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I was amused at the breathless astonishment of CNN’s anchors over the revelation by Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, that someone in the royal family had raised concerns about the potential skin color of the couple’s unborn biracial child.
During the couple’s televised interview Sunday night, Oprah Winfrey played the moment for maximum dramatic effect, literally dropping her jaw as she asked Meghan to repeat the allegation that when she was pregnant with her first child, Archie, there had been “concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he’s born.”
I immediately thought about the adult women I grew up with, who would crowd around the bassinet, inspecting the newborn’s ears, looking for a clue to indicate how light- or dark-skinned the child would end up being, especially if the parents came from opposite ends of the brown color spectrum. This is not to let the palace off the hook if indeed a member of Harry’s family interrogated him about his child’s potential skin tone. In a statement Tuesday responding to the allegations, Queen Elizabeth II said that “the issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning” and would be “addressed by the family privately.”
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It is racist to assign degrees of value to human beings based on skin color or other physical features. Enslavers created and reinforced this caste system by often treating their mixed-race children just a little better, assigning them to work inside the plantation residences, sometimes educating them, even as they kept them in bondage. Black people internalized that racist hierarchy, and to this day some still embrace the idea that those with skin lighter than a paper bag are more attractive, more acceptable. Older Black people used to describe those fixated on skin tone as “color struck.”
Share this articleShareAnd it’s not just Black Americans. All over the world, racial and ethnic groups fawn over members with less pigmentation and frown on those who have darker complexions. Cream-colored girls and women are simply pretty; deep brown girls and women who turn heads are described as “Black but pretty.”
The girls in my family covered a range of skin tones, and my mother and aunt took care to assure all of us that we were beautiful.
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Why bother pointing out the obviously misguided attitudes about skin tone? Because colorism is about more than hurtful taunts on the playground or school hallway. Colorism can lead to emotional and mental trauma. As the “doll tests” of the 1940s showed, discrimination based on skin color damaged the self-esteem of Black children. Dark-skinned women, even in predominantly Black countries, burn their faces with chemical concoctions in an effort to lighten their skin. It has also affected employment opportunities for people of color. Historically, women with darker skin have struggled in the beauty, fashion and entertainment industries, less likely to be chosen as cover girls and leading ladies.
A YouGov survey in 2019 found that darker-skinned Black Americans were more likely to say that they experienced racism frequently. What’s more, most Black people agreed with them.
The survey asked Black people to choose their complexion categories, and of those who identified as having the darkest skin, about half reported that they experienced racism “very” or “fairly” frequently. By comparison, 26 to 34 percent of Black people who identified as having lighter complexions said the same.
Meghan told Winfrey that the Firm informed her and her husband that their child would not be given a title and such privileges and services as security protection, that he would be treated differently than the other royal babies. The decision had apparently been made before there was a chance to see whether baby Archie would pass the paper bag test.
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