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Abstract
Meghan Burke defines colorism as "the allocation of privilege and disadvantage according to the lightness or darkness of one's skin" (International Encyclopedia of the Social Social Sciences, 2nd ed.). The intraracial practice can be heightened in familial interactions. This collaborative autoethnography utilizes Alice Walker's framework of womanism to explore the narratives of colorism in a mother-daughter relationship when the two do not share the same skin hue. Womanism instructs us to break our silence around practices that denigrate us and seek ways to survive and thrive in our blackness. Four specific incidents experienced by my adolescent daughter are shared to critique colorism and consider strategies for navigating this practice and sustaining a mother-daughter relationship.
Introduction
My children were quite young when Blackberries and Redbones: Critical Articulations of Black Hair/Body Politics in Africana Communities (Spellers and Moffitt 2010) was published. The volume brought scholars and creative writers together to explore the ways in which the black body is (mis)represented but also how it should be celebrated. In the dedication of the text, I wrote to my son and daughter, "You may both encounter in your lifetime, many of the issues addressed in this volume; it is my hope that this book serves as a place where you seek understanding, encouragement, and delight about the beauty of your exceptional skin, hair, and body." Even then, as a researcher and not so much as a mother, I knew that aspects of their journey would include moments of denigration and ostracism and maybe a few celebratory acknowledgments about their skin hue.1 I know I had my share-and suspect my academic journey to explore this area of study is largely tied to those early interactions, both positive and negative.
Regardless of the shade of one's skin hue, the rearing of colorism's ugly head, at times, feels like a rite of passage for many African Americans.2 Colorism, "the allocation of privilege and disadvantage according to the lightness or darkness of one's skin" (Burke 2008, 17) has been researched extensively since the term was first believed to be coined by Alice Walker (1983). Such studies explore the impact of this form of discrimination in the workplace, educational attainment, love relationships, and even families (Blay 2014; Martin et al. 2017; Mathews...