Introduction
Social scientists and historians continue to credit chattel slavery as the basis of the current system of light skin preference. Chattel slavery created a fundamental racialized institution, which later occurred as the foundation of the light skin preference system. The codification and institutionalization of chattel slavery founded the modern system of colorism and skin tone stratification among Black Americans (Reece, 2018). According to existing research, light-skinned black Americans overshadow their darker-skinned black American counterparts in income, health accessibility, urbanicity, education, prison sentences, and perceived attractiveness (Reece, 2018). Psychologically, African Americans who physically appear near to the average, medium-brown skin tone receive some sort of protection in their racial identity and become least stigmatized.
On the other hand, those with skin tones on either end of the spectrum, receive a lower sense of mastery. Such skin tone bias makes the issue of Colorism to complex, therefore serving as a benefit or setback depending on the social context (Uzogora, Lee, Abdou, & Jackson, 2014). Colorism occurs as a system of ideologies and practices that provide lighter-skinned African Americans with privileges over their darker-skinned counterparts. This is because the prior have facial features associated with Europeans while the latter are aligned more to African facial features. As suggested by cultural psychology, thoughts and perceptions in a group are mainly aligned as either collectivistic or interdependent and emphasize similarity and connectedness to such groups. The demographic complexion and diversity in America represent theorists with an opportunity to represent their ideas and assess social systems. Therefore, this section aims to analyze some theories that provide a framework for studying Colorism, and also discuss the basic tenets and assumptions of a research method utilized to investigate Colorism.
Psychological theories that provide a Framework on Colorism.
Critical Race Theory
Critical race theory (CRT) is an intellectual movement that started as an extension and assessment of critical legal studies (CLS). With the method, we seek to understand how white supremacy, cultural, legal, and political conditions, is duplicated and sustained, mostly in the US context (Tomas De La Garza & Ono, 2016). Unlike the other theories, critical race theory occurs as an approach that emerged within legal studies with the aim of enacting social and political changes. According to the tenets of the critical race theory, ideological and political institutions occur as the legal system, and it rationalizes and justifies a state’s existence. Besides, the legal system requires a set of power and knowledge processes that prohibits ordinary people from accessing it. Although the arbiters of the law pretend to depend on reason, the fact is it depends on culturally biased, subjective, quasi-religious, and politically motivated when making and imposing decisions (Tomas De La Garza & Ono, 2016). It is a theory that shows the racial realism that tends to abandon equality among people of color, especially in countries like America.
According to the critical race theory, there is a need to obtain insight into systems of oppression with gender, race, and socioeconomic status of African Americans imposed by Whites during slavery (Johnson, 2015; Burton et al., 2010). The tenets of critical race theory recognize race as a vital part of social organization and systems, institutionalization of racism, colorblindness, and interest convergence. These provide insight into the history of Colorism, the challenges that exist amongst African Americans with those that impose prejudiced attitudes toward them, relationships between light-skinned and dark-skinned African American women, and their experiences in their own words to those who have oppressed them and those who may be misinformed about their experiences with discrimination (Tomas De La Garza & Ono, 2016). Critical race theory focuses on eliminating systems of oppression and discrimination that keep individuals divided due to their race, sex, and sexuality. Another area that critical race theory focuses on is the real-word effects of race and racism. It tends to analyze the impact of race and racism on identities, bodies, and experiences of people of color. Thus, it tends to expound how racism as a factor of social condition exists beyond intentional and individual racist acts, and how racism must be recognized at social, institutional, economic, historical, and political dimensions (Tomas De La Garza & Ono, 2016).
Interest convergence is the notion that the oppressive group seeks to obtain equality for all races, but with the overall idea of benefiting from it. The social construction of race focuses on how individuals are classified within their race, such as light-skinned and dark-skinned African Americans, also known as differential racialization (Johnson, 2015; Burton et al., 2010). The social construction of race aids in the discriminatory experiences of African American women. There is an assumption that African American women that have discriminatory experiences based on their skin tone may have lower self-esteem than those who have never dealt with any insecurity about their skin tone. Under differential racialization, a system of oppression as Whiteness is perceived as great, and that individuals within other races tend to find favor in those who have features that are close to Whites (Tomas De La Garza & Ono, 2016). It is the first tenet of CRT and exposes the complexity, power, and normativity of Whiteness, and demonstrate the influence of Whiteness in the society, and the way whiteness is procreated as a cultural center.
The centrality of narrative and storytelling, as expounded in the second tenet of critical race theory, critiques laws and legal studies for their failure to incorporate people of color into scholarship. From a CRT scholarship perspective, knowledge is produced and deployed to invalidate or disprove the experience people of color have with racism. Therefore, the scarcity of African American scholars limits their voice in validating experimental knowledge, pushing them back against institutional investments to ensure the existence of colorblind façade (Tomas De La Garza & Ono, 2016). As observed in the other tenets of this theory, third tenet (liberalism), forth tenet (commitment to social justice), and fifth tenet (significance of interdisciplinary), there is deep structural racism that forms the basis of the oppression faced by people of color in America.
Social Dominance Theory
Social dominance theory (SDT) originated as theorists attempted to understand how group-based social hierarchies are formed and maintained. Social dominance theory is a general theory that provides an analysis of societal group-based inequality. Although societies tend to show the varying form of government, the existence of a significant belief system and complexity in social and economic matters tends to organize communities in group-based social hierarchies (Macchia & Radke, 2017; Pratto, Sidanius & Levin, 2006). As outlined in the social dominance theory, group-based social hierarchy occurs as a result of the overall effects of discrimination of intergroup processes in individuals, institutional, or collaborative levels. Individuals in the dominant social groups appear to enjoy an out of proportion share of positive social value. It is the group that enjoys symbolic resources and desirable materials in the society, such as access to quality housing and health, beneficial food, political power, wealth, protection y force, leisure, and education. On the other hand, members of subordinate or minority group in the same society tend to face negative social values such as stigmatization, substandard services, and distasteful work due to their low profile in the group-based hierarchical organizations (Macchia & Radke, 2017).
In an attempt to address the processes of structuring human societies, social dominance theory provides a generalized perspective on gender, group’s interest, individual differences, or social identity. It is a theory that proposes group-based hierarchy as self-sustaining and occurs in three primary forms; age system, gender or patriarchal system, and arbitrary set system (Macchia & Radke, 2017). Age system outlines privileges enjoyed by adults over children; the patriarchal system is gender-based and shows how men enjoy privileges over women. Besides, the arbitrary set system is socially and culturally constructed and outlines hierarchical privileges in terms of race or social class. The arbitrary hierarchy is, therefore, more suitable in explaining Colorism in societies. In view of aggregated discrimination, social dominance theory maintains that discrimination is a common occurrence within gender, arbitrary set, and age.
Another perspective provided by the social dominance theory is behavioral asymmetry (BA). The behavioral asymmetry is grouped into four; ideological asymmetry, asymmetric in-group bias, debilitating behaviors, and outgroup favoritism (Marira, 2018). According to the social dominance theory, the dominants in every society are more likely to exhibit stronger endorse ideologies and in-group bias that promote the status quo. The Asymmetric in-group bias refers to the tendency of the dominant group to have higher levels of favoritism over members of the subordinate group (Marira, 2018). The dominant group appears motivated and strives to maintain control of the privileges and position in the hierarchies. The outgroup favoritism happens when subordinate groups favor the dominant outgroup, instead of favoring their own subordinate in-group. Members in the subordinate group tend to psychologically identify with the group in the higher status rather than members with lower status in their group.
Moreover, the existence of group debilitating behaviors in behavioral asymmetry occurs as an essential aspect of explaining Colorism. Under this category, the subordinate groups are indicated to participate in socially detrimental practices due to the difficulties they experience from their immediate environment (Marira, 2018). Members from the subordinate groups are inclined to involve themselves in criminal activities and risky health practices at a higher rate than their counterparts from the majority group. Under this form of behavioral asymmetry, hierarchies are recognized to occur as a result of self-debilitating behaviors existing in the group with lower status. Moreover, the existence of values, attitudes, causal attributions, ideologies, and beliefs causes legitimizing myths, which in turn, support or diminish group-based hierarchy.
The concept of social dominance orientation (SDO) occurs as the central notion of the social dominance theory. Individuals who appear high in social dominance orientation are perceived to enhance hierarchies through their support of formal policies, institutional arrangements, and social norms, essential in producing and maintaining higher levels of group-based social inequality (Newman, Hartman & Taber, 2014). Generally, this theory outlines group inequality to be carried on via hierarchy-enhancing forces. The social dominance theory has been vital in explaining how every individual in our societies belongs to a certain group. The placement of individuals to such groups follows a hierarchical outline whereby individuals with a given similarity are grouped together to protect that hierarchy. It is a common phenomenon in groups with positive social value. Due to the creation of race distinction, the white skin is preserved to be superior while the black skin as inferior in the racial hierarchy.
Social-Categorization Theory
Self-categorization theory (SCT) is used to explain the development and applicability of social issues. It is an improved format of the social identity theory, which was formulated by Henri Tajfel among other founders. The approach provides an enhanced way of explaining social relations in groups, and also predict reasons for group formation, outcomes of negative intra, and intergroup attitudes. Whereas social identity provides motivational explanations for the existence of in-group bias, self-categorization of people, “we” gives an account of group membership, personality identity in specific and individualized ways. Social-categorization theory generally stresses on personal identity from a social identity perspective.
Depending on the eligibility of a situation, an individual’s character and relational conduct, social self, and intergroup performance, or dynamic interaction prevail. The process of racial classification is multidimensional, with lower-level emotional processing and higher-order social cognitive effects that unceasingly interrelate to determine the ultimate racial categorizing. Different social drives can determine the racial classification of varied targets. It could be ideological motives, economic scarcity, physical threat, and essentialism ( Trepte, 2017). The theory echoes that people have a natural need to belong; hence they associate themselves with group affiliation like race being an avenue in a social category. However, identification with a specific social group and the extent to which race is a relevant and meaningful factor should moderate these effects (Gaither, 2016). The notion denotes the individual level is the personal identity, while the various group levels are the social identity. The concept holds that the way people define and view themselves in any specific situation oscillates between these levels. They are also guided by each level’s different identities. As self-definition changes from personal to social identity, people view their natures differently. Gradually, psychologically and behaviorally, people revert from individuals to being group associates. The individual now responds based on shared social identity and collective similarities (Gaither, 2016). The theory posits that individuals act, live, and work and act within a socially organized system. There-in are group-based regularities of conduct, cognition, and perception, which have psychological significances. The concept of social identity depicts that group members are provided with a positive social identity. The positivity is derived from establishing a valued individuality for their groups as compared with other groups. The inconsistency of self-categories is fundamental in how the individual group member reacts to a world that is dynamic and variable. A group’s ability to become prominent is associated with the content, function of relations between personalities and groups, and the vibrant nature of these interactions. Self-categorization modifications, coupled with the content of group-based findings of self and other people, divulge self-categories orientation. This is archetypal in which the individuals and groups are in unceasing dynamic interaction ( Trepte, 2017). Dispositions in the theory suggest that people often categorize themselves as belonging to certain groups such as gender and nationality or otherwise. This group membership influences intergroup behavior, including shaping an individual’s self‐concept. The individual’s in-group self- evaluation follows self‐categorization closely. Consistently group members engage in social comparison to achieve positive evaluations of one’s own in‐group. To increase their self-esteem, they demean the other group. Individuals describe and catalog themselves at varying levels of abstraction (Trepte, 2017). One can define themself as a group member or as an individual. Others, in contrast to others, categorize themselves as members of higher-ranking inclusive groups. These inclusive self-categories are influential and determine what is socially negotiated. They are affirmed as right appropriate, and valued. This may persist until it becomes the new normal in society. Such is the case with Colorism.
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
Critical Race Theory experiments a hypothesis underscoring the prerequisite to understand Colorism within its historical economic and social, economic, and historical context. Particular emphasis is laid on the empirical knowledge of color. It challenges mutual assumptions about neutrality and meritocracy as camouflaged for the wellbeing of dominant groups. Similarly, Self Categorization theory pursues the hypothesis of self-dedication to being similar to others and leading to the emerging issue of uniqueness. This spikes the perception of personal superiority and the apparent need to stand out. This spiral of events is widely associated with the development and spread of Colorism. CRT adopts the perspective of “Whiteness” as a socially created and ductile identity. Conspicuously an element of CRT is its indulgence of White supremacy. In contrast, this denotes the operation of more extensive and subtle and forces that douse the routine shaping the global policies and actions in the interests of elevating white peoples’ agenda. Correspondingly, the meta contrast basic concept of SCT is an intellectual account of changes between a person and collective self –definition. In this context of defined perceptions, there are relative similarities. The theory’s perspective is that there is less similarity within than in intergroup in the social set up. This stimulates an individuated self- definition. Social Dominance theory recapitulates that all things being equivalent, a group of individuals tend to be characterized as a group to the extent that the apparent variances amongst them are reduced than the alleged differences in relation to other people here viewed as outgroups within the framework of purported interests. The three theories in essence, deliberate on the issue of Colorism as they bring out the possibility of individuals or groups developing superiority attitudes over others. The social dominance theory research agenda has encompassed many aspects of societies like political, structural, and ideological. This focuses on differences and similarities across societies. Subtly yet significantly, the theory insinuates similarities and differences in innumerable kinds of group-based oppression like Colorism and gender oppression. The argument, by contrast, focuses on both individual and structural factors that contribute to various forms of group-based oppression. It views issues like racism and ethnocentrism as a common tendency for humans to develop and sustain group-based hierarchy. They believe the world is just and fair even as oppression flourishes. Critical race theory purports that colorism racial inequality and racism prevail in American society, which proposes equality. The approach arguably pursues that structures and institutions are principally responsible for the preservation of racial inequality. Above all, there is increasing evidence of divergence in political attitudes among light-skinned and dark-skinned Black Americans (Reece, 2018). The aspect of color has to be envisaged mutually as a structure of prejudices and concerted historical recompenses. This changes and disrupts the viewed perspective of race in the United States.
Number 3: Provide a scholarly rationale for which theory is the MOST aligned with the topic. (Colorism)
Critical Race Theory is the preferred concept to study Colorism. The development by which people of color are awarded benefits based on their phenotypical closeness to Whiteness. The effects of Colorism are ever-present, where lighter-skinned Black Americans have many advantages. The inclination on Whiteness began during chattel slavery, where owners would prefer mixed race and light-skinned and mixed-race Mulatto slaves (Branigan et al., 2017)
Their research, as undertaken by the theorists, have ground on legal and structural perspectives of that policy solutions are hardly developed to mitigate racial inequality, rather they combat it. This becomes counterproductive as it only agitates aggression. Organizations like the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) plus the judicial system, maintain their inconsistency in rulings on race. They realize racial inequality is due to the cumulative consequences of racial discrimination. The absence of a clear color-based strategy consents racial progress to mask ongoing color prejudice. Many CRT scholars explore the themes explicitly and recognize the central role played by racism in shaping present-day society. They evaluate the race inequities and how they are shaped by procedures reflecting and being influenced by other factors of identity and social structure. CRT has, in recent years, branched into several areas of possible studies, including critical race feminism.
Analyze the implications of your research for the advancement of this theory
The study is contemporary and relevant as the multiracial population, which brings forth Colorism, is projected to be the fastest growing population in USA. This blurs the traditional boundaries of race, here illuminating this area as having a more subtle understanding of racial prejudice. This implies the need for attentiveness on the issue for theoretical and practical reasons.
In the absence of policies accounting for Colorism, the schism will persist being unaccounted for. The darker-skinned Black Americans may be doomed to a permanent position at the lowest of the social hierarchy. Colorism, as a structural process, has to be mitigated properly by developing effective interventions. As it approaches its zenith, the policy to be undertaken may raise the social, economic, and political temperatures. The policy changes may introduce a threat to the white race as a color-based policy in the United States is challenging to develop. Generally, despite the advancements, the understanding of color stratification is gagged by data limitations. A lot of contemporary racial policy depends on federal data.