Background: Colorism is a looks-based system of discrimination that often occurs within members of the same racial/ethnic group (Rondilla & Spickard, 2007). In addition to darker skin tones, prejudice exists based on other physical variations such as eye shape, nose shape, and hair texture (Canotal, 2009; Rondilla & Spickard, 2007). Colorism finds its roots from colonialism and the association with dark skin with being uncultured, primitive, criminal, or dangerous. The Philippines has had a history of colonization from both the United States and Spain, with effects of colorism still effecting Philippine immigrants and their US-born counterparts. There is research that supports differing effects of colorism by age (Rondilla & Spickard, 2007), immigration (Monroe & Hall, 2018), location(Monroe & Hall, 2018; Khanna, 2020), gender (Khanna, 2020; Lasco & Hardon, 2020; Hunter, 2005), and sexual orientation (Felipe, 2010; Canotal, 2009). There is also research that links colorism with negative mental health outcomes in terms of development of psychopathology (Estrellado, et al., 2022) and access to care (Burnett, 2015; Hairston et.al., 2018).
Purpose: Explore the experience of colorism (discrimintation based on skin-color) for Filipinx people of varying age, immigration status, geographic location, gender, and sexual orientation, and their mental health. Specifically, interviews will be conducted with folks in this population to determine how their experiences of colorism relate to their views and experiences with mental health.
There will be an emphasis on how Queer Filipinx men experience cases of colorism
Research Aims:
Explore colorism experiences by
Age, Immigration, Location, Gender, Queer Men
Understand differences/Similarities among between these groups
How these experiences relate to health, mental health, and mental health access
Interested in being a participant?
If you identify as Filipino/a/x (includes immigrant, Filipinx American, biracial, and multiracial) and are located within the Bay Area, you qualify to participant in our study and share your own skin stories! Participants are compensated with a $15 gift card of their. Please feel free to fill out the Google Form below.
We are currently looking for Research Assistants to help us collect/analyze data! If you would like to get involved in helping to conduct interviews and analyze data, please consider joining the team.
Rondilla, J., Aurelio, C., Bumatay, D., Cabe, K., Estrella, N., & Papa, L. A. (2022, October). Reclaiming our Skin Stories: A Workshop Exploring Colorism in the Filipinx Community. Filipinx Heritage Month workshop in partnership with the Center for Asian and Pacific Islander Student Empowerment (CAPISE) and Akbayan (SJSU Filipinx student organization), San José State University, San José, CA.