The topic of this post is intraracial colorism (the one we all know and understand) vs. interracial colorism (the one less often acknowledged).
One of the most common colorism myths is that white people can’t be colorist or that it’s only an issue within our own communities. This myth is one of the reasons people assume colorism is a less important issue. They think the only issue we face in the larger world outside our individual communities is racism. But we are just as likely to experience colorism outside of our communities as racism. And actually, many things we attribute to racism are actually better explained through a lens of colorism.
Once we get beyond the notion that colorism is merely about who was the favorite grandchild or who makes the dance team at an HBCU, and realize that colorism includes systemic and structural inequalities that are a matter of longterm health, wealth, and life itself, we begin to treat it with the gravity that we treat racism and sexism. We treat it with the gravity it deserves. The systemic consequences of colorism are very often, if not most often, enacted interracially.