Dr. Sarah L. Webbis the founder of Colorism Healing and the author of Colorism: The Politics of Skin Tone and How We Get Free, out now from Legacy Lit. Below, she discusses the far-reaching consequences of colorism and how it is misrepresented in pop culture. (Photo courtesy of the author.) On its surface, colorism appears to be a simple issue of who we find physically attractive or not. In pop culture news, the biggest headlines related to colorism feature a dark-skinned celebrity confessing that she had to learn to embrace her own beauty after growing up being told that she was “pretty for a dark girl.” On the more controversial end, we see heated debates about how or if colorism plays out in reality TV shows. Outside of this arena, it’s less common to find more informative discussions on the issue. This was especially true when I began studying and writing about colorism in 2011. Because I hadn’t heard others addressing this topic, I was initially surprised to discover that significant academic research and other …