May 12, 2022

For A Decade, Dr. Ellis Monk Studied Colorism – Now Google’s Introduced His New Color Scale To Its Products

The Harvard professor and sociologist has spent over a decade conducting research centered on skin tone and the effects of colorism in society. Now Google has just announced in a tweet that together – they’re releasing a new skin tone scale designed to be more inclusive of the full spectrum of skin tones.

This is the next step in the firm’s commitment to image equity and improving representation across Its products.

According to a press release sent to AfroTech, Google is proudly announcing a new industry standard backed by Dr. Monk’s findings.

The Monk Skin Tone Scale has 10-shades and will be more advanced than the Fitzpatrick phototype — a six-shade scale based on skin pigmentation and the skin’s reaction to sun exposure.

The scale will be integrated throughout Google’s products as it looks ahead.

“The reality is, the Fitzpatrick scale really didn’t do a good job of differentiating, even toward the more middle or lighter end of the scale for a lot of people of color. The intention behind creating the Monk Skin Tone was to fix those issues, not just in terms of making sure that we can go out to the darkest end of the scale, but even that dynamic range of differences within the Black population, among Afro Latinos, or people who aren’t necessarily all the way at the darkest end of the scale.

“That’s one thing to keep in mind here that will improve these products if we’re able to test using a more dynamic range of all these different skin tones that we tend to see,” Dr. Monk said.

Abbianca Makoni

Abbianca Makoni is a content executive and writer at POCIT! She has years of experience reporting on critical issues affecting diverse communities around the globe.