Article by Saumeya Suseenthiran

Colorism & Culture I

Saumeya Suseenthiran

t’s a warm July day at the beach, and the sun’s blistering heat is warming the sand. Diya, around five years old, with curly black hair and deep brown skin, is playing by the shore. In one moment, she’s building a sandcastle with a moat. In the next, she’s running towards the ocean as fast as her little legs can carry her to find little shells to

decorate the sides of her castle. She’s about finished when her mom calls out, lying down under her umbrella, wearing a monstrously large sun hat. Diya makes her way over, and her mom says, “You need more sunscreen, you’re already too dark as is.” She feels the weight of her mother’s hand plaster white paste all over her face and neck. She is wearing a long sleeve black rash guard, so her mom doesn’t need to cover the arms. However, her swim shorts only reach midthigh, so her mom covers her legs. Diya can’t help but think what that comment meant. The sunscreen wasn’t flattering or comfortable, and it kept getting in her eyes and stinging, “Why was this much of it necessary? Was being dark that bad?” she thought, and when she turned to go back to her sandcastle, it had already been washed away by the tide. Underlying Diya’s discomfort is the discrimination people of darker skin face, making them feel inferior to their lighter counterparts. In Same Family Different Values: Confronting Colorism in America’s Diverse Families, Lori Tharps writes, “This privileging of light skin over dark is at the root of an ill known as colorism...The curious thing is