Cover: Colorism and Mental health

2nd slide - Defining Colorism:

"Colorism--a term coined by Alice Walker-- is  a social, political and structural system that devalues, denigrates and disadvantages the lives of people the darker their skin tone, and uplifts, highlights and celebrates people the lighter to white skin tone that they are.

Colorism impacts who gets employed, who gets access to immigration and jobs, who is desired (and how they are desired) and whose talent and skills are seen and if/how they are seen."

Colorism is a global phenomena and a billion dollar industry, present not only In African and Black  Communities, but in Asian, and Latinx communities as well." -  Yolo Akili Robinson

3rd Slide:

" On average light-skin Black individuals have greater levels of net worth, financial assets, and non-financial assets than their medium- and darker-skin counterparts."

**Alexander Adames, The Cumulative Effects of Colorism: Race, Wealth, and Skin Tone, Social Forces, Volume 102, Issue 2, December 2023, Pages 539–560, https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/soad038**

4th Slide:

“There is strong evidence of a robust relationship between darker skin and increased risk of hypertension among African Americans.”

Thomas Laidley, Benjamin Domingue, Piyapat Sinsub, et al., “New Evidence of Skin  Color Bias and Health Outcomes Using Sibling Difference Models: A Research Note,” Demography 56 (2) (2019): 753–762.

5th slide - Disrupt Colorist attitudes.

Examine in your social life and in your institutions how Colorism operates and build systems to prevent and disrupt it.

“Pretty for a dark skinned girl”

“Stay out of the sun or you will get blacker”

Disrupt beauty markets that perpetuate Colorism.

6th Slide: 

Studies show that darker-skinned new immigrants have significantly worse labor market outcomes and lower amounts of wealth than lighter-skinned immigrants.44

Joni Hersch, “Profiling the New Immigrant Worker: The Effects of Skin Color and Height,” Journal of Labor Economics 26 (2) (2008): 345–386.

7th Slide: 

Colorism impacts and can create anxiety, feelings of isolation, loneliness, despair, ideation and much more.

“In-group colorism was linked to a higher lifetime risk of psychiatric disorders….anxiety disorders (agoraphobia with and without panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social phobia) were found to be linked to both in-group and out-group colorism.”

citation: MacIntyre MM, Zare M, Williams MT. Anxiety-Related Disorders in the Context of Racism. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2023 Feb;25(2):31-43. doi: 10.1007/s11920-022-01408-2. Epub 2023 Jan 16. PMID: 36645562; PMCID: PMC9841144.