COLORISM RESEARCH OVER THE DECADES

ABSTRACT

This article engages enduring problematics such as the historical roots of colorism and the role of light-skinned people of color in sustaining colorism. Understanding power dynamics and their role in colorism within and across racial groups is a central piece of this article, followed by an analysis of the evolving role of intersectionality in the field. New scholars have taken the field of colorism in promising new directions, exemplified in several articles in this volume, including colorism and mental health, the politics of color measurement, colorism and the one-drop rule, and the experiences of youth and colorism.

Keywords:

• Colorism
• skin tone
• racial discrimination
• structural racism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.