Writing Color, Reading Change?

REFLECTIONS ON COLORISM IN AFRICAN AMERICAN MAGAZINES

by MMag. Simone Puff, Alpen Adria Universität Klagenfurt

Dec. 12, 8:30 - 10:00 a.m.

University of Innsbruck, Humanities Tower, HS 7

In this provocative, thought-provoking and well-presented lecture,  Ms. Puff presented and explained with visual examples the concept of “colorism,” a term attributed by the reknowned American writer of color Alice Walker (The Color Purple, etc.) to name a centuries-old practice of discrimination based upon skin tone within the African-American community itself .  Colorism refers to the advantages or disadvantages experienced by African-Americans within their own community according to the lightness or darkness of their skin tone, with light being at the top of the advantage/ desirability scale and very dark being at the bottom.  This scale began with white, European expansion and the slave trade in the New World centuries ago and came to be internalized by the African-American community.  With statistical and visual examples, Ms. Puff presented research she is compiling in the process of her Ph.D. dissertation.  An active question-and-answer session followed.  Some 65 students and faculty of American Studies attended the lecture.