colorism
noun
col·or·ism
ˈkə-lə-ˌri-zəm
-lər-ˌi-zəm
variants
or British colourism
: prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin
Under this system of colorism—the system which prevailed in my childhood in Jamaica, and which has carried over to the present—rarely will dark and light people co-mingle. Rarely will they achieve between themselves an intimacy informed with identity.—Michelle Cliff
What writer Alice Walker defined as colorism, the preferential or prejudicial treatment of same-race people based on skin color, continues to this day. And as she once wrote, unless we exorcise it "we cannot as a people progress. For colorism, like colonialism, sexism and racism, impedes us."—Itabari Njeri
Cite this Entry
“Colorism.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/colorism. Accessed 8 Aug. 2026.
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