As slave masters fathered children on slave women, lighter skinned offspring were produced and treated more favorably. The issue is not confined to African American people - it also affects Latin American, and Asian communities - but in the United States its origin is inexorably linked to the practice of slavery. The term "colorism," first coined in a 1982 essay by Alice Walker, describes prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically amongst people of the same ethnic or racial group. Sweetness is about to make her own daughter a victim of colorism. She says, "It didn't take no more than an hour after they pulled her out from between my legs to realize something was wrong. In the opening paragraph of God Help the Child, Toni Morrison gives voice to Sweetness, a woman describing herself as "light-skinned with good hair, what we call high yellow," who gives birth to a child with very dark skin. This article relates to God Help the Child
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