Colour Matters

Written over a period of more than two decades, Colour Matters is a collection of essays that shows how race informs the aspirational pursuits of Black youth in the Greater Toronto Area.

We are all different in some ways, yet, very similar because we all respond to emotions of love, affection, joy and sorrow. These feelings are common to all-across ethnicities, geographies and boundaries. Yet there are certain factors which contribute to our identity, which visibly make us look dissimilar, and impacts how we connect and belong. The colour of the skin, through its subtle and attached symbolism and beliefs, its presence or the lack of it, tells a story of human dynamics that is constructive and/or destructive, depending on the lens used. It has the visual power to influence, pronounce judgements, divide, confer privileges and even influence the right to love, hate, embrace, protect or kill merely based on colour-the colour of the skin. Colour Matters? explores these cross-cultural dynamics and highlights the difficulties of being a minority in different geographies. The book is replete with stories of individuals across continents and multi-ethnic, multi-professional backgrounds narrating their personal experiences and, hence, learnings from their own encounters. In a world where the race and racism debate continues to occupy a crucial space in public discourse it is worthwhile to embark on an exploratory journey to deconstruct such ideas and discover what really lies beneath.

Written over a period of more than two decades, Colour Matters is a collection of essays that shows how race informs the aspirational pursuits of Black youth in the Greater Toronto Area.

In the United States, as in many parts of the world, people are discriminated against based on the color of their skin. This type of skin tone bias, or colorism, is both related to and distinct from discrimination on the basis of race, with which it is often conflated. Preferential treatment of lighter skin tones over darker occurs within racial and ethnic groups as well as between them. While America has made progress in issues of race over the past decades, discrimination on the basis of color continues to be a constant and often unremarked part of life. In Color Matters, Kimberly Jade Norwood has collected the most up-to-date research on this insidious form of discrimination, including perspectives from the disciplines of history, law, sociology, and psychology. Anchored with historical chapters that show how the influence and legacy of slavery have shaped the treatment of skin color in American society, the contributors to this volume bring to light the ways in which colorism affects us all--influencing what we wear, who we see on television, and even which child we might pick to adopt. Sure to be an eye-opening collection for anyone curious about how race and color continue to affect society, Color Matters provides students of race in America with wide-ranging overview of a crucial topic.

Shades of Difference addresses the widespread but little studied phenomenon of colorism—the preference for lighter skin and the ranking of individual worth according to skin tone. Examining the social and cultural significance of skin color in a broad range of societies and historical periods, this insightful collection looks at how skin color affects people's opportunities in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and North America. Is skin color bias distinct from racial bias? How does skin color preference relate to gender, given the association of lightness with desirability and beauty in women? The authors of this volume explore these and other questions as they take a closer look at the role Western-dominated culture and media have played in disseminating the ideal of light skin globally. With its comparative, international focus, this enlightening book will provide innovative insights and expand the dialogue around race and gender in the social sciences, ethnic studies, African American studies, and gender and women's studies.