She told Newsbeat she quit music for seven years and part of the reason was down to prejudice about her darker skin. The issue of colourism was reignited recently after Maya Jama addressed the controversy over a "joke" she tweeted in which mocked dark-skinned women. Some people on social media claimed the Radio 1 presenter's career has been helped by "light-skin privilege". Maya Jama light skin privilege got her to where she is now, same privilege is having her get a free pass on making distasteful jokes about dark skin women.
Beyonce's dad Matthew Knowles also suggested some black people enjoy greater fame because they're lighter-skinned earlier this year. He claimed his daughter was more successful because of her skin tone and said virtually no black pop stars with darker skin had broken through in the past decade.
Of the 68 female solo artists who've been in the British Top 40 chart since the start of , 17 are of black heritage - and the vast majority of those are lighter-skinned.
Kelli-Leigh, whose mum is black and dad is white, got into the top 10 last year on the James Hype song More Than Friends. She said: "For some reason in the UK the doors are still quite closed for female artists who are of a darker complexion in terms of different styles It's led to questions about whether their skin colour played a part in their success. The UK Music scene is sketchy. Nicole Vassell, entertainment and features editor at Pride magazine - which is aimed at women of colour - says: "There's a reason why a lot of the rising stars and the people who are the highest in the industry are lighter-skinned.
Experts point to colourism being deep-rooted in history and racism - and people often experience it from others within their own race. Dr Kehinde Andrews, associate professor in sociology at Birmingham City University and co-chair of the Black Studies Association, says: "If we think about the idea of beauty and what is beautiful, racism is kind of based on this idea that you have this hierarchy - African black at the bottom and white European civilised at the top.
The debate around colourism has also extended to other parts of the entertainment industry. When looking at magazines, the top four best-selling women's magazines Cosmopolitan, Vogue, Grazia and Marie Claire have had nine black female celebrities on of their front covers since January The Duchess of Sussex spoke about the issue of colourism in - saying as an actress she was seen as "ethnically ambiguous".
This is especially apparent in billboard advertising in African countries and television adverts in India. There is still a long way to go, but in January Rwanda became the third African nation to join South Africa and Ghana in a ban on skin-bleaching products and advertisements for them.
However, banning these products will not stop women from bleaching their skin: the only alternative is to create more awareness around the long-term negative effects of bleaching, as well as educating people about the effects of colourism within the African and Caribbean communities.
Amaal Said is a Danish-born Somali photographer and poet, based in London. Her photographs have been featured in Vogue, the Guardian and the New Yorker. In , she was exhibited in Los Angeles, and in her photography was featured in the fourth volume of African Lens and exhibited in Accra, Ghana. Explore archive material on health and wider issues in society and culture. We use a third party provider, dotdigital , to deliver our newsletters.
For information about how we handle your data, please read our privacy notice. You can unsubscribe at any time using links in the emails you receive. Getting here. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4. Wellcome Collection. Stories Part of Skin Bleaching. Part 2. Mazin Saad on colourism in Sudan. It is — after all — still on the shelves. I commend them because it was probably one of the most recognisable brands.
While much more research needs to be done, several studies have pointed out the damage caused by colourism. One consequence is the effect on mental health. One study, for example, found a correlation between symptoms of depression and prejudices against darker skin tones among Asian-American women. Some research has found that colourism impacts mental health Credit: Getty Images. One of the most prominent manifestations of older generations imposing colourist ideals occurs in the realm of matrimony — as seen in Indian Matchmaking.
In South Asian communities, it is common practice for parents to arrange the marriages of their adult children by meeting prospective spouses and their families. One study on Indian arranged marriages found that darker-skinned marriage candidates were rated lower in preference by prospective mothers-in-law , compared with their light-skinned counterparts.
These findings are not surprising. Preferences for light-skinned brides have been prevalent in arranged marriage newspaper advertisements for decades; light-complexioned women often are highlighted in these ads as a way to attract more prospective grooms.
Prominent Indian marriage websites like shaadi. The Indian marriage website shaadi.
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