Question

Paragraph on colour prejudice

Answer 1

Discrimination based on skin color, also known as colorism or shadeism, is a form of prejudice or discrimination in which people are treated differently based on the social meanings attached to skin color.[1]

Colorism, a term coined by Alice Walker in 1982,[2] is not a synonym for racism. Numerous factors can contribute to "race" (including ancestry); therefore, racial categorization does not solely rely on skin color. Skin color is only one mechanism used to assign individuals to a racial category, but race is the set of beliefs and assumptions assigned to that category. Racism is the dependence of social status on the social meaning attached to race; colorism is the dependence of social status on skin color alone. In order for a form of discrimination to be considered colorism, differential treatment must not result from racial categorization, but from the social values associated with skin color.[1] "The problem of the color line" is a concept created by W. E. B. Du Bois, which explains the divide between light and dark shades of skin color.[3]

Research has found extensive evidence of discrimination based on skin color in criminal justice, business, the economy, housing, health care, media and politics in the United States and Europe. Lighter skin tones are seen as preferable in many countries in Africa and Asia.