Color discrimination is treating someone poorly because of the color of their skin. Primarily seen in work culture, it involves discrimination based on the employee’s skin’s lightness or darkness or another skin color characteristic. Color discrimination, a sick prejudice of our society, against anyone, in any form, is illegal under discrimination laws.
Difference between racial discrimination and color discrimination!
Racial discrimination at work is when an employee is treated poorly because of their race. In contrast, color discrimination is when an employee mistreats because of the color of their skin. It goes not only in work culture but in our society as well.
The two classifications may overlap, as race and color are different. However, the same discrimination statute protects against both. Both are illegal.
Color will be more important than race in public and private interactions in the twenty-first century as countries grow less white and the multiracial community—formed by interracial partnerships and immigration—expands. Because skin tone is an undeniable visual fact that is hard to hide, whereas race is contrived, that is frequently only seen on a government form.
Light-skin preference has been a regular practice in the black community for years, viewed as an evil that needs eradication for African Americans to advance as a people. Colorism is a systemic sickness found in many parts of the world, including Latin America, East, and Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and Africa.
Colorism- the skin-tone discrimination seen worldwide, makes the cosmetic business for skin products significant, expected to reach $8.9 billion by 2024.
Colorism is a remnant of colonialism in many nations where white people are a minority. People with lighter skin tones benefit from preferential school, employment, and media perception. Colorism is also common among members of the same ethnic or racial group.
Companies can help identify and address skin-tone discrimination at work by increasing education and awareness. All employees, particularly managers responsible for hiring, pay, and promotion decisions, should be aware of color bias. Wage inequality based on skin color is a severe, increasing concern seen in many parts of the world.
Cultural change: While these cultural views seem discouraging, they are subject to change over time. As businesses and individuals confront systematic racism and effect change, there is a good chance of color-bias reduction in the long run.
Our society’s general aesthetic preference for light skin and its subconscious effect on all of us make colorism at work a primary discriminatory concern today. Physical attractiveness, which is not an objective measure of someone’s work efficiency, is unfortunately dominant. Many organizations worldwide are conducting awareness programs workshops to reach this information and engage participants with practical strategies for interrupting prejudices and instilling a sense of responsibility for implementing policy and procedural change. Significant social events such as elections, new social policies, broad cultural trends, and social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter show our growing change in cultural perspectives. The awareness program ensures that barriers to equal opportunity for darker-skinned minorities are also somewhat addressed.