#4 Final Summary/Reaction

After completing my observations and survey, I concluded that many people were not familiar with the term "colorism". Only two out of the twelve who took the survey said that they knew the term "colorism" and the rest said they were not familiar with it. The results for being discriminated based on their skin color were split. Fifty percent said that they had been discriminated against, while the other half said they had not. About ninety percent of the survey-takers said that they see forms of colorism take place in the media, today, such as photoshopping skin tones to make them look lighter. As well as a survey, I also went to the mall to see if darker-skinned people were treated unfairly in certain stores. I mostly wanted to see if employees would help the lighter-skinned customers first. Overall, I did not notice too many instances of discrimination in stores, but there were a couple of times where employees did go to help the wealthier looking customers, who also appeared to be lighter-skinned. 

I was able to find what I thought I was going to because my results came out extremely similar to my hypothesis and predictions. I predicted that many people would not be familiar with the term "colorism", would only think about colorism if they were brought to the attention of it, and that lighter-skinned customers would be helped first. All of these predictions were proven correct with the help of my observations. After this semester, I feel very comfortable with my topic and that I have learned a lot about it. Before learning about colorism, I had not heard of it so it was interesting to learn something new. Learning about colorism has been very interesting and made me think even more about the photoshopping and discrimination against darker-skinned people. Now that I have more information, I hope to inform other people about this topic, who are not familiar with it. 

#3 Revised Summary/Plan/Update

In my results for my survey and observation, I have noticed that many people are not really aware of colorism still being present today. However, when people took my survey, I then realized that they were only aware of prejudices against those with darker skin when I made them aware of it. While observing people at the mall, I did notice that everyone was treated equally, for the most part. In some situations, I noticed that employees would go to help lighter-skinned or wealthy-looking customers first, rather than darker-skinned customers, which is completely unfair. My hypothesis was that people would not be fully aware of colorism today in our society and I think that these observations proved that. People were only aware of colorism when they were forced to think about it. I think that I am seeing these results because people are very much wrapped up in their lives and are very busy that they do not have the time to think about colorism and it is not a main priority or focus in their lives. Although some of my results varied, they were mostly similar overall.

#2 Strategy/Plan for Research

For my project, I intend to use a paper survey and hand it out to both males and females between the ages of 18 to 60, of all social classes. I predict that most of the people taking the survey will not think about colorism as being prevalent in their society today because they do not notice it or do not think it is present. If some people do believe that colorism is still present today, I am curious as to what the results of the survey will be. 

#1 Suggested Research Method/Why

For my semester 2 project, I have decided to do a survey consisting of about 10 questions. I plan to ask people about their opinions and views on colorism and if they still think it is present today. I want to survey people between the ages of 18-60 years old. I also want to incorporate observing people in the mall or a store to see who gets served first; lighter-skinned people or darker-skinned people.