MISSION

To shift media’s skin color narratives from profitable to equitable.

In other words, we want to have discussions that go beyond water-cooler, buzz-wordy conversations and enter the realms of accountability and social change.

The Colo(u)rism Project

The Colo(u)rism Project is a media-literacy education initiative aimed at engaging women of color and youth. It focuses on dismantling colorism, both in daily life and in the media.

Defining Colorism

The term colorism is attributed to the internationally acclaimed writer, poet, and activist Alice Walker. Walker coined the term in the 1980s to explain the prejudice against dark skin within the Black community.

I define as a system that creates opportunities for people with light skin, regardless of their true strengths. The Colo(u)rism Project was officially founded in 2012!

Naming The Colo(u)rism Project

The Colo(u)rism Project utilizes Alice Walker’s term and preserves it as it originally appeared, steeped in lived experiences and the scholarship of Black women (and men). However, color is spelled c-o-l-o-u-r in Indian English, as a result of being a former British colony). Adding the ‘u’ in brackets allows us to build on Walker’s work by exploring colorism in the contexts, lives, and histories of people of the Indian subcontinent. ‘U’ simultaneously highlights the lived experience of the audience—you—while inviting you to explore what you can do about dismantling colorism around you!

Colorism scholarship today relies on the visible and invisible work and lived experiences of Black Indigenous, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Dalit, and mixed-race peoples all over the world.

To learn more about The Colo(u)rism Project, visit thecolourismproject.org