Colorism costs us a lot! It can cost us a sense of pride, solidarity, friendships, romantic options, freedom of expression… and MONEY!
Many people can be pretty patient and long-suffering with issues in their lives… until those issues start messing with their COINS!
If you think colorism is just a matter of dark-skinned girls believing that we are pretty, wait till you hear about the financial cost of colorism.
Today, I’m talking about dollars, so let me know if I’m making sense!
Watch Live or Scroll to Keep Reading
Research on Colorism and Wage Gaps
As skin tone darkens, the wider the pay gap between white American workers and African American workers, and light-skinned African Americans earned as much as 12-14% more than dark-skinned African Americans. (Learn more about this article)
Light-skinned Latinx employees generally earn more income than dark-skinned Latinx workers and have higher overall socioeconomic status. (Learn more about this article)
Earnings for light-skinned or European Latinx employees exceeded earnings for dark-skinned or Indigenous Latinix employees by nearly 22%. (Learn more about this article)
Insights & Takeaways
1) You have to resolve color-based income disparities in order to achieve racial income equality.
I’ve probably said it every week, but most people fighting for racial equity and justice are spinning their wheels because they refuse to acknowledge and properly address colorism as an inherent variable in the racial equity equation.
2) There could be a host or reasons for these disparities. Most of the research has focused on determining if there is color-based inequality. We still need future research that investigates the causes of it.
Based on last week’s live about colorism in hiring, I hypothesize that some of the inequality stems from hiring practices as well as differences in how people are promoted and evaluated for pay raises and bonuses, etc.
There could also be differences in how job candidates approach negotiating their pay as well as biases in how employers negotiate in return.
For my academics and researchers out there, I would love to see a study like the ones done on gender asking such questions as: Are lighter skinned job candidates more likely to negotiate their pay? Are lighter skinned job candidates more likely to ask for a higher starting salary? And are employers more likely to agree to a higher starting salary for light skinned candidates than they are for dark-skinned candidates?
3) If some are paid less, that inherently means others are paid more, which incentivizes their complicity in the system.
When I started this post by saying how people get protective when it comes to their money–Sometimes people who benefit from oppressive systems, whether they created them or not, don’t want to rock the boat or risk “losing” certain comforts in the name of creating radical change.
The plot twist is that light-skinned BIPOC folks who tolerate less for others are also tolerating less for themselves. That’s because, again, “You have to resolve color-based income disparities in order to achieve racial income equality.”
4) We must remember that due to factors compounding interest, these gaps only grow wider with time. And the financial gaps have ripple effects on things like physical and mental health, which often has reciprocal effects on job performance, thus further entrenching economic disparities.
If you’re interested in my speaking, training, or consulting services, please contact me here.
Homework 1: Do a wage or salary audit of your employees based on skin tone (not race) and see if you uncover a previously unrecognized income disparity within your organization that corresponds to skin tone. Then compare those incomes to industry averages.
Homework 2: Review my previous post on colorism in hiring and assess if these patterns correspond to hiring practices.
Affirmation: This doesn’t have to be a zero sum game.