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47 UCLA L. Rev. 1705 (1999-2000)
Colorism: A Darker Shade of Pale

handle is hein.journals/uclalr47 and id is 1719 raw text is: COLORISM: A DARKER SHADE OF PALE Taunya Lovell Banks In this Article, Professor Banks argues that colorism, skin tone discrimination against dark-skinned but not light-skinned blacks, constitutes a form of race- based discrimination. Skin tone discrimination coexists with more traditional forms of race discrimination that impact all blacks without regard to skin tone and phenotype, yet courts seem unwilling to recognize this point. Professor Banks uses employment discrimination cases to illustrate some courts' willingness to acknowledge subtler forms of race-based discrimination, like skin tone discrimination, for white ethnic and Latinalo plaintiffs, but not for black plaintiffs. The inability of courts to fashion coherent approaches to colorism claims involving black claimants means that dark-skinned blacks will continue to experience more extreme forms of race discrimination than experienced by light-skinned blacks. In addition, failure to address colorism claims by black litigants will have broader implications as courts face the more complex racelike cases likely occur in the twenty-first century. IN TRO DU CTIO N ........................................................................................................... 1706 1. COLORISM: TRUTH OR FICTION? ......................................................................... 1713 A . O rigins of C olorism Practices ...................................................................... 1713 B . Studies of C olorism ...................................................................................... 1718 II. C OLORISM AND THE C OURTS .............................................................................. 1724 A . Section 1981 C ases ...................................................................................... 1724 1. Early C olorism C ases ............................................................................ 1724 2. Saint Francis College v. A l-Khazraji ....................................................... 1728 3. Later C olorism C ases ............................................................................ 1730 B. T itle V II C olorism C ases ............................................................................. 1732 III. A PREVIEW OF FUTURE COLORISM CLAIMS? ....................................................... 1734 IV . IMPLICATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ....................................................................... 1736 A. Dark Skin No More: The Continuing Quest for L igh t S kin ............................................................................................... 1736 B. Simple Solutions to Colorism Claims? ........................................................ 1741 C O N C LU SIO N .............................................................................................................. 1745 1705 * Jacob A. France Professor of Equality Jurisprudence, University of Maryland School of Law. I would like to thank Maxwell Chibundu, Neil Gotanda, Judy Scales-Trent, and the faculty at Villanova Law School for their comments on earlier versions of this draft, and my research assis- tants, Carrie Bland, Domiento Hill, and Marnita King, for their assistance.

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