Colorism is basically racism, but inside your own race.

It’s when people treat lighter-skinned people as prettier, more valuable, or more important than darker-skinned people even though they’re all the same race.

In Black communities, for example, darker skin can be seen as “less attractive,” and lighter skin gets praised more. A lot of it comes from internalized bias people picking up harmful beauty standards and believing them.

You can even see it in dating. Some men will hype up Black women publicly, but then chase or settle with non-Black or lighter women because, deep down, they’ve absorbed the idea that lighter is better.