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Colorism Essays and Poems
How does colorism impact people from different cultures? How can we have productive conversations about colorism with our family, friends, students, or coworkers? How can we start to solve this problem and start to heal from colorism?
The Colorism Healing anthologies are a great resource for answering these questions and more! Whether you use this book for your own personal discovery or share it with others as a way to spark conversation, anyone who reads this collection will find inspiration and insight for addressing colorism. This book is especially recommended for Black and Brown teenage girls and the adults who care about them.
The Essays & Poems anthology features the best writing submitted to the 2017 Colorism Healing Writing Contest. Representing diverse voices, ages, languages, ethnicities, and styles, this collection offers a global picture of colorism’s impact on individual lives. Writers in this volume explore a range of themes including family dynamics, the trauma of colonialism and slavery, skin bleaching, self-love, the healing process, and more.
Readers also benefit from expanded engagement with the text and the topic through updated discussion questions and writing prompts, perfect for journaling, youth book clubs, educators and classroom activities, counselors who work with young adults, parents, and anyone interested in deeper reflection on colorism.
As always, the CHWC is a multicultural project that provides exposure for diverse writers who represent a wide range of ethnicities, races, ages, and complexions. Their voices attest to the myriad complexities of colorism and engage in personal reflections on healing.
Features of this
What is the Colorism Healing Writing Contest?
The International Colorism Healing Writing Contest is the Flagship Project of Colorism Healing, founded by Dr. Sarah L. Webb in 2013.
The contest has attracted world-class and award-winning guest judges and hundreds of diverse writers from around the world.
The purpose of the writing contest is
Buy today and experience the power of collective truth telling!
The Colorism Healing anthologies are a great resource for answering these questions and more! Whether you use this book for your own personal discovery or share it with others as a way to spark conversation, anyone who reads this collection will find inspiration and insight for addressing colorism. This book is especially recommended for Black and Brown teenage girls and the adults who care about them.
The Essays & Poems anthology features the best writing submitted to the 2017 Colorism Healing Writing Contest. Representing diverse voices, ages, languages, ethnicities, and styles, this collection offers a global picture of colorism’s impact on individual lives. Writers in this volume explore a range of themes including family dynamics, the trauma of colonialism and slavery, skin bleaching, self-love, the healing process, and more.
Readers also benefit from expanded engagement with the text and the topic through updated discussion questions and writing prompts, perfect for journaling, youth book clubs, educators and classroom activities, counselors who work with young adults, parents, and anyone interested in deeper reflection on colorism.
As always, the CHWC is a multicultural project that provides exposure for diverse writers who represent a wide range of ethnicities, races, ages, and complexions. Their voices attest to the myriad complexities of colorism and engage in personal reflections on healing.
Features of this
What is the Colorism Healing Writing Contest?
The International Colorism Healing Writing Contest is the Flagship Project of Colorism Healing, founded by Dr. Sarah L. Webb in 2013.
The contest has attracted world-class and award-winning guest judges and hundreds of diverse writers from around the world.
The purpose of the writing contest is
Buy today and experience the power of collective truth telling!
106 pages, Paperback
Published September 25, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 27, 2018
(This is the wrong author for the book. I think it was a tiny tech mistake on Goodreads part.)
I'm working on a new novel and stumbled upon this collection of poetry on . . .
COLORISM
Many should check this out. I did a visual post of my favorite poem in the book below.
Midnight Girl
by Marlana Edwards
Midnight is the darkest time of night
When the stars look like miniature suns
because of the contrast against the pitch black expanse of the sky
I am a midnight girl
I have skin like pools of milk chocolate
An abundance of hair like onyx wool
Bright eyes like diamonds in a coal mine
Being a midnight girl is not good enough; it never has been
Rappers rap about yellow bones and red bones, but never midnight girls
So boys find beauty in yellow bones and red bones, but never midnight girls
I’ve heard boys say ‘I don’t like dark skinned girls’
And those words shatter my self esteem every time
And they smash a part of me into a million tiny pieces of raw inadequacy.
I am familiar with the plight of midnight girls of all races
with abuelitas and tias who say things like
“mija, no necesitas ir afuera hoy, porque hace sol y ya estas una negrita.”
Which translates roughly to
“Baby girl, you don’t need to go outside today because it’s sunny, and you’re already a little blackie”
Darts thrown by those closest to you pierce deeper than darts thrown by anyone else
I feel the pain of midnight girls
whose hearts and souls are penetrated and lacerated
almost every day by comments like
“you’re actually pretty for a dark skinned girl’ and ‘if you were lighter, I would date you.”
These comments are like accidental bullets shot in ignorance
But these bullets still kill, despite the shooters’ intentions
I was one of those midnight girls who believed that
darkness was associated with sin and filth and ugliness
I used to think that midnight
was the time of night where the sun- the light- was absent
But I don’t think that any more
I can see now that at midnight, the sun isn’t really absent
At midnight, the richness of the sky simply overpowers the sun
– making it only appear to be absent
At midnight,
the darkness accentuates the smallest stars in our galaxy,
while shadowing the brightest most powerful star.
There is a word for midnight in every language;
Media noche in Latin America
noss leil in the Arab world,
Minut in France
Not every nation has a word for 12:01 am and 11:59 pm
But there’s always a word for midnight.
The world fails to realize that midnight is beautiful
Hence the profits made from
Skin bleaching creams in Asia
Ambi cream in he US
Skin lightening sun block in Latin America
People of color from every nation suffer from a type of Stockholm’s syndrome
It causes them to want to look like their captors, their conquerors
Black, red, brown and yellow people across the nations
fail to recall that before God created light,
there was darkness, and midnight.
About the Poet: Marlana Edwards was born in New York City on February 10th, 1996, but she moved to a small town outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of seven. Marlana joined the Philadelphia Youth Poetry movement in December 2013, and she developed a passion for writing about global race issues. Marlana has written a series of poems about institutionalized racism, Colorism, and the cycle of racial hate. Marlana graduated from the Baldwin School on June 5th, 2014 and she is currently writing a book about her experiences as an African American student at a predominantly Caucasian, private school. Marlana will be attending Howard University in August and she plans to double major in journalism and political science.
I'm working on a new novel and stumbled upon this collection of poetry on . . .
COLORISM
Many should check this out. I did a visual post of my favorite poem in the book below.
Midnight Girl
by Marlana Edwards
Midnight is the darkest time of night
When the stars look like miniature suns
because of the contrast against the pitch black expanse of the sky
I am a midnight girl
I have skin like pools of milk chocolate
An abundance of hair like onyx wool
Bright eyes like diamonds in a coal mine
Being a midnight girl is not good enough; it never has been
Rappers rap about yellow bones and red bones, but never midnight girls
So boys find beauty in yellow bones and red bones, but never midnight girls
I’ve heard boys say ‘I don’t like dark skinned girls’
And those words shatter my self esteem every time
And they smash a part of me into a million tiny pieces of raw inadequacy.
I am familiar with the plight of midnight girls of all races
with abuelitas and tias who say things like
“mija, no necesitas ir afuera hoy, porque hace sol y ya estas una negrita.”
Which translates roughly to
“Baby girl, you don’t need to go outside today because it’s sunny, and you’re already a little blackie”
Darts thrown by those closest to you pierce deeper than darts thrown by anyone else
I feel the pain of midnight girls
whose hearts and souls are penetrated and lacerated
almost every day by comments like
“you’re actually pretty for a dark skinned girl’ and ‘if you were lighter, I would date you.”
These comments are like accidental bullets shot in ignorance
But these bullets still kill, despite the shooters’ intentions
I was one of those midnight girls who believed that
darkness was associated with sin and filth and ugliness
I used to think that midnight
was the time of night where the sun- the light- was absent
But I don’t think that any more
I can see now that at midnight, the sun isn’t really absent
At midnight, the richness of the sky simply overpowers the sun
– making it only appear to be absent
At midnight,
the darkness accentuates the smallest stars in our galaxy,
while shadowing the brightest most powerful star.
There is a word for midnight in every language;
Media noche in Latin America
noss leil in the Arab world,
Minut in France
Not every nation has a word for 12:01 am and 11:59 pm
But there’s always a word for midnight.
The world fails to realize that midnight is beautiful
Hence the profits made from
Skin bleaching creams in Asia
Ambi cream in he US
Skin lightening sun block in Latin America
People of color from every nation suffer from a type of Stockholm’s syndrome
It causes them to want to look like their captors, their conquerors
Black, red, brown and yellow people across the nations
fail to recall that before God created light,
there was darkness, and midnight.
___________________________________________________________
About the Poet: Marlana Edwards was born in New York City on February 10th, 1996, but she moved to a small town outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the age of seven. Marlana joined the Philadelphia Youth Poetry movement in December 2013, and she developed a passion for writing about global race issues. Marlana has written a series of poems about institutionalized racism, Colorism, and the cycle of racial hate. Marlana graduated from the Baldwin School on June 5th, 2014 and she is currently writing a book about her experiences as an African American student at a predominantly Caucasian, private school. Marlana will be attending Howard University in August and she plans to double major in journalism and political science.July 14, 2019
Seemed more like short stories than poems
But it spoke to me. But as a designer young millennial woman. It makes me sad that so many young women still feel this way about their beautiful mahogany skin.
But it spoke to me. But as a designer young millennial woman. It makes me sad that so many young women still feel this way about their beautiful mahogany skin.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews