Internalized Racism and Gendered Colorism Among African Americans: a Study of Intragroup Bias, Perceived Discrimination, and Psychological Well-being

The current research studied the unique ways in which colorism affects the African American men and women. Participants were recruited online via MTurk and completed three Implicit Association Tests (IATs) and one questionnaire. The IATs examined participant’s preference for light vs. medium skin tone, light vs. dark skin tone, and medium vs. dark skin tone. The questionnaire explored participant’s beliefs about skin tone, as well as their skin tone satisfaction, skin tone preferences, internalized racist beliefs, and perceived discrimination. The explicit preference for light or medium skin tones over dark skin tone was indicated for both men and women. Men preferred light over medium skin tones, light over dark skin tones, and medium over dark skin tones. Women only showed preference for medium over dark skin tones. As internalized racism increased, both genders experienced less skin color satisfaction, greater colorist behaviors and beliefs, and the more psychological distress. As skin color became darker, women’s perceived discrimination, psychological distress, and internalized racism increased; however, this was not found for men. For women, but not men, the positive correlation between psychological distress and perceived discrimination became significant as internalized racism grew. Lastly, as skin tone got darker, dissonant skin tone preference increased for men. Results from this study indicate that experiences of colorism differ by gender. Future research should seek to understand these relationships with more clarity by including a wider degree of skin tone choice options and exploring other ways in which variables relate to one another using various statistical analyses.