Alyssa Thomas
Topic: Race
Methodology
• Qualitative study, consisting of purely interviews
• I interviewed 5 people from different cultural
experiences and social backgrounds.
• I interviewed mostly non-white people: someone
born and raised in another country, an adult who
immigrated into the U.S. very early in life, an
adolescent who immigrated into the U.S. early in
life, a first-generation American, and a Caucasian
person who was born and raised in America.
Interview Questions
• What does good skin mean to you?
• How, in your opinion, did the media you were
exposed to encourage people to be lighter or
darker?
• When you see someone pale, what assumptions
do you automatically have about them? Darker
skin?
• How did your family talk about your skin?
• How do you think skin color affects life in America
in today?
Results: What is Good Skin?
• General consensus among all interviewees:
– soft, “natural-looking” skin
– for south Asians, something brown, fair to white
for Arabs, Hispanics, and Caucasians, and a darker
brown for those from Jamaica, Africa, Haiti, the
West Indies, etc.
Results: Media/Culture on Skin Color
• “There wasn’t TV yet, but there was a general consensus that
lighter skin would allow one to look and feel better, and would
guarantee many marriage prospects.”
• “On TV, you would only see fair models, and even in movies, the
WASP stereotype was seen as ideal.”
• “White skin was a symbol of attractiveness and success.”
• “Television advertisements and magazine advertisements are
always geared towards white people, and they are the people who
usually star in advertisements, television, and movies.”
• “TV showcased lighter-skinned people, and that many of the darker
skinned people I saw on TV were musicians/rappers, and they were
either on TV advertising different products, or because of alleged
crime.
Results: Perceptions on Light Skinned
vs. Dark Skinned People
• Many felt that white people generally lead a better life; that they
were smart, but did not work hard, whereas those with darker skin
were also smart, and that they were also very hardworking, but
that they had to suffer and go further to achieve good things.
• Those who were white seemed to have money, success, positions
of power, etc., without having to earn it, but there’s no security for
colored people.
• The general assumption was that fairer people are more intelligent
and less likely to commit crimes.
• Pale people seem to be happier in life than their darker
counterparts, and that in many ways they are a little more content
with the state of their lives than those of darker skin tones.
• White people clutch their purses or bags assuming the darkerskinned person is going to steal from them.
Results: Family
• her relatively fair skin color was often compared to
those of her relatively darker siblings, and her parents
let her leave the home because they believed her to be
smarter and more likely to “be somebody”
• using peroxide to lighten his skin, saying “he’s too
dark”
• pressures from her family to lighten darker spots on
her skin
• “it will be hard for her to find a husband”, as though
her darker skin makes her undesirable and ugly
• “They also tell me that on my 18th birthday that I
should go get a spray tan”
Results: Skin Color in America Today
• Many more people in support of a natural
movement, so more skin types are accepted.
• Many people struggle with their own skin
color as opposed to others’ skin colors.
• Racism is still in place, but things have been
slowly improving.
Self-Perception
• Symbolic Interaction:
– “Humans act toward things on the basis of the
meanings they ascribe to those things."
– "The meaning of such things is derived from, or
arises out of, the social interaction that one has
with others and the society."
– "These meanings are handled in, and modified
through, an interpretative process used by the
person in dealing with the things he/she
encounters."
Clark Doll Test
• Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark placed a
white doll and a black doll asked children to pick the doll
to answer the following questions:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Show me the doll that you like best or that you would like to play with.
Show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll.
Show me the doll that looks 'bad.'
Give me the doll that looks like a white child.
Give me the doll that looks like a colored child.
Give me the doll that looks like a Negro child.
Give me the doll that looks like you.
Theories
• Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social
theory which argues that that the more
powerful groups in society use their power in
order to exploit groups with less power.
• The preference of fairer skin among
indigenous Asians, Africans, and Americans
rose alongside European imperialism.
As stated by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and
biology textbooks everywhere, melanin is the body’s natural UV protection, a
brown pigment that is found in increasingly large percentages the closer a
person is to the equator. Those with more melanin have darker skin, rarely
get sunburned, and are less likely to suffer from skin cancers such as
melanoma.
Discussion Question 1:
• How, in your opinion, did the media you were
exposed to encourage people to be lighter or
darker?
Discussion Question 2:
• In today’s culture, what constitutes “lightskin” and “dark-skin” behavior and why?
That’s not paint or
plaster.
From Samuel Slider :
“It’s pretty incredible to think of how diverse humans are, but perhaps
one of the ways we’re most diverse is skin color. A picture of Papis
Loveday and Shaun Ross, shows that better than most. Shaun Ross is an
albino model, who also happens to be African. He has, perhaps, the
whitest skin of any human being. Meanwhile, Papis Loveday has what
looks to be the darkest skin of any human being. Quite impressive to
look at”
Discussion Question 3:
• What assumptions do you have about people
based on their skin color (race)?
Discussion Question 4:
• How did/does your family talk/suggest about
your skin?
Discussion Question 5:
• How do you think skin color affects life in
America in today?