The Bleaching Syndrome

Abstract

The current emphasis on diversity in academia has brought about rapid and widely accepted curriculum changes (Garcia & Swenson, 1992; Norton, 1983). It is a reflection of the various activisms that have previously been ineffective. Now, after decades of struggle, those activisms have finally sparked a revolution. African Americans, previously segregated, commence to interaction on a more intimate level with members of the dominant culture. For the most part, the impact of this revolution has attracted little attention. It has no immediate implications for exact science or technology. Furthermore, if that impact escapes the attention of African Americans, their future will very likely be at risk. The objective of this article is to bring to the attention of African Americans some of the dynamics associated with the current revolution. It will introduce the bleaching syndrome (Hall, 1990a) as a response by African Americans in their attempts to assimilate into a society characterized by cultural domination in spite of the psychic conflict it has caused. It will also make available to scholars a theoretical concept for logically comprehending the impact of assimilation upon the psyche of dominated groups. And finally, it will define and illustrate some of the consequences of the bleaching syndrome for African Americans who internalize light skin and other dominant culture criteria as the ideal point of reference for full assimilation into American society. According to the domination model (Kitano, 1985) of assimilation, African Americans are regarded as minorities. Their most