The Hopkins Black History Month Committee wrapped up its month-long series of events by hosting Katrina Bell-McDonald, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology, for a lecture on Feb. 27 at the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Bell discussed colorism, a subset of racism within communities in which those with lighter skin are viewed more favorably than those with darker skin, and its impact on Caribbean and African communities.
The committee, composed of junior George Quist, senior Michelle Lampart and senior Chantel Fletcher began arranging the talk with Bell at the beginning of February.
The event included a presentation and video clips of Oprah speaking about colorism. Bell discussed her 2009 trip to Ghana, where she realized that Africans seemed to have lighter skin tones than she had expected.
She also discussed the racial hierarchy, the origins of racism, white privilege and examples of subconscious racism, such as the fact that editors of popular culture magazines used computers to darken O.J Simpson’s skin during his trial.
Another important issue that Bell’s talk touched on was the impact of media on racial stereotypes.
“Today, colorism strongly exists in social media like Instagram, Facebook, books, movies, TV shows, when you only see women of lighter skin tones representing the black community when we are a people with a whole spectrum of complexions,” Michelle Lampart, co-chair of the Hopkins Black History Month Committee, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
Lampart believes that in order to combat colorism, people must take a stand against stereotypes and misrepresentations in the media.
“The media is very powerful, and insidious and you don’t realize it’s taking hold of you,” Bell said.
“Back off. The media will only last as long as we supply it. . .TV is very intoxicating.”
The presentation was followed by a discussion, but the conversation continued even after the event ended.
“Colorism is important because it reveals how deep racism goes and how it affects people on the everyday. Most people don’t even recognize or have heard of colorism, and whites are largely oblivious to it,” Bell wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
This was Bell’s first colorism talk outside of a classroom setting. She believes that in order to solve issues surrounding colorism, the world must first ameliorate racism.
“[Colorism can only be solved] through the eradication of racism in the world, where in the end all people are given equal status in the world and treated as equals.”
Lampart agreed.
“Colorism, along with other forms of prejudice, is learned, so if you don’t expose children to these things then they’ll never know [they exist] and that’s the end goal. . .If we were to see the true variety of the black skin tone on television on a regular basis with no bias, stereotypes or stigmas that are associated with skin color, then [someone’s] skin color wouldn’t have a [judgment] behind it,” Lampart said.
