"There does seem to be a worldwide preference among many for "lighter." I still wonder about white supremacy claims pertaining to that. Am I just blind to it as a white man, even though I am probably atypical on my side about race?"
I wouldn't call it white supremacy- colorism has a long history in East Asia. My parents, and other elders …
"There does seem to be a worldwide preference among many for "lighter." I still wonder about white supremacy claims pertaining to that. Am I just blind to it as a white man, even though I am probably atypical on my side about race?"
I wouldn't call it white supremacy- colorism has a long history in East Asia. My parents, and other elders I've asked have generally attributed it to classism: darker skin = poor people working outside, lighter skin = rich people inside protected from the sun. I think Asian cultures' long history of favoring hierarchical organizational structures probably exacerbates the classism in some way as well, but that's personal speculation.
I've been trying to recall some good sources of reading about the topic, but frustratingly enough the majority of English-language sources or documentation that Google is serving me is stuff that was only written in the last five-to-ten years and either focused on Asian-Americans or trying to blame it all on western colonialism (or both). This is frustrating so I'm going to look deeper when I've got more free time.
"There does seem to be a worldwide preference among many for "lighter." I still wonder about white supremacy claims pertaining to that. Am I just blind to it as a white man, even though I am probably atypical on my side about race?"
I wouldn't call it white supremacy- colorism has a long history in East Asia. My parents, and other elders I've asked have generally attributed it to classism: darker skin = poor people working outside, lighter skin = rich people inside protected from the sun. I think Asian cultures' long history of favoring hierarchical organizational structures probably exacerbates the classism in some way as well, but that's personal speculation.
I've been trying to recall some good sources of reading about the topic, but frustratingly enough the majority of English-language sources or documentation that Google is serving me is stuff that was only written in the last five-to-ten years and either focused on Asian-Americans or trying to blame it all on western colonialism (or both). This is frustrating so I'm going to look deeper when I've got more free time.