Dr. Ronald E. Hall's Research

Biography

Before earning his doctorate, Ronald E. Hall enabled his professional career as a clinical social worker in the city of Detroit. His occupational role encompassed the practice of individual and group psychotherapy with schizophrenic and manic-depressive clients. Subsequent to numerous clinical observations, Dr. Hall advocated the notion of colorism, among people of color, as a critical dynamic relative to mental health. Having written his dissertation on colorism, Dr. Hall devised the "Bleaching Syndrome" to theoretically explain this social dynamic among people of color. Dr. Hall’s colorism research comprises more than 300 (co)-authored publications, interviews, and presentations pertaining to the issue of colorism. Of note are commentaries on Justice Clarence Thomas and President Barack Obama via TIME magazine and Oprah Winfrey via The Color Complex. On January 19, 2015, Dr. Hall was featured in Bill Duke’s “Light Girls” hosted by the OWN. His notable book credits include The Color Complex (revised from 1992), which was published in 2013. In 2003, Dr. Hall won the Mellen Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship for publication of Skin Color as a Post-Colonial Issue Among Asian-Americans. His most recent book is titled the Routledge International Handbook on Colorism: Bigotry Beyond Borders.

Dr. Hall has lectured on colorism both domestically and internationally, including by invitation Bates College (Lewiston, ME), Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA), Oxford University (Oxford, UK), U.S. Consulate (Mumbai, India) and return to the University of Faisalabad (Pakistan). As part of his worldwide research on colorism in May of 2015, Dr. Hall traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa to lecture and collect colorism data after which during the previous 14 years, he will have covered colorism per every major racial group on the planet. That includes Europeans, and a Native-American reservation in North Dakota. Among other international speaking events, also include Paramaribo, Suriname, where he was guest speaker for a medical convention convened to address skin color. Dr. Hall also lectured on skin color in India at the Jindal Global University in Delhi and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. He was then invited after return to the U.S. to speak in Washington D.C. by Congressman Bobby L. Rush on issues pertaining to skin color. In addition to the local, Dr. Hall was the lead presenter at the Global Perspectives on Colorism Conference hosted by the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Mo. Continuing his global trek, on November 20, 2021, Dr. Hall lectured by Zoom at the 2nd International Conference on Dermal Sciences: Psychosocial Impact of Colorism at the University of Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan. Most recently on February 25, 2022, Dr. Hall was requested by the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai, India to lecture at its conference titled: Is Colorism Only Skin Deep? Lastly, as posted by The Conversation academic website for American university professors Dr. Hall has attracted over a million readers who follow his work. 

Previously, Dr. Hall testified as an expert witness for the nation’s first African-American colorism litigation in Morrow v. IRS, Atlanta Federal District Court (1990). On select occasions since he has served as consultant for attorneys in need of colorism expertise. Two years following Morrow v. IRS he co-authored The Color Complex published in 1992 and The Color Complex (Revised): The Politics of Skin Color in a New Millennium for re-release in 2013. Subsequently The Color Complex maintains active book sales 30 years later in 2022. Book publications in total by Dr. Hall include 16 titles. Academic papers published by Dr. Hall existent around the world exceed 100 in total. He has designed a yet to be offered class on colorism at MSU and among its approximately 3,000 faculty/staff is ranked second most read on The Conversation website. 
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In 2023, the Colorism Project, Inc. hosted the inaugural Ronald E. Hall Conference on Colorism, named in honor of Dr. Hall for his groundbreaking and extensive research on global colorism. Dr. Hall is confident about the global existence of colorism having collected both quantitative and qualitative data from humanity at-large. Dr. Hall is a professor in the School of Social Work in the College of Social Science at Michigan State University.﻿
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Hall, Einstein and Colorism

Science has always been the focus of my academic interests since junior high school in West Philadelphia where I stumbled upon the science of physics. It was Mr. Rosen who first exposed me to the study of astro physics in particular. From then on, I was hooked to no end. That was when I learned about Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity, I’d come across in library books. As a junior high school student much of the math was over my head. However, the thought of time as relative to the speed of light while it sounds like Star Trek, I was amazed to know that it was science. When I began to read Einstein’s bio by the time I started college it helped me understand the challenges brought by the world around me. He shared in his bio that he would sit two to three hours in a day and just think. This reminded me of Mr. Rosen who would often scold me for staring out of the window convinced I was not paying attention. What I was doing was my attempt to think outside the box as I imagined Einstein had done in developing his concept of time. That fact that I had found a way to remotely identify intellectually with Albert Einstein put my confidence on steroids. How could the great Albert Einstein be wrong? Thus, while Hawking, Sagan and others might equal Einstein mathematically I reasoned they could not think outside the box which time in relativity would require. Hence forth Einstein’s ability to think outside the box has given me the confidence to advocate for colorism as outside the box while the academy remains obsessed with the celebration of race.﻿
Dr. Hall

Read Now!

Learn more about the "Father of Colorism's" influential work on skin color in "Interviewing the “Father” of Colorism Studies: A Conversation with Dr. Ronald E. Hall."