“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” –Audre Lorde
As we settle into the school year, one of the issues facing educators is that of colorism. The definition of colorism as recalled from the Webster dictionary is defined as a “Prejudice or bias against persons on the basis of their skin color or complexion, often among persons of the same racial identification”. Often times when walking the halls of our K-12 schools I hear things like “you’re light-skinned or dark-skinned” and or hearing different praises for lighter skinned compared to darker skin. As I talked to my colleagues about the things I was hearing throughout the halls and playgrounds, I was curious to find out if there was any curriculum around this topic that could carefully explain this very large and complex “ -ism”. Not only does this colorism intricately weave the European colonization into different cultures that have carried these beliefs over time, it continues to grow in other forms of movies, magazines, schools, hospitals and society as a whole.
As I went looking for answers, I started reading tons of scholarly journals and data on this and came across this article on recognizing and addressing colorism in schools. This article is from teaching tolerance and also has some great links for educators as well as on our UE Blog to help bring a clearer picture to this topic in the classroom as well as a strategies list that include: ongoing counseling, school discipline, Book readings, mentorships as well as using curriculum that is culturally relevant.
If you know of any other great links on this topic, please feel free to post them in the comments section below!
As I went looking for answers, I started reading tons of scholarly journals and data on this and came across this article on recognizing and addressing colorism in schools. This article is from teaching tolerance and also has some great links for educators as well as on our UE Blog to help bring a clearer picture to this topic in the classroom as well as a strategies list that include: ongoing counseling, school discipline, Book readings, mentorships as well as using curriculum that is culturally relevant.
If you know of any other great links on this topic, please feel free to post them in the comments section below!
Blog Post Written By: Darrell Burns, Assistant Director of Behavior Intervention
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