Ebony and Ivory: Relationship between African American Young Women's Skin Color and Ratings of Self and Peers
✍ Scribed by NASSAR-McMILLAN, SYLVIA ;McFALL-ROBERTS, EBUNI ;FLOWERS, CLAUDIA ;GARRETT, MICHAEL T.
- Book ID
- 102288855
- Publisher
- American Counseling Association
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 114 KB
- Volume
- 45
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1931-0293
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Many individuals face discrimination because of their skin color; however, skin color of
African American young adults has not been studied in detail. This study examines relationships between skin color and perceptions among African American college women.
The study yielded a positive correlation between personal values and self-rated skin color and a perception of peers with medium-brown skin as less desirable than their counterparts with either lighter or darker skin.
Skin color, the shade of skin with which an individual has been genetically endowed, has proved to be one of the most sensitive facets of life faced by many African Americans (Helms & Cook, 1999;Robinson & Howard-Hamilton, 2000). For example, many of these individuals have faced countless attacks from other African Americans because of differences in skin color. Discrimination based on skin color is firmly rooted in slavery, when the naturally dark pigmented color of African American skin became lightened as a result of miscegenation. Since slavery, African Americans have experienced ostracism, neglect, assault, and slander perpetuated by European Americans as well as by other African Americans on the basis of skin color. As a result, many African Americans have longed for the lighter complexion that has