colorism

noun

col·​or·​ism ˈkə-lə-ˌri-zəm 

-lər-ˌi-zəm

variants or British colourism

: prejudice or discrimination especially within a racial or ethnic group favoring people with lighter skin over those with darker skin

Under this system of colorism—the system which prevailed in my childhood in Jamaica, and which has carried over to the present—rarely will dark and light people co-mingle. Rarely will they achieve between themselves an intimacy informed with identity.

—Michelle Cliff

What writer Alice Walker defined as colorism, the preferential or prejudicial treatment of same-race people based on skin color, continues to this day. And as she once wrote, unless we exorcise it "we cannot as a people progress. For colorism, like colonialism, sexism and racism, impedes us."

—Itabari Njeri

Examples of colorism in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Classism is real, colorism is real, homophobia is real. — Carmen Rios, Flow Space, 5 Sep. 2025

Much of the colorism research focuses on its impacts within a racial or ethnic group but fewer studies examine the impacts of both colorism and gender on workplace experiences. — Janice Gassam Asare, Forbes.com, 9 Mar. 2026

Topics like colorism in the Black community, the complex relationship between mothers and daughters, and even the horrors of slavery are depicted. — Lynnette Nicholas, Essence, 30 Dec. 2025

Part of the reason is that her writing, which focused on colorism, the lives of the Black middle class, and the quiet struggles of Black women navigating a racist, classist society, wasn’t always seen as radical enough. — Glory Edim august 27, Literary Hub, 27 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

color entry 1 + -ism, after racism

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for colorism

• autism
• fascism
• racism
• sikhism
• sophism
• statism
• sufism
• thomism
• tourism
• tropism
• abolitionism
• aldosteronism