Internalized Racism

Internalizing Oppression

All systems of inequality generate conditions encouraging the subjugated to accept their subordinated position and adopt the negative images and beliefs attached to their identity by the dominant group. One example is racial identities, which are socially constructed from power relations. These socially defined characteristics are often presented as flowing naturally from “real” biological differences. Ideologies that legitimize and normalize inequality and intimate the inferiority of people of color and the superiority of Whites are thus woven into the fabric of common-sense knowledge, where they are easily absorbed by all members of society, including people of color.

Cloaked in normalcy, these derogatory myths may be adopted by people of color without their conscious awareness of doing so. This aspect of internalized racism is often likened to the impact of colonial oppression on the colonized and referred to as mental colonization. When people of color are socialized to accept racial inequality and their subordinated position within the racial hierarchy, they pose less of a threat to the power and privilege of Whites.

Internalized racism is not the result of any inherent personal deficiencies, frailties, or moral shortcomings, nor is it a consequence of psychological makeup or cultural beliefs. Most important, internalized racism is not a cause or source of racism. Rather, it is an outcome of racial oppression, which is never total. In White-dominated societies, people of color may devise strategies of resistance, disruption, subversion, and rebellion. By studying the subtle forms that internalized racism can take and raising awareness about them, people of color can further develop ways to resist the internalization of racial oppression.

Several forms of internalized racial oppression are discussed in the limited amount of literature on the topic. One form is evident when the people of color respond to their denigrated racial status by distancing themselves from their racial group in an attempt to be seen as more like Whites. To avoid the stigmatized racial status, people of color may assume traits and characteristics associated with Whites, denigrate members of their group for not behaving more like Whites or for being “too ethnic,” and avoid association with their racial group. By reiterating a belief in the inferiority of their own racial group—and the superiority of Whites—they reinforce rather than challenge the system of racial inequality.

Another example of internalized racism is the skin-tone bias or “colorism” within the Black American community. Higher status, greater beauty, and desirability are attributed to those Blacks with lighter skin tone and straight hair while the darker-skinned and nappy-haired are more likely to suffer discrimination and denigration from members of their own racial group. Colorism has its roots in slavery and continues to be propped up by the beauty standards of the dominant society, which defines White European American features as more attractive than the racial-ized features of non-Whites. This encourages non-Whites to view their own racialized features with displeasure, contributing to high rates of cosmetic surgery among non-Whites, particularly non-White females, who alter racialized features to more closely resemble those associated with European Americans.

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