"Someone recently sent me a viral reel of a Black man explaining why he quit therapy: His therapist had never heard of colorism. He shared that his relationship with his darker-skinned brother had been strained because the world treated them differently. The therapist looked confused and asked, "Wait, there's a preference for color?" In that moment, the client made a decision. He stood up, ended the session, and said, "I need to leave. You don't know anything about Black people."
""How is it that I am paying you, and yet I am teaching you?" He never went back, illustrating yet another way in which racial disparities in mental health care are created. As a licensed clinical psychologist, I understand exactly why he walked out. His therapist was not just unfamiliar with a cultural concept. She was unfamiliar with a fundamental system of bias that shapes life chances, including educational and occupational outcomes, identity development, relationships, and health-including mental health -for millions of people around the world."
Colorism is a global skin-tone stratification system that privileges lighter-skinned people over darker-skinned counterparts across and within racial and ethnic groups. It shapes life chances including educational, occupational, identity development, relationships, and both physical and mental health. Many therapists receive no formal training on colorism, leaving clients to teach clinicians and sometimes terminate therapy when clinicians fail to recognize its effects. Unfamiliarity with colorism contributes to racial disparities in mental health care. Mental health training programs must integrate colorism into curricula to enable ethical, culturally informed assessment and treatment and to improve therapeutic engagement and outcomes.
Read at Psychology Today
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