We can't have honest discussions about colorism because it forces folks to confront how they've been conditioned through generations of oppression to hate & devalue black women in service to white supremacist patriarchy & black enslavement. 1/

For many, it's still too raw & traumatic. But it's also annoying when feign unawareness re: this concept or how it operates. Again, one doesn't have to know term "colorism" or history of it to participate in it. It's a pervasive aspect of white supremacist society 2/

Colorism is a form of anti-Black racism that assigns value to PoC based on their physical resemblance to Europeans. It's not simply a fixation w/ skin tone or hair texture. It's part of how structural racism functions 3/

Colorism is rooted in a history of racist classism where skin color & ancestry determine whether one is free or slave in a white supremacist society. 4/

Colorism doesn't "go both ways" just like racism doesn't "go both ways." There exists no political, economic or social system that is organized around the oppression of fair-skinned people 5/

Examining the history & development of white supremacist systems in USA & around the world reveals several examples of light skinned people of African descent being granted elevated social status in a class above "Negro" or "Black" 6/

The taboo nature of colorism-- in USA, at least-- is also connected to trauma surrounding the systemic rape of Black women. The paternal ancestry of most Black Americans traces to Europe due to the high prevalence of white men raping Black women throughout slavery 7/

My great-grandfather, for example, was very fair skinned & it was whispered his father was white but it was clearly a taboo topic. This is the same generation as Recy Taylor & Rosa Parks & this type of situation was very common 8/

Like the white patriarchal culture which breeds it, colorism is especially vicious in how it manifests against Black women with dark skin & kinky hair. Breaking free of the mental chains of colonialism & slavery is key to liberation. Decolonize! Stay Black! 9/9