Table Of ContentCOLOR MATTERS
In the United States, as in many parts of the world, people are discriminated
against based on gradations of skin color. This type of skin tone bias, or colorism,
is both related to and distinct from discrimination on the basis of race, with which
it is often conflated. Preferential treatment of lighter skin tones over darker occurs
within racial and ethnic groups as well as between them. While America has
made progress in issues of race over the past decades, discrimination on the basis
of color continues to be a constant and often unremarked part of life.
In Color Matters, Kimberly Jade Norwood has collected the most up-to-date
research on this insidious form of discrimination, including perspectives from the
disciplines of history, law, sociology, and psychology. Anchored with historical
chapters that show how the influence and legacy of slavery have shaped the
treatment of skin color in American society, the contributors to this volume bring
to light the ways in which colorism affects us all—influencing what we wear,
who we see on television, and even which child we might pick to adopt. Sure
to be an eye-opening collection for anyone curious about how race and color
continue to affect society, Color Mattersprovides students of race in America with
a wide-ranging overview of a crucial topic.
Kimberly Jade Norwood is Professor of Law and Professor of African and
African American Studies at Washington University, St. Louis.
NEW DIRECTIONS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
Science and Empire in the Atlantic World
Edited by James Delbourgo and Nicholas Dew
Natural Protest: Essays on the History of American
Environmentalism
Edited by Michael Egan and Jeff Crane
Breaking the Wave: Women, their Organizations, and
Feminism, 1945–1985
Edited by Kathleen A. Laughlin and Jacqueline L. Castledine
Trangender Migrations: Bodies, Borders, and the Politics of
Transition
Edited by Trystan T. Cotten
The Harlem Renaissance and the West: The New Negro’s
Western Experience
Edited by Bruce A. Glasrud and Cary D. Wintz
Entering The Picture: Judy Chicago, The Fresno Feminist
Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists
Edited by Jill Fields
Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the Myth of a
Post-Racial America
Edited by Kimberly Jade Norwood
COLOR MATTERS
Skin Tone Bias and the
Myth of a Post-Racial
America
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Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
NEW YORK AND LONDON
First published 2014
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 Taylor & Francis
The right of Kimberly Jade Norwood to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Color matters: skin tone bias and the myth of a postracial America/
edited by Kimberly Jade Norwood.
pages cm. — (New directions in American history)
1. African Americans—Race identity. 2. Human skin color—Social
aspects—United States. 3. Race awareness—United States. 4. Race
discrimination—United States. 5. Racism—United States. I. Norwood,
Kimberly Jade.
E185.625.C646 2013
305.896′073—dc23
2013021054
ISBN: 978-0-415-51774-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-51775-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-81933-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo and Stone Sans
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Kimberly Jade Norwood
1 The Ubiquitousness of Colorism: Then and Now 9
Kimberly Jade Norwood and Violeta Solonova Foreman
2 The Origins of Colorism in Early American Law 29
Paul Finkelman
3 The Rise and Fall of the One-Drop Rule: How the
Importance of Color Came to Eclipse Race 44
Kevin D. Brown
4 A Darker Shade of Pale Revisited: Disaggregated
Blackness and Colorism in the “Post-Racial”
Obama Era 95
Taunya Lovell Banks
5 Colorism and Interracial Intimacy: How Skin Color
Matters 118
Kellina M. Craig-Henderson
vi Contents
6 Fragmented Identity: Psychological Insecurity and
Colorism Among African Americans 139
Vetta L. Sanders Thompson
7 Colorism and Blackthink: A Modern Augmentation
of Double Consciousness 158
Kimberly Jade Norwood
8 The Implications of Skin Color vis-à-vis Discrimination:
Revisiting Affirmative Action 182
Ronald E. Hall and Adrienne Johnson
9 A New Way Forward: The Development and
Preliminary Validation of Two Colorism Scales 198
Richard D. Harvey, Kira Hudson Banks, and
Rachel E. Tennial
Bibliography 218
About the Contributors 239
Index 245
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I first would like to thank my husband, Ronald Alan Norwood, for his patience,
guidance, and support during the years that this project was in incubation. He
was my go-to man for every question, concern, and challenge, and I have been
blessed to have his input in this work. I owe a special thanks to Paul Finkelman.
Paul was the first colleague I spoke to about the colorism epiphany I experienced
while visiting China in the spring of 2010. It is because of my many
communications with and support from Paul that this project came to fruition.
Professor Leland Ware was the next colleague I contacted about this book. He
was a tremendous supporter of this project and spent valuable time working on
the book. I also thank all contributors for their dedication and enthusiasm during
the life of the project. A special thank you to my research assistants, Violeta
Solonova Foreman and Adrienne Johnson. Both were very gracious, patient,
diligent, and hard-working during our time together. Thank you to my colleagues
at Washington University School of Law, my assistant Beverly Owens, and the
law school library staff. All were crucial to the success of the project. I also would
like to thank Jean McDonald, lecturer of Journalism at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign, who provided invaluable editing advice to me during
the past few months. My oldest child, Candice Norwood, a 2013 graduate of
the University of Illinois, also deserves acknowledgment. In addition to intro -
ducing me to Jean McDonald, she also brainstormed with me about the scope
and depth of colorism on many occasions. Finally, I must thank my editor, Kimberly
Guinta, at Routledge. Always positive, always supportive, always sure, she has
been a calming, reassuring voice, and it has been a pleasure to work with
someone of her stability and balance.
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INTRODUCTION
Kimberly Jade Norwood
Data collected within the industry shows that 90 percent of the pistachios sold
in the Chinese market have been bleached, said Fang Ming, dean of the food
science and engineering department at the East China University of Science and
Technology. Pistachios have become a major snack in China only within the
past few years, Fang said. With no knowledge of the nuts’ natural look, most
consumers mistake the white-shelled pistachios as the good ones. The bleaching
is to cater to the mass consumer idea of “the brighter, the better,” which covers
up quality flaws.1
Bleached nuts. This might strike you as an odd way to start a book on the
continuing and increasing relevance of skin tone, but it is the springboard from
which this project ascends. It was, in fact, the concept that brought a half-century
of skin color unrest in my mind to fruition. For fifty years, I normalized evidence
of skin tone bias in the world and in my community, and then I read a newspaper
article about the bleaching of pistachio nuts. That article jarred the buried
concerns I had about how skin color affected the world, American society, and
black and brown communities.
While teaching in China during the spring of 2010, I came across a newspaper,
written in English: the China Daily. I was so excited to find a paper in my language
that I digested every word. Every day, I searched for the China Daily. On the
day in question, I read a story in the China Daily titled “New Standards to Ban
Bleaching of Pistachios.” While I like pistachios, I tend to read more political
and social news. Yet, being starved for the written English word, I went ahead
and read the story. It turned out to be a most intriguing read. According to the
article, China is the world’s largest consumer of pistachio nuts. Before making
them available to the consuming public, however, the nuts in China are bleached.
