1. Alyssa Thomas Topic: Race

2. Methodology Qualitative study, consisting of purely interviews I interviewed 5 people from different cultural experiences and social backgrounds. I interviewed mostly non-white people: someone born and raised in another country, an adult who immigrated into the U.S. very early in life, an adolescent who immigrated into the U.S. early in life, a first-generation American, and a Caucasian person who was born and raised in America.

3. Interview Questions What does good skin mean to you? How, in your opinion, did the media you were exposed to encourage people to be lighter or darker? When you see someone pale, what assumptions do you automatically have about them? Darker skin? How did your family talk about your skin? How do you think skin color affects life in America in today?

4. Results: What is Good Skin? General consensus among all interviewees: – soft, “natural-looking” skin – for south Asians, something brown, fair to white for Arabs, Hispanics, and Caucasians, and a darker brown for those from Jamaica, Africa, Haiti, the West Indies, etc.

5. Results: Media/Culture on Skin Color “There wasn’t TV yet, but there was a general consensus that lighter skin would allow one to look and feel better, and would guarantee many marriage prospects.” “On TV, you would only see fair models, and even in movies, the WASP stereotype was seen as ideal.” “White skin was a symbol of attractiveness and success.” “Television advertisements and magazine advertisements are always geared towards white people, and they are the people who usually star in advertisements, television, and movies.” “TV showcased lighter-skinned people, and that many of the darker skinned people I saw on TV were musicians/rappers, and they were either on TV advertising different products, or because of alleged crime.

6. Results: Perceptions on Light Skinned vs. Dark Skinned People Many felt that white people generally lead a better life; that they were smart, but did not work hard, whereas those with darker skin were also smart, and that they were also very hardworking, but that they had to suffer and go further to achieve good things. Those who were white seemed to have money, success, positions of power, etc., without having to earn it, but there’s no security for colored people. The general assumption was that fairer people are more intelligent and less likely to commit crimes. Pale people seem to be happier in life than their darker counterparts, and that in many ways they are a little more content with the state of their lives than those of darker skin tones. White people clutch their purses or bags assuming the darker- skinned person is going to steal from them.

7. Results: Family her relatively fair skin color was often compared to those of her relatively darker siblings, and her parents let her leave the home because they believed her to be smarter and more likely to “be somebody” using peroxide to lighten his skin, saying “he’s too dark” pressures from her family to lighten darker spots on her skin “it will be hard for her to find a husband”, as though her darker skin makes her undesirable and ugly “They also tell me that on my 18th birthday that I should go get a spray tan”

8. Results: Skin Color in America Today Many more people in support of a natural movement, so more skin types are accepted. Many people struggle with their own skin color as opposed to others’ skin colors. Racism is still in place, but things have been slowly improving.

9. Self-Perception Symbolic Interaction: – “Humans act toward things on the basis of the meanings they ascribe to those things." – "The meaning of such things is derived from, or arises out of, the social interaction that one has with others and the society." – "These meanings are handled in, and modified through, an interpretative process used by the person in dealing with the things he/she encounters."

10. Clark Doll Test Dr. Kenneth Clark and his wife Mamie Clark placed a white doll and a black doll asked children to pick the doll to answer the following questions: – Show me the doll that you like best or that you would like to play with. – Show me the doll that is the 'nice' doll. – Show me the doll that looks 'bad.' – Give me the doll that looks like a white child. – Give me the doll that looks like a colored child. – Give me the doll that looks like a Negro child. – Give me the doll that looks like you.

11. Theories Social conflict theory is a Marxist-based social theory which argues that that the more powerful groups in society use their power in order to exploit groups with less power. The preference of fairer skin among indigenous Asians, Africans, and Americans rose alongside European imperialism.

12. As stated by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, and biology textbooks everywhere, melanin is the body’s natural UV protection, a brown pigment that is found in increasingly large percentages the closer a person is to the equator. Those with more melanin have darker skin, rarely get sunburned, and are less likely to suffer from skin cancers such as melanoma.

13. Discussion Question 1: How, in your opinion, did the media you were exposed to encourage people to be lighter or darker?

14. Discussion Question 2: In today’s culture, what constitutes “light- skin” and “dark-skin” behavior and why? That’s not paint or plaster. From Samuel Slider : “It’s pretty incredible to think of how diverse humans are, but perhaps one of the ways we’re most diverse is skin color. A picture of Papis Loveday and Shaun Ross, shows that better than most. Shaun Ross is an albino model, who also happens to be African. He has, perhaps, the whitest skin of any human being. Meanwhile, Papis Loveday has what looks to be the darkest skin of any human being. Quite impressive to look at”

15. Discussion Question 3: What assumptions do you have about people based on their skin color (race)?

16. Discussion Question 4: How did/does your family talk/suggest about your skin?

17. Discussion Question 5: How do you think skin color affects life in America in today?