Fair-skinned slaves automatically enjoyed their soft jobs in the master’s house, if they had to work at all: “Many traveled throughout the nation and abroad with their master and their families. They were exposed to the finer things, and many became educated as a result. Their darker-toned peers toiled in the fields. They were the ones whose who were beaten, burned, and hanged, the ones permanently condemned to be the lowest of th

It is not over. African-Americans’ historic battle equality is still being tested today. Racial and consumer profiling, police brutality, and anti-affirmative action movements continue to change the work of hard-won civil rights laws. And there’s another struggle: colorism. This division exists in our schools and even families. It’s ridiculous that we as black people do the very thing to each other that was done to us. Instead of dividing, we need to unite to address more important issues in the black community. Colorism saps our strength from the inside. We need to build stronger communities and help instead of judge each other. We all deal with some sort of racism daily. We shouldn’t discriminate against each other. More attention needs to be paid to a person’s character rather than the shade of his or her skin.

Colorism has always been an issue for the black community. In the past, some black social clubs and societies only allowed those who had light skin: “People say that in the early days at Spellman College were not admitted if they were darker than a paper bag,” said one graduate on the website called Pride and Prejudice. Having light skin, you were given more advantages than a dark skinned person and were more accepted in society.

The exact number of light-skinned blacks who shed their blackness to pass for white is not known exactly: “As of the year 1950, the defectors had soared to 12,000 per annum. By 1980 the yearly tally was 17,000. If the number held steady during the

e lowest of the low in US society” (www.spti

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