TY - JOUR
T1 - Skin-Tone Trauma
T2 - Historical and Contemporary Influences on the Health and Interpersonal Outcomes of African Americans
AU - Landor, Antoinette M.
AU - McNeil Smith, Shardé
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - Empirical evidence demonstrates that racism is a source of traumatic stress for racial/ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans. Like race and racism, skin tone and experiences of colorism—an often overlooked form of discrimination that privileges lighter skinned over darker skinned individuals, although not uniformly, may also result in traumatic stress. This article proposes a new conceptual model of skin-tone trauma. The model depicts how historical and contemporary underpinnings of colorism lead to colorist incidents that may directly and indirectly, by eliciting traumatic stress reactions, lead to negative effects on the health and interpersonal relationships of African Americans. Key tenets of critical race and intersectionality theories are used to highlight the complexities of skin-tone trauma as a result of intersectional identities on the basis of existing social hierarchies. Last, we present suggestions for researchers, as well as recommendations and strategies for practitioners, to unmask “skin-tone wounds” and promote healing for individuals, families, and communities that suffer from skin-tone trauma. Skin-tone trauma should be acknowledged by researchers, scholars, and practitioners to better understand and assess the widespread scope of trauma in the African American community.
AB - Empirical evidence demonstrates that racism is a source of traumatic stress for racial/ethnic minorities, particularly African Americans. Like race and racism, skin tone and experiences of colorism—an often overlooked form of discrimination that privileges lighter skinned over darker skinned individuals, although not uniformly, may also result in traumatic stress. This article proposes a new conceptual model of skin-tone trauma. The model depicts how historical and contemporary underpinnings of colorism lead to colorist incidents that may directly and indirectly, by eliciting traumatic stress reactions, lead to negative effects on the health and interpersonal relationships of African Americans. Key tenets of critical race and intersectionality theories are used to highlight the complexities of skin-tone trauma as a result of intersectional identities on the basis of existing social hierarchies. Last, we present suggestions for researchers, as well as recommendations and strategies for practitioners, to unmask “skin-tone wounds” and promote healing for individuals, families, and communities that suffer from skin-tone trauma. Skin-tone trauma should be acknowledged by researchers, scholars, and practitioners to better understand and assess the widespread scope of trauma in the African American community.
KW - colorism
KW - health
KW - skin tone
KW - skin-tone trauma
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U2 - 10.1177/1745691619851781
DO - 10.1177/1745691619851781
M3 - Article
C2 - 31412219
AN - SCOPUS:85071416730
SN - 1745-6916
VL - 14
SP - 797
EP - 815
JO - Perspectives on Psychological Science
JF - Perspectives on Psychological Science
IS - 5
ER -