Bloomsbury Home
- Home
- ACADEMIC
- Sociology
- Sociology of Inequality and Social Divisions
- From Antebellum Light Skinned Slaves to the Globalization of Skin Whitening Biotechnology
From Antebellum Light Skinned Slaves to the Globalization of Skin Whitening Biotechnology
From Antebellum Light Skinned Slaves to the Globalization of Skin Whitening Biotechnology
This product is usually dispatched within 2-4 weeks
- Delivery and returns info
-
Flat rate of $10.00 for shipping anywhere in Australia
You must sign in to add this item to your wishlist. Please sign in or create an account
Description
From Antebellum Light Skinned Slaves to the Globalization of Skin Whitening Biotechnology takes historically grounded analysis and delineates how the skin whitening industry has become a contemporary site that facilitates commodification of unregulated whiteness on a global scale. Amina Mire investigates the extent to which antebellum South anti-miscegenation racial purity laws facilitated unofficial interracial reproduction of light skinned slaves, resulting primarily from a systemic rape of enslaved Black women by white slave masters. This is because while different in terms of historical context, what the unregulated globalization of the skin whitening industry and the antebellum unofficial reproduction and trade in light skinned slaves have in common is the unofficial and unregulated nature of the accumulation of economic, symbolic, and aesthetic investment in whiteness. The central argument of this book is that commodifiable whiteness is a form of racial capital with profound health, social, and political implications. Consequently, as long as whiteness remains a salient ideological force that shapes global understanding of standards of beauty and desirability, commodification of whiteness will continue to further entrench systems of racism and colorism. The author argues this requires taking seriously the resilience and malleability of white supremacy and its ability to rebrand itself endlessly.
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: Tradable Whiteness Across the Color Line
Chapter 3: Black Skin, White Lies
Chapter 4: A Melanin Free Whiteness, or a Biotechnological Dystopia?
Chapter 5: Dismantling the Skin Whitening Industry
References
About the Author
Product details
Published | 15 Jan 2025 |
---|---|
Format | Hardback |
Edition | 1st |
Extent | 202 |
ISBN | 9781666907681 |
Imprint | Lexington Books |
Dimensions | 229 x 152 mm |
Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
-
The entanglement of racism, misogyny and commerce is exposed in this important and timely study of the toxic workings of the global skin lightening and skin whitening industries.
Keren Rosa Hammerschlag, The Australian National University

ONLINE RESOURCES
Bloomsbury Collections
This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.