white

immigrants from Hurope. EThe African did not disappear but has

been so absorbed and diluted as to not be visible.’G The elite of

(atin America’s pigmentocracy is today is represented by the direct

descendants of the 2panish colonial rulers and aristocrats who are

white and well-educated whilst at the bottom are dark-skinned Afro

descendants. Those of mied ancestry = mestios, occupy themiddle stratum of this colour coded hierarchy.

Afro descendants in (atin America are socially, economical-

ly and institutionally marginalised as a conse>uence of slavery and

colonisation and on account of their black skin. +olour-coded racial

discrimination is the ma$or factor contributing to poverty among Afro descendants, who are absent from the political arena and have

no voice with which to participate in the creation or implementation

of policies that affect their lives. 54 million people of African

descent live in (atin America and account for about one third of the

total population. They reside mainly in the rural areas which are

blighted by poor infrastructure, few schools and health facilities, lowincome and high unemployment. Afro descendants in (atin Ameri-

ca account for M per cent of the poor in the region. 2tudies carried

out by the Inter American %evelopment )ank JI%)K in 5 found

that in )rail, the allocation of school places was determined by skin

colour, which resulted in a large number of Afro descendants being

denied access to education. )rail has the largest number of Afrodescendants in the whole of (atin America, which is estimated at

54 million = million less than 1igeria, the most populous

country on the African continent. In +olombia, "3 per cent of the



%eborah 0abriel

43

black population are without basic public utilities, compared with

$ust 7 per cent of whites. These eamples are representative of the

eperiences of Afro descendants throughout the region. The notion

of white supremacy has characterised the style of governance in

(atin America by white hegemonies for over 4 years, since the

epulsion of the black ;oors from the Iberian peninsular in 5M"

which aimed to eradicate Africans and blacks from the colonies*

2panish American societies have consciously and uncon-

sciously continued this process and sought to support em-

bla>uecimiento or Ewhitening’ of their populations. This is an

elevation of all things white and Huropean, whilst denigrating

and ecluding other non-white cultures and races.6

0overnments of all (atin American countries took drastic

steps to whiten the black population by encouraging white Hurope-

an immigration. %escendants of former enslaved Africans make up

the ma$ority of the Afro descendant communities and the oppres-

sion and discrimination they eperience on a daily basis are a direct

conse>uence of Huropean chattel enslavement. #eople of Africandescent were denied full rights of citienship through being prohib-

ited from owning property, from receiving education, from having

banking facilities and from obtaining $obs in the government,

church or the military. Today, these prohibitions may not be legally

enforced but eclusion still remains on a de facto basis. @owever,

(atin American governments have sought to disguise this type ofracial oppression and segregation through the careful construction

of a mythical raceless society. Rnly in recent years have +ensuses

started to include racial monitoring. ;any people of African




4"

descent, particularly those of mied ancestry, are reluctant to

identify themselves as Afro descendants because of the social stigma

and the history of discrimination, even though Ea large percentage of

the mainstream (atin American population could claim African

ancestry.’M %ark-skinned people in (atin America are sub$ected to

racial insults on a regular basis and are often referred to by their

colour rather than their names. Today there are still more than

different terms used to describe people of African descent includingtrigeno Jwheat colouredKN ;oreno JbrownKN Dambo Jhalf indige-

nousKN pardo, mulatto Jmied race = white Z AfricanK and preto

JdarkK. A study by I%) revealed a link between skin colour,

education and employment. 8hilst education is essential to gain

access to high paying $obs, discriminatory practices work against

Afro descendants. #overty restricts most from being able to obtaina good >uality education = the ma$ority of Afro descendants do not

progress further than primary education, they are therefore confined

to low paying $obs. There are very few black skinned people in top

management $obs in any industry sector. At the recruitment stage

advertisements for female $obs often stipulate that the applicant

must be of good appearance or ask for women with nice faces, which is a discreet way of saying only light-skinned persons or

whites need apply. A 8orld )ank study compiled in 6 entitled*

Ine>uality in (atin America and the +aribbean* )reaking 8ith

@istory, found that the richest tenth of the population of (atin

America and the +aribbean earn M3 per cent of the total income of

the region, whilst the poorest tenth earn only 5.7 per cent. Accord-ing to the study, race is the single most important factor that

determines social outcomes. The research focused on )rail,

0uyana, 0uatemala, )olivia, +hile, ;eico and #eru. Across the



%eborah 0abriel

7

board, indigenous men earn 67-74 per cent less than whites, whilst

in )rail, men and women of African descent earn M4 per cent of

the wages of whites. )ut the figures disguise the fact that many of

the privileged members of (atin American countries racialised and

self-classified as white are of African ancestry and are able to escape

poverty, eclusion and discrimination because they have light skin

and less obvious African racial features. The report makes no

reference to colourism nor eamines its impact on the social andeconomic disparities imposed by skin colour.

Hduardo )onilla-2ilva, in making a comparison between

race relations in the 2A and (atin America, argues that the 2A is

turning into a pigmentocracy, because the population is becoming

darker, with non-whites accounting for a third of the population.

#redictions on future populations suggest that by 4, ethnicminorities may become the ma$ority, as indeed they are on a global

scale. According to )onilla-2ilva, the solution is to adopt the

strategy used by (atin American governments and Ewhiten’ the

population. This involves establishing a Etri-racial’ system of social

stratification which comprises whites at the top of the hierarchy =

Huro-Americans, Huropeans, assimilated white (atinos, some multi-racials Jmied raceK and a few people of Asian origin. The second

tier, known as Ehonorary’ whites consists of white middle class

(atinos, Bapanese Americans, Lorean Americans, Asian Indians,

+hinese Americans and Arab Americans. #redictably, those at the

bottom of the social ladder are Ecollective blacks’ which include

&ilipinos, ietnamese, dark skinned and poor (atinos, African Americans and blacks, +aribbean and African immigrants and

1ative Americans who live on reservations. This is effectively a

replica of the colour-coded system which governs every aspect of




75

life in (atin America. )onilla-2ilva states that whilst race miing is

actively encouraged in (atin America, this is only a strategy for

whitening the population and there are strict rules under which it is

permitted. 2eual unions are only encouraged between white men

and black or Indian women and the men involved are usually poor

or working class. The whitening of the population is the ultimate

goal, not to promote racial harmony. &or this reason* Eracial mi-

ingFin no way challenged white supremacy in colonial or post-colonial (atin America.’4 Another conse>uence of the tri-racial

racial system is that dark skinned members of the population are

driven to trade their blackness, their very humanity, for social

mobility by marrying lighter, thereby weakening the collective

strength and identity of black people. )y buying into to the colour

hierarchy system, instead of seeking to disable and dismantle it,those who trade on colour are helping to maintain and reinforce the

system of white supremacy.

In a lecture given at +(A in ;ay 6, %r +arlos ;oore,

an Afro-descendant born in +uba argued that whilst on the surface

(atin America may appear to be comprised of colourless societies,

in reality race and colour are the most pervasive and dominantfeatures of life. According to %r ;oore, (atin America’s pigmen-

tocracy has its origins in the Arab invasion of the Iberian #eninsula

Jmodern 2pain and #ortugalK in /55 +H. %r ;oore lived in Hgypt

for a year at the age of 5 and was astonished at the striking similari-

ties with +uba in terms of the role that colour played in the social

and political spheres and the attitude towards dark-skinned people.&ollowing this revelation he began to study race relations in Arab

countries. @e has written two books +astro, the )lacks and Africa

J5"3"K and African #resence in the Americas J5""7K According to



%eborah 0abriel

7

%r +arlos, 2pain and #ortugal learnt much from the Arab enslave-

ment of African peoples, which was a way of life for them. @e

states that four million Africans were captured and brought to the

Iberian #eninsular. 8hen Huropeans defeated the Arabs, they

simply adopted the Arab model of slavery. %r ;oore also believes

that the middle stratum of the colour-coded hierarchy occupied by

mulattos is viewed as a rung on the social ladder that leads upwards.

Hssentially, the mulatto class is viewed as a social buffer that enables whites to avoid contact with blacks and dark-skinned people. The

first slaves brought to (atin America were not transported from

Africa, but were enslaved Africans who had already been brought to

the Iberian #eninsula by the Arabs and who spoke 2panish and

#ortuguese. @e observed a ma$or difference between the attitude on

race miing held by 1orth Americans and that held by (atin American governments* EIn the 2 one drop of black blood makes

someone black. In (atin America one drop of white blood makes

you white.’ 7 8riting in the 1ew Uork #ost in &ebruary of this

year, Tego +alderon, the #uerto Cican rapper spoke out against the

stigma of being black in (atin America and the discrimination and

oppression eperienced by (atin Americans*

8e are treated like second class citiens. They tell blacks in

(atin America that we are better off than 2 blacks or Africans and

that we have it better here, but it’s a false sense of being. )ecause

here, it’s worse. They have raised us to be ashamed of our black-

ness. It’s in the language too. Take the word denigrate - denigrar- which is to be less than a 1egro./




76

The historical evolution of colourism in (atin America

clearly demonstrates a link, yet again to the enslavement of African

peoples, first by the Arabs and then by the Huropeans in the

siteenth century, coinciding with the epansion of Huropean

chattel enslavement in the +aribbean and 1orth America. In

comparison with the other African %iasporas that this book has

eamined, as with both 1orth America and Bamaica, the introduc-

tion of enslaved Africans brought with it the categorisation ofhuman beings on the basis of colour, but for Africans, being dark

skinned meant that you were not human, humanity was denied. In

common with colonial rule in Bamaica, miscegenation was actively

encouraged. )ut whilst white plantation owners were unable to

repress their lustfulness for black women, it was still largely a form

of social control and a perfunctory means of reproducing slaves.)ut crucially, the colour-coded social structure remained rigid and

intact = being born a mulatto carried certain privileges, but crossing

over into the white class was not one of them. In (atin America,

those with light skin and less obvious facial features were allowed a

more fluid identity which carried with it the opportunity to self-

identify as white, but it must be clear that there were no benignmotivations behind this strategy. &aced with a dark-skinned black

ma$ority, (atin American governments realised that conferring

white privilege among acceptably light-skinned members of society

would imbue them with undivided loyalty to white values and ideals

and remove the threat of resistance and challenge to the system of

white supremacy. Their strategy has succeeded. 8hilst there hasbeen a growing body of resistance to white supremacy among Afro-

descendants, it is a far cry from the momentum of the +ivil Cights

;ovement in the 2A. )ut there are valid reasons for this. The 2



%eborah 0abriel

7M

Administration denied black Americans civil rights through Bim

+row laws that they were compelled to fight for to win the right to

be treated as e>ual under the 2 +onstitution. )y contrast, (atin

American governments have not relied on legislation to deny e>ual

rights to Afro descendants. Rppression has been far more subtle.

Instead of denying human rights through laws, (atin American

governments do so on the basis of colour, whilst simultaneously

promoting a false sense of nationalism. )y heaping privileges upon white and light members of society and denying these privileges

largely to Afro-descendants, this has fuelled the desire for those

with light skin and a willingness to discard their blackness like

garbage to leave their black communities and $oin the ranks of the

social climbers. %espite the de facto segregation that occurred in

some parts of the 2A among the black population, the one droprule in some respects helped to maintain a fragile but effective

solidarity. ;any mulattos were some of the most outspoken leaders

against racism, such as 8H) %ubois, &rederick %ouglas, to name

but two. In (atin America, the option to identify as white, removed

that sense of shared oppression that kept a sense of unity and spirit

of resistance amongst black Americans. )onilla-2ilva has argued that1orth America is heading in this direction and the studies on

colourism which reveal the large etent to which skin colour

determines educational, social and economic outcomes would seem

to suggest some validity to )onilla-2ilva’s claims.



uman %&olution and Skin Colour

This book has so far established that colourism is an inter-

nalised form of racism which places dark skin at the bottom of a

colour-coded hierarchy that is part of a wider system of white

supremacy. It has eamined the role that slavery and colonisation

played in establishing social hierarchies based on skin colour, whichleft an indelible imprint on the psyche of people of African descent

and has led to the perpetuation of colourism within the African

%iaspora. Uet this aversion to blackness is often based on ignorance

about the origins of mankind. Anthropologists believe that the first

members of the human family were black-skinned. Cecent maps

depicting the geographical distribution of skin colour show thatdark-skinned people are found near the e>uator and lighter skinned

people near the #oles. &urthermore, there are more dark-skinned

people in the 2outhern @emisphere than the 1orthern @emisphere.

Rther data points to females having lighter compleions than men

in all populations that have been studied. Rne of the problems that

presents when looking at the skin colour of indigenous populations

is that anthropologists generally use the year 54 as a cut-off point

in determining indigenous populations from migrant ones. Alt-

hough this accounts for the onset of Huropean colonisation, it fails

to take account of large scale )antu epansion in Africa that

occurred before 54. Bablonski argues that Huropean colonisation

has Efundamentally altered the human landscape established in

prehistoric times.’< @owever, a consistent pattern emerges in terms

of the geographical distribution of skin colour, which is that darker

skins are more often found in the tropical regions than in moderate



%eborah 0abriel

77

climates. )ut within the African continent, which has the largest

e>uatorial land mass, there is great diversity of skin colours, with the

darkest colours occurring in open grasslands, rather than in the

lowest latitudes.

In their analysis of the human evolution of skin, Dihlman

and +ohn begin with their theory on the evolution of the human

species from the hominids = members of the hominidae Jgreat apesK

family, which includes humans. &ossil finds between two and fourmillion years old were located in several areas across eastern and

southern Africa. @ominids lost body hair and developed dark skin

pigmentation to protect their skin from the ultra violet rays of the

sun. At the same time, the reduction of body hair allowed the

development of sweat glands, as sweating cools the body down.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the hominids were vegetari-ans who survived on a diet of plant foods. A distinguishing charac-

teristic of the hominids in their evolution from the great apes is

their bipedal ability = standing, walking and running, which marked

the beginning of a new life mode that depended on dwelling on the

ground and travelling around. Anatomical studies indicate that

human skin is very similar to that of African apes and molecularevidence points to the ape-human evolution occurring between M

and 3 million years ago. The great variation in human skin colour is

due to the amount of pigment melanin in the epidermis Jouter layer

of skinK. #igment-producing cells known as melanocytes that are

found in the basal layer of the epidermis, produce cell structures

called organelles and it is on these structures that melanin is formedthrough a series of chemical reactions. ;elanosomes are cell

structures that contain melanin. In light skin they are confined to

the basal layer of the skin, but in dark skin they are dispersed



@uman Hvolution and 2kin +olour

7/

throughout the epidermis. Among modern human populations

there is no difference in the number of melanocytes between people

of different skin shades. %arker skin is caused by a greater number

of melanosomes, which are larger and degrade more slowly. %ark

skin provides greater protection from the sun, protects against the

reduction of important cell chemicals such as folic acid and is less

easily irritated than light skin. According to Dihlman and +ohn, dark

skin became widespread among hominids as it was important fortheir survival. They also posit that skin pigmentations could have

altered several times during human evolution in response to changes

in latitude, diet, body covering and shelter and this could have

happened relatively >uickly in biological terms, within a few thou-

sand years or less.

+harles &inch, a protXgX of +heikh Anta %iop, was urged byhis mentor to recognise the importance in the realm of human

history of investigating the origins of mankind and acknowledges

that the wisdom of %iop drove him to realise the interdependence

between pre-history and history. %espite the fact that in 53/5,

+harles %arwin stated that the search for the origins of mankind

should begin in Africa, Huropean anthropologists and palaeontolo-gists could never conceive that Africa could be the cradle of human-

ity. )ut the first discovery of a human fossil aged around one

million years was made in 5"M in Taung, 2outh Africa by a student

of Caymond %art, an anatomy lecturer at the niversity of 8itswa-

tersrand. %art named the fossil Australopithecus africanus. Another

find in 5"/M in Hthiopia called E(ucy’ and a Efamily’ of 56 was datedat 6.4 million years and named Australopithecus afarensis. This is

the ancestor of all later hominids, including the @omo genus, which

includes modern man. The arrival of Australopithecus afarensis was



%eborah 0abriel

73

the beginning of mankind. They were upright walkers who occupied

open savannah and woodland and lived in hunter-gatherer societies.

(ike the pygmies of central Africa they are short in stature and do

not grow to a height greater than 6 Y to 4 feet. Their present day

descendants are believed to be the 2an community, also known as

the )ushmen of )otswana. &inch argues that*

The earliest humans had black skinsN in the environment in which they evolved it could not have been otherwiseFhad

the original human population not developed this melanin

cover as black skin, it would be reasonable to surmise that

there would be no human race today.G

A study in 4 carried out by a cancer research team at#enn 2tate niversity found that that key to the human genetics of

skin colour are present in the genetic information of the ebrafish.

The researchers found that a single human gene accounts for 6 per

cent of the difference in skin colour between Africans and Hurope-

ans. The colour difference is caused by two versions of a single gene

called 2(+MA4. Rne version is common among people of Africandescent causing more melanin = the dark pigment, to be present in

skin cells. The other version of the gene is common among people

of Huropean descent and causes less melanin in skin cells. The

research points to the earliest humans living in Africa carrying the

first version of 2(+MA4. )iologists believe that humans began to

migrate out of Africa between 44, and 34, years ago, withsome of them ending up in the colder climates of Hurope. At some

point either before or after the migration, it is believed that a

mutation of the gene occurred in one of the ancestors of modern




7"

Huropeans causing less melanin to be present in the skin of individ-

uals carrying the mutated gene. The African version of the gene

provides greater protection from the rays of the sun, whilst

allowing enough penetration for the body to absorb vitamin %,

which needs ultraviolet light to be absorbed into the body. itamin

% helps the body to absorb calcium, which is essential for maintain-

ing healthy bones. The Huropean version of 2(+MA4 has less

melanin which allows higher levels of rays to penetrate the skin,facilitating the absorption of itamin %, which would otherwise be

hard for the body to produce in darker and cooler climates. It had

already been established before the discovery of 2(+MA4 that the

earliest human remains found in Hurope in eastern Cussia around

4, years ago were of the Africoid type. The book* African

#resence in Harly Hurope, also eamines the theory that the genesthat give black skin colour mutated to enable the body to produce

vitamin % in the darker and cooler Huropean climate. There is also

a hypothesis as to why the facial structures of the African changed.

At the time of the African migration to Hurope, this was the ice age

where sheets of ice that were a mile thick, covered the landscape.

The broader nose of the original black African became narrower tomore efficiently warm the cold air. The early Huropean African is

named as the Africoid 0rimaldi and credited not only with being

the first humans to occupy Hurope but con>uerors of the 1eander-

thals = the human sub-species that eisted during the prehistoric

age. It is argued that the genetic mutation of skin colour and facial

composition from black to white was critical for human survival inthis region. &urthermore, a prolonged period of isolation in this

region facilitated the development of the original black African into

a distinct sub-species known as the +aucasoid or +aucasian. As



%eborah 0abriel

/

&inch notes EIt is fair to say that the change in skin colour more

than any other single feature put its stamp on the individual races.’Q

It is precisely because of this ignorance of the black origins

of mankind, that individuals racialised at white, sub-consciously or

otherwise, often buy into the notion of black inferiority, which sows

the seeds of racism. 2imon %yson, is a sociologist at %e ;ontfort

niversity in (eicester with a special interest in sickle cell. @e

recently conducted research based on the eperiences of Africanand African +aribbean sickle cell counsellors. Although sickle cell is

predominantly found in people of African descent, the genes

associated with it are inherited separately from the genes that are

associated with skin colour. It is therefore possible to have blonde

hair, blue eyes and white skin and either be a carrier of sickle cell, or

contract sickle cell anaemia. %uring the research the counsellorstold %yson that in some cases, mothers who come for counselling

who regard themselves as white Hnglish become very hostile and

unleash their racial pre$udices when they discover they have the

sickle cell gene. 2ome have complained of feeling Epolluted’ and

Econtaminated’ because they see sickle cell as a black disease, %yson

said. EThey say that it can’t be true, I don’t have any black blood inme.’ It even led to one woman storming home to fetch her hus-

band, her in-laws and her own parents and dragging them back to

the counsellor’s office to prove they have no blacks in the family*

9look, all my family going back generations are white. 8e can’t

possibly have this sickle cell gene,:’M the woman had said. In many

instances, the only way to restore calm is by distancing the sickle cellfrom any association with black African ancestry. According to

%yson, associating the gene with ;editerranean groups distances it

from African Ancestry, which makes it easier for white women to




/5

accept. 8hilst one might >uestion the wisdom of pandering to the

racial pre$udices of white women, %yson insists that it is has been

the best way for counsellors to handle the situation and carry out

their responsibilities. There are five types of the sickle cell gene, one

of which originates in India and Arabia* E2o it is entirely possible

that you could have genes associated with sickle cell and have not

African ancestry, but Indian and Arabian ancestry,’ he insists, but

admits* EIt’s not a perfect solution, it’s a working solution that anumber of them came to in order to manage the tension.’4

As this eample shows, there is widespread belief that skin

colour represents not the diversity of human beings, but confirma-

tion that humankind is comprised of different races which are

separate but certainly not e>ual, as dark skin is seen as representing

inferiority. %yson himself does not believe that race eists. 9As asociologist, I have difficulty accepting the idea that there is such a

thing as race, as opposed to that there is such a thing as racism.

Cacism is created by culture, but I don’t accept that there is any

such thing as distinct biological races,:7 he contends. 8hilst

anthropologists and geneticists are aware of the black origins of

mankind and accept that race is a social construct fashioned tocreate the myth of Huropean superiority over non-white peoplesN

the vast ma$ority of ordinary people accept the concept of race as

the norm. )ecause of the ideologies through which race was

conceptualised - to confer inferiority on black and non-white

peoples, this means that concept of race can never eist without

racism. 2cientific racism was not created to make man e>ual, but tomake non-white peoples inferior to whites = to create whiteness and

white supremacy.



%eborah 0abriel

/



'hiteness and 'hite Supremacy

;any non-whites seldom consider whiteness as an ideal that

influences their thoughts and feelings about self, because it’s so

taken for granted, nature renders it the norm and that makes it

dangerous to all of us. That is why whiteness as an anti Afrikanpresence in the black imagination needs to be considered in any

discussion of the power of white privilege. %r 8illiam J(eK @en-

ry.5

8hiteness is often viewed from a one-dimensional perspec-tive as simply a social identity ascribed to individuals racialised as

white. @owever, in reality, it is a multi-faceted construct which

serves both to maintain white supremacy = the structured and

systematic social, political, cultural and economic domination of

non-white peoples, and to confer advantage and privilege upon

those classed as white. There are several key elements that deter-

mine how whiteness functions within society. In the first instance, it

shapes the world view and understanding of self and society of

whites. )ecause whiteness is portrayed as universal when really it

ecludes the perspectives of other cultures, its viewpoint is decided-

ly narrow and limited. )y default, whiteness functions as a tool of

racial oppression because it only eists within a hierarchy of colour

placing itself at the top and non-whites in subordinate positions. As

Rwen argues* E)eing located in a social position by whiteness is not

merely a location of difference, but it is also a location of economic,



%eborah 0abriel

/M

political, social and cultural advantage, relative to those locations

defined by non-whiteness.’ Rne of the most potent aspects of

whiteness is its invisibility. This is largely because it is defined as

normal and therefore is incorporated into the mainstream, where it

is never >uestioned or held to account. As a conse>uence, whiteness

becomes invisible to whites, yet is highly visible to non-whites.

8hiteness is highly visible to non-whites because it is easy for them

to recognise when their interests are ecluded from the mainstream.)lack feminist and womanist writers have been particularly adept at

articulating how whiteness functions to the eclusion of black

people. Hvelyn )rooks @igginbottom speaks of the resistance

among black women feminists to the homogenising of white

womanhood which rests on the presumption of the universal

oppression of all women and accuses white feminists of beingunable to separate their whiteness from their womanhood. )ell

@ooks describes the way in which a white woman can publish a

book which purports to be about the universal eperience of

women, but which in fact is only about the eperience of white

women = who by virtue of their whiteness are deemed to represent

the norm. @ow many black women could publish a book that wasonly about black women yet did not carry the word black in the

book’s title? Ryeronke Ryewumi sums up the eclusionary facet of

whiteness perfectly as* EThe ethnocentric idea that the white woman

Jor manK is the normF’Q 8hiteness is not $ust a skin colour as has

been mentioned earlier, but nonetheless it is still Egrounded in the

interests, needs and values of those racialised as white.’M 8hitenessshould not be regarded as static, but something which has a socio-

historical eistence that is constantly being redefined. It should not

be seen as something which ac>uires privilege through perceptions



8hiteness and 8hite 2upremacy

/4

and values alone. As Rwen argues, it must be acknowledged that

whiteness is also maintained through and produces violence.

1ot only does whiteness have its origins in the physical and

psychic violence of enslavement, genocide and eploitation of

peoples of colour around the world, but also it maintains the

system of white supremacy in part by means of actual and

potential violence.4

There are numerous eamples of the use of violence and

potential violence to impose white supremacy on non-white peo-

ples. The +hagossians, for eample, are African descendants who

were forcibly removed from their homeland in the +hagos Archi-

pelago, some miles from Lenya, to make way for a 2 militarybase by the )ritish. The peaceful population of slave descendants

watched their pets being killed by colonial gangsters after being

dragged out of their homes and rounded up like cattle. The murder

of their treasured pets was a warning of what might happen to them

if they resisted. The purpose of this eercise was to protect white

interests = that of the )ritish colonial administration and of the white American hegemony. (et us not forget the wars waged on the

non-white populations of Afghanistan and Ira> from the island of

%iego 0arcia, which resulted in the slaughter of many thousands of

innocent civilians. Another eample of violence used to protect

white interests occurred during the colonial invasion of Lenya. Uet

again, a population of black people were on the receiving end, thistime of real, rather than threatened violence, so that a white )ritish

hegemony could take over the ancestral lands of indigenous African

peoples in order to further their economic interests. The ;au, ;au



%eborah 0abriel

/7

= freedom fighters who put up a resistance to )ritish colonial rule

and their supporters, suffered the brunt of white brutality. At least

55, were murdered after the )ritish hunted them down in the

forests and butchered them. Around 57, were rounded up and

placed in concentration camps where they were sub$ected to all

manner of human rights abuses including rape, torture and severe

beatings. The reason for the violence = to dispossess blacks from

their land and secure economic and political advantage for whitesettlers.

8hiteness contains a structuring element which places non-

whites in a subordinate position within a hierarchical structure that

locates whites in a position of social, economic and political superi-

ority and advantage. This structuring property operates within all

modern social systems and influences the social practices of those who operate within the systems and institutions. This occurs as the

members of societies in the western world and where colonisation

has occurred are automatically socialised and acculturated into

whiteness, which is established as the norm. This is why, Bamaicans,

for eample, as was discussed earlier in this book, have been left

with the legacy of colourism, because the enforced social stratifica-tion based on skin colour that occurred during slavery became the

norm. The organisational structure of Bamaican society was based

on white supremacy, white superiority and white privilege. The fact

that the ma$ority of Bamaicans are black does not prevent whiteness

from imposing its destructive nature. Rf greater significance is the

reality that Bamaicans were acculturated by law and custom into asocial hierarchy where the social order was determined on the

premise of white superiority.




//

Ceturning to the modus operandi of whiteness within west-

ern societies, as stated earlier, it is so pernicious precisely because of

its secret hiding place within the mainstream of society where it is

normalised. nder this guise, it continues to wield immense power

by subordinating and conferring racial disadvantage among non-

white peoples, whilst members of society are duped into believing

that real racism is the overt type that makes the news headlines. In

reality, it is whiteness and white supremacy that is shaping the worldto the advantage of whites. A particularly astute observation of

whiteness is the Eway that it maintains the legacy of racial ine>uality

as a central aspect of modern social systems, while at the same time,

masking the impact of that history upon the present.’7 @ow many

times do )ritish politicians allude to )ritain’s role in the African

@olocaust = the chattel enslavement of African peoples in debatesand discussions about racism in society or in the formulation of race

policies? 1ever. Uet as this book has demonstrated, scientific racism

and the construction of race served as a $ustification for )ritain’s

role in chattel enslavement and colonisation = which took away the

humanity of African peoples and sowed the seeds for the racism

that pervades society today = both the institutionalised form andindividual racial pre$udice. 8hiteness and white supremacy is also

reinforced using the powerful medium of cultural imagery. There-

fore virtually anyone of significance is racialised as white. 8e see

this in the representation of 0od and Besus as white - despite all the

evidence to the contrary and as another eample, until the painstak-

ing work of +heikh Anta %iop, western Hgyptologists denied theblack origins of the ancient Hgyptians. Hven where race is not

mentioned, the assumption is always that the sub$ect is white*

Ebecause whiteness means that whites are represented everywhere,



%eborah 0abriel

/3

but not as white.’/ The social, cultural and historical dynamics of

whiteness as has been mentioned in this chapter ensure the repro-

ductive nature of whiteness which results in Ede facto social, eco-

nomic, political and cultural supremacy of those racialised as

white.’3 Therefore race relations laws are rendered ineffective,

which is why institutional racism continues to flourish, because

whiteness ensures the maintenance of white supremacy which

undermines the legislation and policies that are supposed to addressracial ine>ualities.

0illborn provides an ecellent eample of how whiteness

and white supremacy functions within the )ritish education system

whilst maintaining a discreet invisibility. 8ithin the school system

white supremacy is achieved through maintaining high intellectual

and educational achievement among white pupils and the loweducational achievement, or under-achievement as is commonly

referred to, of non-white pupils, especially those of African +arib-

bean descent. The most widely used mode of comparison of

educational achievement is the 0+2H and as has been discussed in

an earlier chapter, pupils are assessed and $udged based on the

number of five 0+2Hs they obtain between grades A-+. As 0ilbornhighlights, 0+2H’s are tiered, which means that within each band

there is a maimum grade that can be obtained. In most cases in the

lowest tier, the highest grade that can be obtained is +. )ut for

mathematics, it is lower than +. An investigation conducted on two

(ondon schools revealed that two thirds of black students were

placed in the lowest tier for mathematics. Therefore, even if theyscored a perfect 5 per cent in their eamination, they could never

achieve grade +, much less grades A and ). Therefore, in placing

black students in the lowest tier = and we are talking about a




/"

significant number = two thirds of black students in these particular

schools, it was ensured that black pupils would always be the lowest

achievers.

In a second eample, in one of the biggest (HAs in the

country, black children were the highest achievers out of all groups

in baseline assessments = tests conducted at age five when children

are $ust entering the phase of compulsory schooling. In the baseline

assessments at this particular (HA, black children were the mostlikely to score percentage points above the national average. This

indicates that black children enter the school system well prepared

for formal education = yet by the age of 57 and the end of compul-

sory schooling, they have transformed into the lowest educational

achievers and have dropped percentage points relative to the

national average. 2o what happens to a black child during the 55years of formal schooling within the education system? Rbviously

these are >uestions of fundamental importance in eamining

institutional racism and its bearing on the education of black

children. @owever, that >uestion is unlikely to be answered given

that the baseline tests have now been altered and as a result black

children are once again, suspiciously the lowest performers. Thefoundation stage assessment has replaced the baseline assessments,

but most importantly Eit is entirely based on teacher’s $udgements.’"

)y altering the mode of assessment of young children, the

school system has managed to transform black children into under-

achievers. 0illborn argues EIt is well knownFthat black students

tend to be over-represented in low-ranked teaching groups whenteachers’ $udgements are used to inform selection within schools.’5

These eamples clearly demonstrate the invisible mechanics of

white supremacy at work within the education system. The first, the



%eborah 0abriel

3

placing of a significant number of black children in low tiers for

mathematics ensures that they could never achieve a Egood’ 0+2H

in mathematics. In the second eample, the black pupils were

outperforming white children, so the assessment had to be changed

= and altered radically to a totally sub$ective mode, so that black

pupils could be labelled as low achievers. As 0illborn concluded

EThese changes appear to have resulted from the normal workings

of the education systemFdoes assessment do more than merelyrecord ine>uity, or does assessment produce ine>uity?’55

+olour-blind ideology is an area of critical race theory that is

increasingly being eplored by scholars and can arguably be regard-

ed as a mechanism which disguises the racial oppression caused by

whiteness and white supremacy. Limberley Hbert writes about how

colour-blind ideology operates within American society, but herarguments could e>ually apply to )ritish society. A colour-blind

perspective refuses to acknowledge that individuals are disadvan-

taged by race, preferring instead to accept the notion that western

societies are structured as meritocracies, with those who educate

themselves and work hard being rewarded economically and

socially. 2uch a viewpoint is founded on the belief that ine>ualitieseperienced by racial groups are due to individual shortcomings.

The danger of colour-blind ideology is in masking the underlying

structures and systematic workings of white supremacy, as has been

described earlier, while all manner of arguments are put forward for

why a particular race is not advancing. If we apply this theory to the

under-achievement of African +aribbean children in the )ritishschool system, as argued by 0illborn, where the system is manipu-

lated to the disadvantage of black pupils = this goes unnoticed,

whilst all too often the performance of black pupils is blamed on a




35

deficient family environment. As Hbert argues EThe racial logic of a

colour-blind society especially helps the dominant groupFto

support an ideology that appears race-neutral but maintains the

current racial order and allows whites to benefit from their own skin

colour.’ 5

A central aspect of critical race theory is the challenge to

whiteness as the normative standard. @ow can white be the norma-

tive standard in a multi-cultural society where all races are supposedto be e>ual participants? That they are not reflects the fact that

white supremacy is at work, not that black and other non-white

groups are inferior. There is plenty of evidence to support this. As

recent research published by the Boseph Cowntree &oundation

shows, despite educational improvements, a higher percentage of

black and minority ethnic people live in poverty, compared with the white population. All non-white groups eperience higher levels of

poverty than the white population. 8hilst $ust per cent of whites

live in poverty, M4 per cent of Africans and 6 per cent of African

+aribbeans live in poverty. There are a number of factors that

contribute to poverty, such as educational >ualifications, industry

sector, work eperience, location, health, disability and familystructure. @owever, low income from employment has been

identified as the main cause of poverty. Uet whilst progress in

educational attainment has improved employment levels among

ethnic minorities, there are still pronounced gaps for African,

African +aribbean, #akistani and )angladeshi men for which there

are no other eplanations than racial discrimination. Africans have very high participation rates within higher education, yet their rates

of unemployment are ineplicably high, pointing to severe discrimi-

nation in the $ob market. Hvidence also suggests that black gradu-



%eborah 0abriel

3

ates find it harder to gain managerial and eecutive positions and

even when they do they still earn less than whites. Analysis of

employees in managerial $obs reveals that over the last 5 years

there has been an increase in upward mobility among African and

African +aribbean men. @owever, black professionals still earn

much less than their white counterparts. African and African

+aribbean men earn 4 per cent and 54 per cent less respectively

than whites.

The danger of colour blindness is that it allows us to ignore

the racial construction of whiteness and reinforces its privi-

leges and oppressive position. Thus whiteness remains the

normative standard and blackness remains different, other

and marginal. Hven worse, by insisting on a rhetoric that dis-allows reference to race, blacks can no longer name their real-

ity or point out racism. ’56

In the past white privilege was secured through violence =

chattel enslavement and colonisation = but in contemporary western

societies it is achieved through subtle methods which disguise whitesupremacy under the cloak of whiteness, which itself is hidden in

the mainstream. 8hite supremacy is able to maintain its power as

people of African descent and other non-white groups buy into the

dominant western ideology of individualism, believing in the notion

of e>uality of opportunity. In this manner, blacks lose the power of

a collective identity which seeks to secure e>uality for the entirerace, whilst individuals seek personal success and gratification. It

becomes easy then to use the argument that all blacks need are role

models to inspire them to achieve. @owever, whilst a handful of




36

blacks may Esucceed’ the masses remain poor and disadvantaged and

white supremacy continues to reign supreme. +olour blindness is an

ideology, a perspective and tool of white supremacy that disguises

white privilege behind the notion that within western society there is

e>uality of opportunity. It ignores the impact of race on the human

eperience of black peoples and non-white groups, particularly

within a historical contet. As Hbert argues* E)y claiming colour-

blindness in an era of massive racial ine>ualities, the significance ofrace is ignored, the ine>ualities are ignored and therefore these

ine>ualities will continue to persist.’5M 0iven the dominance of

whiteness and white supremacy in every dimension of the global

social order, how can it be addressed as part of the struggle for

black liberation and of the struggle to free all of humanity from its

destructive clutches? According to Rwen* E2tructures of whiteness will need to be unmasked, challenged, disrupted and dismantled in

the material dimensions of social life, in the ideologies that shape

consciousness and in the cultural representations that transmit its

meaning.’54

The invisibility of whiteness manifests itself within black

communities in many different ways which individuals are obliviousto. %r @enry argues that this often occurs when people of African

descent responding to or resisting white supremacy, endorse the

same pre$udiced view that human beings possess immutable charac-

teristics. 0iving an eample, he alludes to a black youth of mied

Huropean and African ancestry, who because of his eperience of

racism regards whites as irredeemable devils. 8hen %r @enrychallenged his perception by asking the youth if he was therefore

half a devil based on his dual heritage he did not have an answer.

EThe way he measures his humanity as a member of the human



%eborah 0abriel

3M

family is based on the manner in which whiteness operates, because

whiteness categorises who is human and who is non-human.’57

#eople are not necessarily aware of whiteness even though they are

living through it, %r @enry argues. This is also true of the yardsticks

by which black some people measure themselves. In another

eample he spoke of the decision by a black mother to take her

child out of a certain primary school because the child has an I of

57. )ut as he pointed out = who invented I tests and for whatpurpose? According to %r @enry they were created by a certain

class of white people for a specific purpose. EIt’s about perpetuating

this idea of natural superiority.’ At a business event, the ma$ority of

the black men had white female partners and a sieable number of

the black women had white male partners. %r @enry asked and

answered the >uestion as to why the black men and women couldnot find each other* E8hat whiteness does, is that it does not matter

how much you see in someone who looks like you, they will never

measure up because the standard is white.’ I believe that a ma$or

problem in terms of the impact of whiteness in the black imagina-

tion is the failure by people of African descent to challenge its core

value that places individuals within a racialised social hierarchy. I see very few of my black contemporaries challenging white supremacy

but far greater numbers looking to secure a Esafe’ position within the

very system that subordinates them and other people of African

descent. This individualistic attitude to me typifies the white imagi-

nation in the African psyche.



Blackness and Black Identity

)lackness is the shared eperience of millions of people over

many generations, all of whom are endowed by their +reator

with the same essential spiritual nature, a nature which is

shared in common with all human beings, and yet finds

uni>ue epression in people of African descent, by virtue ofhistorical circumstance and physical necessity.<

The last chapter unveiled whiteness, not merely as a skin

colour, but as a construct which confers privilege to those racialised

as white, whilst simultaneously subordinating non-white peoples.

8hiteness, however, as a perspective also influences the mindset ofpeople of African descent because it is also a way of looking at the

world and those within it. )lackness has far greater significance than

skin colour and has to be eamined outside the narrow and deroga-

tory definitions assigned by Huropeans at various points in history.

)lackness carries with it history, representation, culture, identity and

spirituality. This book has so far determined that colourism is an

internalised form of racism that values lighter skin and derides black

skin, which is part of a legacy of chattel enslavement and colonisa-

tion and a conse>uence of the oppressive nature of white suprema-

cy. Rvercoming this legacy and addressing the destructive nature of

colourism re>uires to some degree the unmasking of whiteness and

a sustained challenge to the structures and systems that support it,

as was suggested in the last chapter. )ut the most effective and

immediate challenge to colourism has to come from within. nder-

standing how whiteness affects our view of ourselves and others



%eborah 0abriel

37

and decoloniing the mind is the first and most important step in

repairing the psychological damage that causes individuals within

the same racial group to $udge others based on the shade of their

skin.

In order to appreciate blackness one has to remove the lens

of whiteness and discard its limited visibility and narrow perspective

and adopt a universal view of the world. @owever, as blackness

both defines and represents people of African descent = whereverthey are in the %iaspora, it is also necessary to accept the relation-

ship between blackness and African heritage in order to appreciate

the historical significance of blackness. 1ationality and heritage are

not the same and ought not to be confused. )eing born in )ritain as

a black person denotes one’s nationality as )ritish, but this should

not sever African ancestral ties. As I; 1ur eplains*

)eing Afrikan represents our relationship from a geograph-

ical, political and cultural perspective, with the landmass we

call Afrika. The term also links us with her resources and with

other Afrikans, historically and culturally. Therefore, Afrikans

are individuals who, by virtue of common cultural roots, his-tory, political interests and genetic linkage, have a rightful

claimFto the ;otherland, materially and psychologically.G

I should make it clear at this point that I am not suggesting

that only people of African descent should be e>uated with black-

ness, but as this book is concerned with the African %iaspora, thischapter on blackness makes reference solely to people of African

descent. In this respect I believe that the self-denial of one’s African

heritage brings with it confusion and displacement as well as a



)lackness and )lack Identity

3/

detachment from people with whom we have a shared history and

eperience. The origins of black mankind predate both +aribbean

history and the arrival of enslaved Africans in 1orth and (atin

America. Africa is the cradle of all humanity and the birthplace of

civilisation. To deny one’s African heritage is to deny one’s histori-

cal and collective identity. Amos 8ilson offers an articulate eplana-

tion of the historical importance of identity*

@istory is what creates a shared identity in a people. It is

based on that shared identity that they act collectively. To

take away a people’s history, to degrade their history is to

degrade their sense of shared identity to remove the basis

upon which they must behave collectively and reach their

goals collectively. That’s why the history is rewritten.Q

Abdias %o 1ascimento, writing about the eperience of Af-

ro descendants in )rail in 5"3, referred to the efforts of the white

ruling class to erase the memory of Africa among the black popula-

tion through ecluding any history of Africa from the educational

curriculum and restricting travel to the continent by keeping Afro)railians in a state of perpetual poverty. E)ut none of these hin-

drances had the power of obliterating completely, from our spirit

and memory, the living presence of ;other Africa.’M It is easier for

the mind of a black man or woman to be manipulated by the

distorting elements of whiteness and to regard blackness as inferior,

if that person is detached from the realities of their historical andcollective identity as an African. This is because their eistence is

based on a fairly recent history which has been distorted by Huro-

peans as a $ustification for enslavement and to facilitate the coloni-



%eborah 0abriel

33

sation of African peoples, as we have read in earlier chapters.

@ence, at the beginning of his article, 1ascimento makes a plea for

Ethe urgent need of the )railian black people to win back their

memory, which has been systematically assaulted by )railian

8estern-inspired structures of domination for almost 4 years.’4

)eing detached from an African heritage therefore places an

individual in the precarious position of being a black man or woman

in a white world. As whiteness only functions in opposition toblackness, which it subordinates, under these circumstances a black

person can never value blackness but can only despise it, or at best

tolerate it. As &anon states*

&rom the moment the 1egro accepts the separation imposed

by the Huropean he has no further respite, and 9is it not un-derstandable that thenceforward he will try to elevate himself

to the white man’s level? To elevate himself in the range of

colours to which he attributes a kind of hierarchy?:7

;uch that has been written about blackness has been writ-

ten by Huropeans to denigrate, rather than to celebrate it. This bookhas already demonstrated how and why this occurred and how it

contributed towards the internalisation of these negative associa-

tions with blackness by people of African descent, affecting intra

group relations. @owever, this chapter is not concerned with these

eternal depictions of blackness = it is a dangerous proposition to

allow others to define you and tell you what you are or are not. Thisneeds to be remembered when faced with what generations of

scholars have proven to be false, Hurocentric and racist dogmas on

black inferiority. This chapter is concerned with how we have




3"

defined blackness ourselves in historical and contemporary times

and what blackness has symbolised to people of African descent.

Cunoko Cashidi’s studies on the African presence in India point to

around M, )+ as the era that heralded the arrival of Africans in

India known as the @arappan peoples, named after the two cities

where they settled = @arappa and ;ohen$o-%aro in the Indus Civer

alley. 2ome scholars assert that they originated from Hgypt. (ike

the Hgyptians the @arappa used an early form of writing based onhieroglyphs. %ravidians are believed to be the descendants of the

@arappans. +heikh Anta %iop argued that the %ravidians and

1ubians belong to the same ethnic group. The term %ravidian

applies both to ethnicity and language. &rom the 6rd century ).+

the three main kingdoms inhabited by the %ravidians were #andya,

+hera and +hola. In both 533 and 5"6, ;arco #olo travelled tothe #andyan kingdom and observed the role that skin tone played

amongst its inhabitants*

The darkest man is here the most highly esteemed and con-

sidered better than the others who are not so dark. (et me

add that in very truth these people portray and depict theirgods and their idols black and their devils white as snow. &or

they say that 0od and all the saints are black and the devils

are all white./

Rne could interpret the attitude of the %ravidians as a posi-

tive self-identification with blackness based on the religious associa-tion of their gods who were portrayed as black. In this respect their

gods were fashioned in the image of the %ravidians themselves, as

black-skinned. @ence the darkest %ravidians were more revered,



%eborah 0abriel

"

probably as they more closely resembled the %ivine gods whom

they worshipped. The African presence in India is also linked with

the origins of )uddhism which emerged in India around the 7th

century )+H. +heikh Anta %iop attributes the )uddha to a black

Hgyptian priest who fled Hgypt when the #ersian known as +amby-

ses attacked Hgypt in the year 44 )+H and crowned himself Ling

of Hgypt and the first of the /th dynasty. %iop argues that this

would eplain the portrayal of the )uddha with afro hair. This viewis endorsed by another scholar, %r ulindlela 8obogo, who posits

that the Hgyptian priests brought to Asia their spiritual knowledge

from Africa and that many aspects of )uddhism such as meditation

have their origins in Hgyptian spirituality. 0erald ;assey goes even

further in asserting the identity of the )uddha in saying*

Fit is certain that the )lack )uddha of India was imaged in

the Africoid type. In the )lack OAfricanP god, whether called

)uddha or 2ut-1ahsi, we have a datum. they carry in their

colour the proof of their origin. The people who first fash-

ioned and worshipped the divine image in the Africoid mould

of humanity must, according to all knowledge of human na-ture, have been Africans themselves. &or the )lackness is not

merely mystical, the features and the hair of )uddha belong

to the )lack race.3

+hapter one of this book looked at the origins of colourism

and how the ethnic transformation of ancient Hgypt caused by Arabinvasions brought conflict between the Afro-Asians and pure black

Hgyptians. This is discussed later in %r 8illiam’s book in reference

to the divisions between the southern black Hgyptians and northern




"5

Asian-dominated Hgyptians, even after black pharaohs had con-

>uered northern Hgypt. The issue of contention was the decision by

the black pharaohs to encourage integration rather than drive out

the foreigners, which was unpalatable to the black Hgyptians Efor

whom the prospects of having their children come into the world

with a colour distinctly different from their own was at once an

insult to their watching ancestors and an offence to the 0ods

themselves.’" The black Hgyptians believed themselves to be thetrue Hgyptians because of their black skin and because of their

religious beliefs* EThey were 9+hildren of the 2un: blessed with

blackness by the 2un 0od himself and thus protected from its fiery

rays. They were his children. Their very blackness, therefore, was

religious, a blessing and an honour.’5 +ompare this ancient, black

religious belief in blackness as a positive affirmation from the%ivine, to the action by Huropean Bews and Talmudists to present

blackness as a curse for wrongdoing resulting in the enslavement of

the black race. The ancient Hgyptians saw that the arrival of the

Afro-Asians brought with it a colour-hierarchy that sought to

subordinate them, but they were so grounded in their identity as

black Hgyptians that they stood their ground and asserted theirblackness as a symbol of pride.

8hilst black skin was Ea badge of honour’ for the ancient

Hgyptians, blackness should not be e>uated solely with dark skin

among people of African descent but should be understood as a

level of consciousness. @owever the term Eblack’ can sometimes be

problematic for those with light skin. In her paper on black identity,&rancoise )aylis draws attention to the dilemma posed for light

skinned and mied race individuals when it comes to blackness and

black identity. 2he states*



%eborah 0abriel

"

I am a +anadian of +aribbean descentN my mother is from

)arbados Jmy father is from HnglandK. I have a white faceN

and truth be told, a white body too. The fact is however, that

I am black. @ow do I know? )ecause my mother told me

so.’55

)aylis asserts that it is lived eperience that shapes racialidentity through interaction and engagement with others. E;y racial

identity as a black person was Jand isK carefully constructed by and

for me.’5 As is often the case, most black families do not conform

to a uniform shade of black and this was the case with )aylis’s

family. @er black mother socialised her from a young age to accept

her blackness and not to try and conceal it even though she couldpass for white. Throughout her childhood )aylis felt the need to

reveal her blackness to everyone well into her teens until a friend

told her it was Etiresome.’ &or )aylis E)eing a black identity is hard

work when you have white skin.’56 +rucially, )aylis recalls that as a

child her mother saw all of her children as black regardless of their

skin tone. )aylis claims her black identity through her genetic make-up, through her culture, ties with the black community and through

her eperience of racism. In her paper she recalls an interesting

encounter on a plane $ourney seated net to two white women from

Dimbabwe who spoke about Africans in derogatory terms. Rffend-

ed their bigotry )aylis rebuked them, telling them she was black

only to have them respond in disbelief by refusing to accept that she was a black woman. +learly what was crucial to her sense of black-

ness for )aylis was her socialisation, her lived eperience and

collective sense of belonging. &or %r @enry blackness encompasses




"6

political, spiritual and cultural dimensions that tie individuals into

traditions that are thousands of years old and to ways of being and

knowing.

It gives me an idea that I come from a section of the human

family who have probably represented all OskinP shades for

thousands of years, but essentially they recognise that we

were created for a purpose and we must try and live in har-mony, not $ust with each other but with the planet as well.5M

Hndorsing the view of the ancient Hgyptians, for whom the

most powerful manifestation of creation was the sun, %r @enry

believes that the sun is life-giving and energy-giving and that people

of African descent are the children of the sun. Above all, blacknessis a state of consciousness that is able to pierce through the barrier

of whiteness in order to look at the world through different eyes.

The reality of blackness is that people of African descent have

comprised various skin tones for thousands of years and the reason

for the wide variation is a natural diversity of African peoples rather

than through miscegenation, as is sometimes offered as a reason forblack people ranging from dark to light skin tones. %r @enry

believes that the best way to tackle colourism is by black people

acknowledging the strategies that have been used historically to

divide us, causing us to devalue who we are. E&or me that is what

blackness is, a level of consciousness. It’s about being aware of who

you are, what you are and what you represent in this time.’54



%eborah 0abriel

"M



Conclusion

8hether we are light, yellow, black or what not, there is but

one thing for us to do, and that is to get together and build up

a race. 0od made us in @is own image and @e had some

purpose when @e thus created us. ;arcus 0arvey, 5"6.<

8hatever one’s religious or spiritual beliefs may be, one

cannot argue against the validity of 0arvey’s words for people of

African descent. @is clarion call for black people across the world to

unite to defeat the common enemy of white supremacy has been

influential in my view of the world and my place within it as a

member of the global African community. It is from this perspec-tive in the #an African tradition that the idea for this book was

conceivedN to eamine the issue of colourism as it impacts the

African %iaspora. Cather than focus solely on the L, as other

writers have focused on the countries in which they were born and

raised, I have chosen to focus on the African %iaspora, of which I

am a part. At the beginning of this book, the foundations were laid

for an eamination of colourism as a legacy of enslavement and

colonisation and as an internalised form of racism. It is internalised

because the individual absorbs the dehumanising nature of en-

slavement as well as the stigma towards blackness that occurs

through a collaborative denigration of blackness and black identity

entrenched in religion, science, literature, media and popular culture.

That in itself provides some measure of the deep psychological

damage that has been perpetuated through the generations, rein-

forcing the message that blackness is inferior to whiteness. It was



%eborah 0abriel

"7

necessary to establish the foundations of colourism by delving as far

back as possible into our historical past to establish how it is that as

a global black community we still bear the scars of a traumatic past.

In recent years there has been a preoccupation within the main-

stream media with colour issues, particularly skin bleaching, but on

the whole the treatment has been more sensational than construc-

tive and informative. There is never any attempt at eplaining what

drives non-white people to burn their skin with chemicals otherthan subtle attempts to suggest it is borne of a desire to be white,

thereby reinforcing the concept of the white beauty ideal. 8hilst

this book has focused on Huropean enslavement and colonisation in

its eamination of certain black communities within the African

%iaspora, it also aimed to demonstrate in the first chapter the role

that Arab enslavement played in the destabilisation of Africancommunities on the continent, which paved the way for Huropean

chattel enslavement. The chapters on 1orth America, Bamaica and

(atin America demonstrate a consistent pattern of the diversity of

skin tone among Africans being used as a divisive tool to foster

disunity, mistrust and suspicion and to minimise resistance to the

social order. That these colour-coded patterns remained intactfollowing emancipation bear testimony to the evolutionary strategies

used to maintain white supremacy. Bust because white Huropean

hegemonies stopped transporting enslaved Africans to the 1ew

8orld did not mean that notions of white superiority had been

discarded, nor that there was any intention of relin>uishing social

and economic power over people of colour. If we eamine thehistory of racism in )ritain as demonstrated in chapter four, the

denigration of people of African descent was most intense during

the 53th and 5"th centuries when scientific racism emerged, both to



+onclusion

"/

$ustify slavery and to lobby against abolition. )ritain passed the

Abolition Act after it had already set its sights on the colonisation of

the African and Asian continents which occurred with as much

brutality as did chattel enslavement. +olonisation in many ways

replicated the colour stratification that characterised the governance

of slave colonies as was evidenced by the creation of Apartheid in

2outh Africa and Bim +row laws in the 2A. In other colonised

societies, whilst colour stratification may not have been embeddedin laws and customs it nonetheless maintained a de facto eistence.

In (atin America white hegemonies chose the lure of white privilege

and the opportunity for membership of the white elite as a superfi-

cial means of maintaining a white ma$ority and safeguarding the

interests of what is in reality a white minority. Allowing certain

members of the black and Indian population, notably the mestios,to cross over the colour line essentially ensured that the system of

white supremacy was defended and supported by a large number of

blacks, who might otherwise form part of a challenge to the system

of oppression. Hamining human evolution and skin colour was

included as a reminder of the fact that contrary to the theories

espoused during the eplosion of scientific racism, that there is a wide consensus today amongst anthropologists and geneticists that

point to the black African origins of mankind. It was also intend to

reinforce the message that regardless of our skin colour or facial

features all peoples whether African, Asian or Huropean are mem-

bers of one human family, which is the human race. As 0arvey

states in the >uotation at the beginning of this chapter, the +reatormade us = black-skinned people of African descent in @is own

image and had a purpose for doing so. This is not emphasised to

confer any claim to superiority by virtue of this reality, $ust that it



%eborah 0abriel

"3

had its purposeN it is part of black African ancestral history and is

something to be acknowledged as a source of pride. The chapter on

whiteness and white supremacy is central to understanding the

concept of colourism as without it colourism would not eist. The

purpose of this chapter was to deconstruct the subtle and latent

manner in which whiteness functions as a means of eplaining how

people of African descent can succumb to the subordinating values

of white supremacy by devaluing blackness without realising thatthey are endorsing white supremacy. 8hiteness and the privilege

and social advantage that it confers upon people racialised as white

is not only invisible to the white group but also to many blacks who

are the very ones being disadvantaged by its discriminatory nature.

If white supremacy is to be effectively eposed, challenged and

destabilised, then people need to be aware of how it operates in thefirst instance. )ut at the same time people of African descent have

to wake up and take stock of the immense disadvantage and dis-

crimination that is robbing them and other non-white peoples of

e>uality of opportunity and the right to an e>uitable share of the

world’s resources. As 0arvey urged* E8hether we are light, yellow,

black or what not, there is but one thing for us to do, and that is toget together and build up a race.’ The chapter on whiteness and

white supremacy also serves as a warning to those who succumb to

the na[ve notion that we are living in times where colour is unim-

portant. 1othing could be further from the truth. The fact that race

eists merely as a construct rather than of any biological reality does

not change the reality of the social disadvantage, eclusion anddiscrimination that globally, dark-skinned and black people live with

every day of their lives. nder these oppressive circumstances as

people of African descent we have no alternative but to fight for



+onclusion

""

social $ustice and to liberate ourselves and the rest of humanity from

the immoral and violent clutches of white supremacy. That involves

a move away from the individualistic and self-obsessed attitudes that

pervade black communities across the world as a result of western

influence, to one that is altogether more in keeping with our cultural

heritage as a people of a collective and community-oriented nature.

The last chapter on blackness and black identity was specifically

intended to focus on blackness from an African perspective, that isnot to suggest a homogenous concept of blackness from what is by

all accounts the most diverse continent on the planet - ethnically,

linguistically and in terms of skin colourN but in eamining a few

eamples of how Africans saw themselves prior to their enslave-

ment by Arabs and Huropeans. This chapter intentionally avoids

definitions of blackness that result from eternally imposed con-cepts and definitions and instead focuses on how we have seen and

understood our blackness both historically and in contemporary

times. In order to resist the destructive nature of white supremacy

and the negativity and inferiority it aims to impose on people of

African descent, individuals need to be well grounded in their sense

of identity and to have reached a level of consciousness where theyare able to accept their blackness and wear it with a sense of pride =

not to seek to mask their black identity under bleaching creams,

cosmetic powders that lighten the appearance of the skin, or

weaves and chemical straighteners that disguise natural hair. I am by

no means suggesting that all women who opt to straighten their hair

or to wear wigs or weaves are trying to be white. As one who has worn hair weaves in the past I am in no position to cast stones.

@owever, I am conscious of the fact we are hardly emulating

blackness when we do so. It is more honest to accept that we are



%eborah 0abriel

5

still locked into Huropean standards of beauty and need to work at

appreciating beauty in our own image = because as long as we are

worshipping images of other people we will never worship our-

selves. The concept of blackness to the ancient Hgyptians was

inetricably linked to the belief that their blackness was a blessing

from the 2un 0od and was therefore a source of great of pride. In

recent years following the tireless work of past great scholars such

as %r +hancellor 8illiams and +heikh Anta %iop, the ancientHgyptians have come to symbolise a great period in history that

denotes the contribution of African peoples to the history of

humanity. The ancient Hgyptians have inspired several contempo-

rary scholars and Afro-centric enthusiasts to use their history as an

ego booster in a reactionary manner to Hurocentric dogma by

professing that we are worth something as African peoples as weonce ruled ancient civilisations. )ut as Amos 8ilson, another great

scholar once wrote, history is important for the lessons that it

teaches us. ;y inclusion of the ancient Hgyptians in this book was

for that specific purpose - to give us some perspective about our

black skin. The ancients knew that to be black is not to be ugly,

inferior or cursed, but to be black is to be blessed = blessed with theblackness that gave rise to creation = for all human life began with

the black skin of Africans as did the ancient civilisations that we so

revere today.

As globalisation continues to dominate the social, cultural,

economic and political landscape in the 5st century, there is an

urgent need for people of African descent scattered across the globeto draw upon our common history and ancestry as a source of

collective strength in order to overcome the disparities and ine>uali-

ties that pervade the lives of the global African community. @owev-



+onclusion

55

er, organising collective resistance on a global scale re>uires an

understanding and acceptance of the great diversity among African

peoples that is of language, ethnicity and culture as well as of skin

tone. The damaging legacy of chattel enslavement for which Huro-

peans utilised divisive strategies to control and subordinate enslaved

Africans still persists within black communities today throughout

the world, as studies on the impact of colourism have shown. It is

important therefore, that in eamining colourism, which has clearlyarisen from a shared eperience of slavery, colonisation, neo-

colonialism and white supremacy, that as people of African descent,

we look beyond the respective nationalities of our geographical

locations and seek solutions as global African citiens, which is vital

to ensure our survival as a people.



Taking the Debate (or)ard

I hope that you have en$oyed reading (ayers of )lackness*

+olourism in the African %iaspora and that you have opinions and

views on points raised in the book. )ut don’t keep them to yourselfS

Uou can submit your feedback on my website at this C(*

http*WWdeborahgabriel.comWbooksW

Alternatively if you want to write a longer article about the

issues raised you can submit a commentary or feature on #eople

with oices at this C(*

http*WWpeoplewithvoices.comWsubmit-article-formW



"eferences

I*TRO&UCTIO*

5. )laisdell, ed. M p.5M6

. nited 1ations, 5

CHAPT!R +

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CHAPT!R THR!!

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56. @utton, 5""/ p.

5M. +harles, 6, p./57



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5". Arogundade a.

. Arogundade, b p.5MM



%eborah 0abriel

53

5. Arogundade a

. 5""3, p.""

6. 0abriel, 7 a

M. ))+ 1ews J 4th Buly 5

4. ))+ 1ewsN 5"35

7. +hristian 5""3, p.6

/. Tikly et al M p.6

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7. ;usselman, A J6K

/. +alderon, T J/K

CHAPT!R SI-

5. Bablonski M, p.75

. an 2ertima, 5"34 p."M

6. an 2ertima, 5"34, p.5/

M. 0abriel, % J/K

4. 0abriel, % J/K

7. 0abriel, % J/K



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5. 0abriel, J7 cK

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7. Rwen, / p."/. Rwen, / p.5

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7. &anon 5"37 pp.35-3



%eborah 0abriel

55

/. Cashidi, 5""3

3. Cashidi, 5""3

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Third 8orld #ress

8ilson, A J5""6K The &alsification of the Afrikan +on-

sciousnessN 1ew UorkN Afrikan 8orld Info 2ystems

8indsor, C J6K &rom )abylon to Timbuktu* A @istory

of the Ancient )lack* Caces Including the )lack @ebrewsN th

edN AtlantaN 8indor’s 0olden 2eries

8orld )ank J6K Ine>uality in (atin America and the+aribbean* )reaking 8ith @istoryN

http*WWweb.worldbank.orgW8)2ITHWHTHC1A(W+R1TCI

H2W(A+HTW,,content;%L*63M3"/page#L*5M7/67pi#



)ibliography

54

L*5M736the2ite#L*4344M,.html Oaccessed on /th Bune

/P

J5""7K The ictorian iew of )lacks as 2avagesN The

Bournal of )lacks in @igher HducationN 1o.55 J2pringK pp.4-7



Inde*African Americans, 16, 17, 20, 21,

23, 60, 117, 118, 122

African Diaspora, 2, 3, 1, 2, 4, 25,49, 50, 52, 65, 86, 95, 103, 129

Africans, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 18,22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 32, 37, 38, 39,

40, 41, 45, 49, 50, 51, 55, 58, 62,63, 68, 81, 87, 89, 90, 92, 96, 101,

112, 114

Afro descendants, 57, 59, 64, 87

Bible, 7, 114

Black Bdd!a, 90

black skin, 34, 38, 44, 57, 68, 69, 85,91, 100

Blackness, 2, 3, 5, 6, 85, 90, 103,119, 120, 129

Bra"il, 57, 59, 87

Britain, 1, 2, 25, 43, 45, 51, 77, 86,96, 112, 115, 116

Britis!, 3, 14, 25, 27, 29, 40, 41, 43,51, 75, 77, 78, 80, 86, 114, 119,124

#arl $on %innaes, 37

#acasian, 37, 69

#!arles &inc!, 67

c!attel ensla'ement, 2, 6, 8, 9, 10,

32, 51, 52, 58, 63, 77, 82, 85, 96,101

#!eik! Anta Diop, 67, 77, 89, 90,100

#!ristian, 2, 6, 8, 13, 22, 40, 41, 45,

108, 114

colonisation, 2, 22, 25, 32, 40, 52,

57, 65, 76, 77, 82, 85, 88, 95, 101

color blindness, 82

#ba, 61

cltral imperialism, 21, 22

Dark skin, 18, 67

Da'id (me, 37

Dr #!ancellor )illiams, 9, 100

Dra'idians, 89

Dbois, 16, 64

edcational otcomes, 1, 16, 17, 48

*mancipation Act, 40

*nli+!tenment, 37, 38, 114

*ropean standard of beat, 20, 52

facial strctres, 69

-illborn, 78, 79, 80



(e+el, 39

(ominids, 66

.mmnael /ant, 38

.slam, 10, 11, 116, 122

amaica, 5, 2, 3, 4, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30,32, 33, 46, 51, 63, 96, 113, 114,

117, 118, 120, 122

%atin America, 5, 2, 3, 55, 56, 57,59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 87, 96, 113,114, 117, 120, 124

li+!ter skinned, 19, 33, 65

arcs -ar'es, 1

melanin, 66, 68

elanosomes, 66

eico, 55, 56, 59, 119

isce+enation, 26

mlattos, 3, 13, 14, 15, 16, 26, 27,28, 29, 30, 55, 56, 62, 64

mt! of t!e crse of (am, 7

rofessor tep!en mall, 46

racism, 1, 2, 5, 19, 21, 37, 43, 46, 47,

52, 64, 65, 70, 71, 77, 79, 82, 83,85, 92, 95

eli+ios folklore, 6

cientific racism, 71

skin bleac!in+, 21, 23, 32, 44, 96

skin color, 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, 21, 26, 27,

29, 34, 37, 42, 44, 55, 57, 59, 64,65, 66, 68, 70, 71, 74, 76, 81, 85,

97

sla'es, 7, 11, 13, 14, 25, 26, 27, 38,55, 62, 63

stereotpes, 18

!e mt! of t!e Dark #ontinent, 40

!ite pri'ile+e, 63, 73, 76, 82, 97

!ite spremac, 2, 5, 25, 26, 51,58, 61, 63, 65, 71, 73, 75, 76, 77,

78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 95, 101

!iteness, 3, 19, 26, 27, 34, 37, 38,71, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82,

83, 85, 86, 87, 93, 95

!ites, 7, 13, 14, 15, 18, 26, 27, 29,30, 37, 42, 52, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60,

62, 71, 73, 76, 77, 81, 83, 112



About the Author

%eborah 0abriel is currently a lecturer in $ournalism at the niver-

sity of 2alford in ;anchester, nited Lingdom, where she is

undertaking a #h% in media and cultural studies. J55K 2he is alsothe %irector of #eople with oices +I+, a social enterprise and

+ommunity Interest +ompany which aims to widen access to

$ournalism for people from working class, black and minority ethnic

Layers of B Colorismo

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