Journal of Psychology & Psychotherapy
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Dark Skin vis-a-vis Asian-American Women Who Out-Marry: Eurogamy as Manifestation of the Bleaching Syndrome

Ronald Hall^{* *}Correspondence: Ronald Hall, Department of Dermatology, University of St Thomas, Minnesota, United States, Email:

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Introduction

In the United States of America, the institution of traditional matrimony pertains to the legal unification of a man and a woman for purposes of family and monogamy. In addition to legal unification, it is traditional that this process include the public announcement of an official agreement between the two parties, who are engaged to be married. Said agreement is in fact a contract active until the occasion of death by one of the two spouses involved. Exceptions may occur in the event of a divorce granted by legal authority. Aside from the public references to traditional matrimony are also the unspoken, but no less, obligatory references to marriage. More often than not, the unspoken references correlate to stereotypes and prejudices that cannot be justified in the public domain. For this reason, such references are more often suppressed from consciousness or withheld from public discussion. In consideration of the most dramatic of what is suppressed include unspoken references to the notion of hypergamy and dark skin relative to Asian- American women [1].

Hypergamy, as articulated in American society is normally an act of marriage ascribed to all American women. By definition, hypergamy refers to Asian-American women who marry-up socioeconomically as is typical of what American custom might dictate. Therefore, the male suitor of a particular bride to-be must provide evidence of having acquired superior wealth, superior education or otherwise superior status if they are to be considered qualified for marriage to the desired potential female bride. On the occasions of an exception would necessitate hypogamy where the bride selects a potential male spouse inferior to her in wealth, education and status. In the event of hypogamy subsequently necessitates what is regarded by social scientists as the exchange theory. According to social sciences, exchange theory posits that the totality of human relationships i.e., men and women via matrimony is contingent upon a subjective cost-benefit analysis. Racial status inferred by skin color in America may serve the purposes of hypogamy. In the aftermath, it is American tradition that lower racial status females i.e., Asian-American women having darker skin may marry-up racially to higher racial status males i.e., Euro-American men having lighter skin marry down racially in exchange for fetish i.e., sex appeal of the former [2].

Materials and Methods

One of the most critical aspects of cost-benefit analysis per matrimony in America is the designation of race. According to Asian-American social scientist Harry Kitano, Afro-Americans or blacks, have suffered the longest and the most severely under the American system. Where Caucasian (Euro-American) is the superior race category, by default Negroid (African-American) is presumed inferior. Therefore, it is believed that due to Negroid inferior race status out-marriage between African-American men and Asian-American women would be discouraged given the implications of dark skin and out-marriage aspirations via hypergamy. The few such African-American-male/Asian- American-female out-marriages in existence by racial hypogamy are a consequence of the exchange theory. Under exchange theory circumstances, the typical African-American groom is far superior in wealth, education and status to his Asian-American bride in exchange for his inferior Negroid race status. It is a counterpart of lower status Asian-American women, who outmarry to higher status Euro-American men by sexual fetish [3].

Until recently, as pertains to matrimony the totality of the American social science academy has perpetuated the fictitious concept of race. Race as a product of eugenics was contrived for little more than political and economic purposes. In fact, race is a proxy construct contingent upon the visual assessment of skin color. In the American system, Caucasian is the superior race and Negroid the inferior race differentiated via light skin of the first and dark skin of the latter. By visual observation, Caucasians in largest numbers are then light-skinned and Negroids with few exceptions are dark-skinned. Subsequently, any American observed to be light-skinned is presumed superior race Caucasian and those dark-skinned presumed inferior race Negroids. In the event that a Negroid be light-skinned or a Caucasian dark-skinned, the same superior/inferior race status dynamic would apply [4,5].

The objective of this paper using the available literature and available descriptive statistics is to assess the implications of dark skin inferior race status as pertains to the disparities in African- American out-marriages to Asian-American women juxtaposed with Euro-American domination. It will allude to the quantifiable variable of dark skin and the nominal, mathematically insignificance of race. Considering the societal references to dark skin, in particular, the outcome will enable more validity in future social science theoretical constructs. The ability to do so as pertains to the social sciences, which have heretofore operated under the erroneous assumptions of race category, is invaluable. To accomplish this objective will commence in the following text:

• Dark skin in Asian history
• Asian-American out-marriage
• Eurogamy among Asian-American women
• The bleaching syndrome

Dark skin in Asian history

Within the annals of Asian history, the Japanese felt disdain for dark skin and preference for light skin, long before any significant contacts with Europeans. While most Japanese in early history had never encountered Africans, personally they felt them by culture inferior and African women less than beautiful because they have dark skin. Subsequently, early on the Japanese thought of light skin as the ideal of feminine beauty and dark skin as ugly. Their reactions to the light skin of caucasian Europeans and the dark skin of Negroid Africans were a historical reality and intimately woven into Japanese beauty standards. Light skin color as far as the Japanese were concerned equated as a sign of refinement and dark skin a sign of barbarity. What’s more, the Japanese chose to refer to themselves by skin color as “Shiroi”. Translated into English, Shiroi literally means white [6].

In the historical traditions of Japan, white and/or light skin has long been an essential trait of feminine beauty. This assumption was celebrated in a Japanese proverb: White skin makes up for seven defects of a woman. Therefore, considering those who are light-skinned, said light skin would qualify such defects to be ignored. Commensurate with the auspices of cultural influences not a few Japanese women took advantage of concoctions to give their skin a light alabaster appearance. Of note is that around the Nara period, ladies of Japanese royalty did not hesitate to apply white powder to their faces. Many of them also colored their cheeks in the form of red so-called beauty spots applied between the eyebrows and the exterior corners of their eyes and lips as color in Japanese tradition was considered a significant human trait [7].

In China, as in Japan, the idealization of light skin has a long and active history. Without exception, light skin according to Chinese is the essence of having feminine beauty and all matters pertaining to dark skin are routinely denigrated by Chinese tradition. In the historical descriptions of beautiful women documented in Chinese literature is reference to Empress Zhao Feiyan noted in an early Chinese woodcut scroll. The account was titled “New chants of a hundred beauties” first published in 1792 it describes the empress, who was assumed to be the ideal of feminine beauty, as having a snow-white skin [8].

In another equally dramatic reference to skin color, is the experience of a Chinese writer and journalist named Zhang Lijia. Zhang Lijia lived in the early post-Mao China era. She is noted for having published “Socialism is great: A workers memoir of the New China”. This book is an autobiography, which captures China’s attitudes toward persons who have dark skin. Similar to Japan, light skin is equated with beauty, especially as pertains to women. Being more direct Lijia refers to Chinese workers who have dark skin as clearly born to repair the earth. Repairing the earth had been a derogatory Chinese cultural reference to those who till the soil or otherwise work only with their hands. Her father had similarly denigrated her as a child for her dark skin. She recalls that when in a better mood he denied her as his natural daughter. She had been rescued he contends from a local coal dump, which explained her dark skin. While the patriarch meant such reference as a joke, the journalist admits that it pained her well into adulthood [9].

Similar to the Japanese and Chinese, Koreans have a history of idealizing light skin and by default denigrating dark. They associated a sundry of meanings with complexion. Light skin commensurate with the color white included references to peace, civility and purity. Such assumptions were exacerbated when applied to Caucasian race whereby Negroid as per dark skin became inferior. Said inferiority conforms to Confucianism, which correlates as Korea’s national ideology. Beginning in 14^th century Korea, Confucianism dictated that mankind was organized into five unequal relationships. While race was not applied directly, it is no less indirectly formidable to the extent that under Confucian doctrine dark-skinned races occupy an inferior status compared to superior light-skinned races [10].

Much of the denigration of dark skin in Korea is an historical product of its American influence and/or domination. Not until the 1950’s Korean war, did Korean people begin to have frequent interactions with dark-skinned African-Americans. Documents suggest that approximately 600,000 African- Americans fought in the Korean war where 5,000 were estimated to have died. Although the U.S. had integrated its armed forces in 1948, racism remained overt in every military unit. Koreans observed that dark-skinned i.e., African-American soldiers had been subjugated in status compared to their lightskinned Euro-American counterparts which Koreans took note of accordingly. Korean women working as prostitutes were thusly assigned to African-American units if they were determined to be “low-end” workers and to Euro-American units if they were determined to be more attractive. In the aftermath, Korea maintains a disdain for dark skin and those so characterized prevalent in Korean society today [11].

While various historical standards of beauty among Asians may have evolved, light skin relative to dark has remained the ideal absent exception. One astute professor notes that Asians earlier in their history once crushed pearls into powder and digested them in hopes of acquiring light skin. Traditional Chinese medicine advises the consumption of peas in the medical text “Bencao Gangmu” for the same purpose. Such practices extend back to the Ming dynasty. However, the conquest and domination of Asian peoples by western European military forces are a most formidable influence. Such countries as Japan, Vietnam, Korea, etc. having taken part in prostitution submitted to western skin color ideals. The same populations where light skin had been ideal prior to western conquest exacerbated the denigration of dark skin especially as pertains to northern Asians such as the Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. Asian- American women subsequently became light skin obsessed while objectified as sexual fetish by conquering western militaries commensurate with their modern-day out-marriage [12].

Results

Asian-American out-marriage

Race-based endogamy has been a tradition of Asian populations worldwide and throughout history. Pacific Asian island populations perhaps for geographic reasons have been more or less inclined to endogamy. Thus, with few exceptions, Asian communities have been normally averse to out-marriage as a means of sustaining racial purity and consistency of their familial and cultural heritage. However, Asian-American endogamy has recently steadily declined in popularity as the marriage-minded have chosen spouses not of Asian racial decent. Nevertheless, while endogamy among modern-day Asian- American women has been in decline, it has also manifested in a Caucasian racial preference. As a result, Asian out-marriage events are being perpetrated along strict skin color boundaries where light skin, via Caucasian coupling, is presumed tantamount to a qualified endogamy. Qualified endogamy as otherwise racial hypergamy relative to out-marriage among Asian-American women is reflected in recent descriptive statistics [13].

According to Table 1, Japanese husbands (66.7) are more likely to marry native Asian than Japanese wives (52.0). Japanese husbands (16.5) are more likely to marry Alien Asian than Japanese wives (12.6). Japanese husbands (13.7) are less likely to marry whites than Japanese wives (33.0). Japanese husbands (0.0) are less likely to marry blacks than Japanese wives (1.1). Lastly, per Table 1, Japanese husbands (3.1) are more likely to marry Latino than Japanese wives (1.5).

Table 1: Japanese.

According to Table 2, Chinese husbands (77.6) are more likely to marry native Asian than Chinese wives (72.9). Chinese husbands (13.0) are more likely to marry Alien Asian than Chinese wives (11.9). Chinese husbands (8.3) are less likely to marry whites than Chinese wives (14.1). Chinese husbands (0.3) are more likely to marry blacks than Chinese wives (0.1). Lastly, per Table 2, Chinese husbands (0.8) are less likely to marry Latino than Chinese wives (1.0).

Table 2: Chinese.

According to Table 3, Korean husbands (86.4) are more likely to marry native Asian than Korean wives (62.6). Korean husbands (9.2) are more likely to marry Alien Asian than Korean wives (6.7). Korean husbands (4.0) are less likely to marry whites than Korean wives (28.2). Korean husbands (0.0) are less likely to marry Blacks than Korean wives (1.9). Lastly, per Table 3, Korean husbands (0.4) are less likely to marry Latino than Korean wives (0.6).

Table 3: Korean.

When descriptive statistical data are collapsed from Japanese, Chinese and Korean tables, the stigma associated with dark skin as per out-marriage is dramatically conclusive. Asian husbands (76.9) are more likely to marry native Asian than Asian wives (62.5). Asian husbands (12.9) are more likely to marry Alien Asian than Asian wives (10.4). Asian husbands (8.6) are less likely to marry whites than Asian wives (25.1). Asian husbands (0.1) are less likely to marry blacks than Asian wives (1.0). Asian husbands (1.4) are more likely to marry Latino than Asian wives (1.0) (Table 4).

Table 4: Asian.

Considering the aforementioned descriptive statistics, Le queried study participants pertaining to dating: Do you have a dating preference? Those who preferred dating own ethnicity (27.78%), ethnic Asians (0%), non-Asians (16.67%) and those no preference (55.55%). No preference is a contradiction to the afore mentioned statistical data. This fact is further verified as untrue by an emerging social phenomenon indicated as eurogamy. Eurogamy is a modern-day version of Asian-American caucasian preferred out-marriage histrionically evidenced among Asian-American women.

Discussion

Eurogamy among Asian-American women

Eurogamy by origin is an extension of European domination such as imperialism, colonization and various forms of conquest.

In the aftermath is manifested marital patterns among Asian- American women who by hypergamy aspire to ascend the American socio-economic and status hierarchy. It is a preferred pattern of out-marriage, whereby a less powerful darker-skinned group, Asian-Americans, aspire to associations with a more powerful lighter-skinned group, Euro-Americans. In acquiring Caucasian genes via out-marriage, access to light skin status by Asian-American women is realized psychologically per spouse and biologically per offspring. The idealized light skin then satisfies Asian proximity to the internalized ideal simultaneous to increased remoteness from the stigma of dark skin. It is an out-marriage event that occurs most often among Asian- American women who reside in large urban centers. Of note is the city of New York where Asian-American women who outmarry by eurogamy tend to be second generation or later, born in America, older, better educated, of higher occupational status and have higher incomes. Relative to hypogamy they may be traditionally better educated and otherwise of higher status than their Euro-American spouse. The same equation operates in reverse where Asian-American women out-marry with lower race status African-Americans. These urbanized Asian-American women are less confined to the more customarily closed Asian community. Speculations as to whether or not eurogamy adversely affects their children has not been established as a fact of research. However, their children would appear to have psychological and other challenges according to some social science investigations.

The out-marriage of eurogamy by Asian-Americans is gender biased. While Asian-American males are less likely, female participation is more prevalent and more obvious. As suggested by the aforementioned descriptive statistical data, out-marriage of Asian-American women to Euro-Americans significantly exceeds that of Asian-American men. Eurogamy relative to Asian-American men is minimally critical given the implications of dark skin. While Asian-American men may prefer light skin in women, light skin is not the masculine ideal in the dominant western tradition. Despite the characteristic light skin of Euro- American men, definitive associations of dark skin with masculinity among them remains the western ideal to which Asian-American men conform. As a result, the implications of dark skin via out-marriage among Asian-Americans is ever more critical for Asian-American women where light skin accrues to beauty and femininity. Their penchant for eurogamy may be more a fact of domination of less powerful groups controlled by more powerful groups via out-marriage eurogamy.

As a social phenomenon, eurogamy per Asian-American outmarriage is not unprecedented. Societal survival and the possibility of enhanced social status is served by the ability of a subjugated race population to idealize light skin and other eurocentrisms. While dark-skinned populations tend to congregate at the lower rung of the American, socioeconomic ladder, Asian-Americans-relatively lighter-skinned per people of color-boasts one of the highest per capita incomes in the country, including that for many Euro-Americans. Those who aspire to such successes dictated by western domination perceive out-marriage via eurogamy as most appealing despite any psychological or other challenges incurred over time. By adherence to eurogamy and the denigration of dark skin full assimilation into the mainstream of American society and the commensurate quality of life associated with it, is expected.

The tendency of Asian-American women to out-marriage by eurogamy is a practical matter that is addressed in the work of Kitano. His reference suggests that in order for Asian-American women to assimilate into a dominant patriarch such as the U.S., power is gained indirectly via eurogamy out-marriage. In the U.S. Euro-American men are in the ultimate command of wealth and power. Concealed by the consideration of power and references to race is skin color. The denigration of dark skin by default of light skin as ideal is ever-present in the out-marriage events of Asian-American and other darker-skinned potential spouses. Subsequently, high SES dark-skinned spouses via eurogamy out-marry light-skinned Euro-American men at increased rates. Their eurogamy is quite obvious, if such males have attained an unusually large amount of wealth or power well-publicized by various mass media. In association with Asian- American women, out-marriage by eurogamy is then a potent and well-known, yet little acknowledged social phenomenon in the mainstream academy that precipitates social pathology of the bleaching syndrome.

The bleaching syndrome

According to Webster’s new college dictionary, bleach is a verb pertaining to the removal of color and in the case of the bleaching syndrome, to make one’s appearance a matter of less nativity by denigration of dark skin. Equally critical a syndrome defined consists of a compilation of symptoms, i.e., behaviors, that include the idealization of light skin, which comprises a recognizable pattern. Such definitions provides a context for comprehension of the bleaching syndrome that incorporates a somatic out-marriage paradigm containing three basic components:

• Psychological, according to internalized ideals.
• Sociological, according to the behavioral reactions to those ideals en-masse.
• Physiological, according to the extent of personal including somatic modifications.

Subsequently, the bleaching syndrome is herein defined as the internalization of alien ideals relative to out-marriage and the denigration of dark skin. For Asian-American women who outmarry, the bleaching syndrome begins with what they perceive about Caucasian light skin. Their submission to a connotation denigrating dark skin is not overtly compulsory to their psyche. It is in fact a manifestation of formidable eurocentric influence including conquest and various forms of domination. Unlike light-skinned Euro-American women, this causes among Asian- American women a tendency to existential conflict. Psychologically, the negative implications of dark and/or non- Euro-American skin create obstacles to their self-esteem. What Asian-American women who out-marry perceive as necessary for preferred quality of life then takes hold of their perceptions of skin color. In an effort to rescue self-esteem and reduce psychological conflict, Asian-American women then chose to Caucasian out-marry despite the potential for sexual fetish objectification by such dominant group males. Their behavior is manifested in a sundry of psychological, sociological and physiological choices to that end.

Among Asian-American women who out-marry by denigration of dark skin is also the conscious awareness of the cognitive and attitudinal levels of the similarities and differences between the superiority race status of light skin and the inferiority race status of dark skin. The purpose is to distance Asian-American proximity from the inferiority status normally accorded non- Euro-American dark-skinned populations. In a practical sense the quality of life that this may infer, commensurate with Maslow, includes the fulfillment of physiological needs such as food and shelter and safety needs such as protection and security. Considering the necessity of satisfying belongingness, self-esteem and self-actualization are less relevant, which means that the bleaching syndrome prevents the host from advancing beyond the base of Maslow’s hierarchy. Subsequently Asian- American women who out-marry must acquire substantive knowledge and empathic appreciation of Euro-American culture to the extent of a quintessential preference to affectively denigrate dark skin. The bleaching syndrome is also a metaphor that extends beyond out-marriage and color not limited to the denigration of dark skin. It may incorporate a broader, more inclusive stigmatized range of native identity characteristics such as surnames, hair texture, eye shape, speech patterns, dress styles, social preferences, religious persuasion, political preference, pastimes and so forth. For Asian-Americans and others similarly dominated, the bleaching syndrome prevails as a quasi-functional societal strategy that eventually leads to emotional and/or psychological dysfunction pertaining to selfacceptance. Such a critical existential feature encountered by Asian-American women who out-marry in reference to dark skin has been mainstream-subjugated. It prevails unfortunately as academic trivia or academic exotica and hence all but dismissed by the academy in its exchanges of significant intellectual discourse.

Conclusion

Asian-American women who out-marry, confronted by the stigmatization of dark skin, have been analytically misinterpreted, by not a few members of the mainstream social science conservatory. Said misinterpretation exists despite the aforementioned descriptive statistical data that no doubt suggests a significant increase of Asian-American wives compared to husbands who out-marry Euro-American. Indeed, American and other Asian descended women expected to marry up, have ascribed to marital patterns, which appear to minimize the significance of character criteria. Their marital preferences extend from American marry-up traditions that require women of whatever background to marry-up which those of the highest feminine status do so accordingly. Subsequently, physiological and other tangible qualification necessarily subjugate the aforementioned character criteria.

Perhaps, the most dramatic display of character subjugation is categorized by mainstream sociologist Robert Washington as an Asian version of racism. This Asian version of racism Washington contends pertains to the racism acted out against dark-skinned persons and/or of African descent. This so-called Asian version of racism is differentiated from traditional racism by Washington as brown racism. Brown racism is perpetrated by non-caucasian peoples, including Mestizos, Chinese, Filipinos and South Asians. It is considered a variation of white racism via white supremacy that is likely the result of historical confrontation with and conquest/domination by Eurocentric populations. However, via rigorous speculation, Washington’s brown racism is a rhetorical misinterpretation of what is in fact colorism.

Colorism is a more accurate version of prejudice as pertains to Asian-American out-marriages first alluded to by African- American literary scholar Alice Walker. Walker’s contention is that colorism in lieu of racism by race pertains to discrimination via complexion. Ancestry as in biological heritage is all but irrelevant for those who perpetuate such prejudice. Their contention is that race and ethnicity are implied and assessed by skin color, whereby so-called colorism may occur both across and within racial groups. Heretofore colorism is most apparent among non-caucasian populations where Asian-American women out-marry not by race but more accurately by skin color attributed to race. In the aftermath is a pattern that discourages African-American out-marriages in pursuit of Euro-American couplings. This perceived hypergamy in light skin is a pattern not limited to Asian-American Asian women but includes those who migrate to all dominant western sovereignties worldwide as well as those who remain in their native sovereignties.

Millennial Asian-American women and Asian women abroad appear less inclined to caucasian select light skin out-marriages. WWII is several generations past and colonial domination of Asian nations is all but irrelevant to the value systems of their psyche. Unlike their older predecessors, out-marriage by millennial Asian-American women via the bleaching syndrome is less apparent. Attributed to social media such as facebook and twitter conveyed by various computer technology, Asians in China are expressing cultural influences brought by African- American rappers many of whom are dark-skinned. Chinese rap groups such as higher brothers are lifting the status of darkskinned populations by imitating the musical genre and styles of self-presentation characteristically inner-city-black. In China, local millennial entertainers express the musical influences of such inner-city African-Americans as J-Z, Tupoc and fifty-cent. The R and B soul tones of these rappers is evident in the lyrics and rhythm styles of these China counterparts. They wear dreadlock hairstyles, baggy pants sagged at the waist, tattoos and gesture in inner-city non-verbal hand movements. This celebration of an African-American cultural tradition embraced by millennial Chinese will likely increase the racial status and romanticize the appeal of dark-skinned men for a totality of the Asian population. Hence, Asian-American women of the current and coming generation who out-marry will likely do so less by skin color as racial status escaping the objectifications of a sexual fetish.

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