by Chris Bodenner
Researchers at Villanova have determined that darker-skinned African-American women receive harsher prison sentences and serve more time than their lighter-skinned counterparts:
[R]esearchers say this is the first study to look at how colorism affects black women and how long they may spend in jail. Part of the reason may simply come down to how pretty jurors consider a defendant to be, and that being light-skinned and thin (also a factor studied in the research) are seen as more attractive, says Lance Hannon, co-author of the Villanova study.
Racism gets all the headlines, but colorism is just as real and impacting, Hannon explains. How "white" someone is perceived matters. "Colorism is clearly not taken as seriously or is not publicly discussed as much as racism, and yet these effects are pretty strong and the evidence is pretty strong," he says. "It's a very real problem, and people need to pay attention to it more.
On that note, be on the lookout for Dark Girls, a forthcoming documentary that explores the "deep-seated biases and attitudes about skin color particularly dark skinned women, outside of and within the Black American culture.” A gripping nine-minute trailer is seen above.
The Dish 