Credit: Offical Dark Girls Movie
INTRODUCTION
In the millennium, colorism is still an issue that continues to divide African Americans and other racial and ethnicity groups. Occurring interracially and intraracially, colorism spans throughout history rooted in white superiority and white privilege, and this discrimination among members belonging to the same racial group is just as detrimental as racism perpetrated by whites on blacks to the psychological well-being of individuals.
This exhibit explores colorism in visual culture, through traditional art media, film, and advertisements by channeling the issue through a historical lens. The exhibit highlights colorism within the African American community and other racial and ethnicity groups. The exhibition also recognizes the increasingly prominent role that cosmetic industries have played in promoting skin bleaching.
W.E. B. DuBois stated in his classic work of American literature, The Souls of Black Folks, “for the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line”. Colorism is proof that “The problem of the twenty-first century is still the problem of the color line."
