AN interesting thought came to me yesterday as I was reading the comments from the zero escapades - part deux. In his re-telling, Zero offered his version of our weekend encounter with a racial twist, I must admit, he noticed a few things that weren’t readily apparent to me. He stated that his "light skinneded-ness" afforded him some privileges that a darker brother like myself was not able to attain. He later joked with me that I had to pass the paper bag test (a test conducted by blacks among themselves in the early 20th century, if you were proven darker than the brown paper bag, you were denied entrance into most “elite” social events) to gain entry into an establishment such as that.
The sad part about this is that Zero might have been correct. Racism is definitely still alive and well. That’s common knowledge. But, what boggles me is that there is still racism within our own race based on skin tones. It’s exemplified in our lives daily. It bothers me when people talk about having certain attributes like:
Good Hair. You know when Yvette from the liquor store looks at another chick and says “Ooooh, gurl… yo hurr is so pretty and long. Is that a weave? I wish I had hurr like dat.” Someone please tell me what the hell good hair is? Are we going to have to walk around with water guns and relaxers? Hey, you with the afro – come here for a minute… you know you can’t be seen like that… Will I be banned from the race if I don’t have this “good hair”? On the flip side, will I lose street credibility if I have “good hair”? It’s like we still have eternal battles between the wannabe's and the jigaboo's (shout out to School Daze). Yo, son, git dat soft nigga with the S-Curl… tryna make us think you were down… almost had us fooled until your hat came off…
Talking Proper. What the f@#$?! Just because I'm educated, and don't talk as if Juvenile, Master P, and the Ying Yang Twinz were my grammar school teachers, that's considered "talking White"? I just don't get it. If I don’t use Ebonics or Bling-lish, am I not down enough? Who determines what is or isn’t acceptable? I’m boycotting… we shall overcome --- being dumb.
Character. Not every dark-skinned person is buffoonish, ignorant or living only to get their hustle on. I’m living proof that we field slaves can read and write well. We all don’t dap people up in greeting, drop it like it’s hot or sell CDs on the train platform (well, at least not anymore). To contrast, not every light skinned person is bourgeois. I repeat, not every light-skinned person is bourgeois. I know it may be hard to fathom but some are actually down to earth… a few are even down right hood…
Why do folks think like this? These ideals are passed down from generation to generation. I think that Black parents need to seriously evaluate how they relate to their children and make sure that they know how lovely they are. People, we are not on the plantation anymore, shuckin’ and jiving for sum’ mo’ cobbler… . Instead of worrying about the “other man”, we have to worry about the “brotha man”. Yes, discrimination from other ethnic groups remains an immense problem for our race but we have to realize that colorism is just as serious. Know that just because a person uses slang, they are not ghetto. To contrast, just because a person doesn’t watch BET faithfully (or know how to lean wit it, rock wit it), it doesn’t make them an Uncle Tom. We should embrace who we are and pride ourselves in our differences. The sooner we realize this, the better off we’ll all be…
That's my two cents - holla back at cha on the morrow... - Jorge
You make an excellent point Jorge, racism and colorism is very alive amongst the African-American community. I feel on some levels this will always be a factor. Everybody wants to feel superior to someone else. I mean let's think about it. The "white man" is always going to present himself as more worthy, powerful and knowledgeable. Therefore, in order for some blacks to feel that they have some authority they need to put down someone whom they "feel" is unlike themself. And thanks to "massa" we now have the field negroes versus the house negros. I think the objective needs to be not putting ourselves against one another to feel prominent and successful, but continue to thrive and succeed. Also make it known that African-Americans from all walks of life are capable of great things and let those achievements be known.
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting to me. I guess I'll be the "militant brotha" and start off by saying that this is one of many systems put into place by "the man" back in the slave days that we still have not managed to shake off. It's shameful that we continue to divide ourselves to yet an even smaller group. What happened to strength in numbers?
ReplyDeleteWe have adopted a mentality that has us thinking only in absolution. Everything has to be left or right, high or low, black or white. There is no in between with us. And I know some of you have heard me say this before, but we are a more enlightened people than that. Too enlightened to have such ideals.
I'm not trying to step on anyone's toes, but one example of modern colorism that sticks out in my mind is our (as in black folk's) fraternity/sorority community. Whether you are on the outside or on the inside, you have to admit that there is a certain "color association" that goes along with what is considered to be the typical Kappa, or the typical Q etc. And a certain "behavior" gets associated with those skin tones. That is not to say that that is what frats are about. But the colorism is there. Just like it is in our community. It's disturbing.
I have to agree. "Why can't we all just get along?"
ReplyDeleteWell, there's a couple of reasons.
Slavery... to start. We are the only people in the world who have experienced slavery such as in America. We were stripped from any human dignity possible. In fact we weren't even considered human! So, can you imagine your psychosis after being beaten, taken away from your home country, looking at strange individuals who have no skin color, separated from your family, etc... and then they tell you you're free.
After a civil war where you couldn't fight in, necessarily ( there were some "colored" regiments who did fight) But what was really free? During Reconstuction, America and millions of displaced Africans ( not Afican American, the 12th ( I believe- the one that gave our "citizenship" ammendment wasn't ratified yet) with no land, housing, money, jobs. They didn't even have last names. (sounds familar now... Katrina maybe.)
So not only do you have deal with the pain of your horrific experience as a slave, you have to fight again just to become a citizen of a county that you were probably born in. But wait it gets better. You have people or should I say evil demons such as Willie Lynch who published books on how to keep blacks in their "place". And the once window of opportunity that the beginning of Reconstruction promised was quickly shut, bordered up. So how can you survive in a world where you continously told that your dark skin is unacceptable and is proven by practices such as the brown bag test. Admission to certain events, business opportunities were afforded to those who looked more like them. So eventually, our people began to absorb this mentality within ourselves, which began in slavery with the whole house and field hands. White slave owners purposely did that in order to keep us submissive. If we fighting ourselves, they won't have to do it.
So as time marched on blacks became business owners, open schools, churches and becoming contributing members of soceity. Of course we could get lynched at time, we couldn't vote, hell we couldn't event drink out of water fountains. So that commonality united us. A majority of us were poor, uneducated and abused. There were those blacks who were able to rise and become outstanding members of socitey and were able to receive benefits financially. But, they were looking over their shoulder as well, not knowing if their white neighbor will come and burn down their house or worse. But no matter what we all wanted our freedom. We all wanted to vote, to eat at lunch counters, to send our children to the best schools.
Our united front was necessary to launch the modern day Civil Rights Movement. We had to be on one accord to succeed in our mission. However, during this process we forgot what makes us so special- our differences. Our straight hair, curly hair, red, brown or blonde. Our culture is one of the richest the universe. We are creative and innovative. But as we got the right to vote, and you just couldn't be lynched on a whim, we started to think "We have overcomed!" We made it to the promise land. So, now it's like now what?
We go back to those old myths and fables that our grandmammas and Aunties told us growing up. We remember those old insecurities. We have to keep up with the Joneses. So, if that means demeaning my black brother to get that new bmw or whatever, so be it. White America still has the controlling factors- commerce, government, etc. Although we are able to get more of the pie, we still ain't baking it.
To end, we have to throw away those old notions of skin color and embrace our differences and learn from each other. Then when that happens. we might see what old whitey is up to.. before we find ourselves right back into old massa slave quarters!
well said...
ReplyDeleteAttending a HBCU made me see these things in a whole new light... people ridiculed others for their lineage, mocked their accents, just to make themselves feel more important.
ReplyDeleteI remember one instance where a friend of mine told me he thought I was from Delaware (I'm from the South Side of Chicago). He told me that I didn't speak, dress or act like I was from there. My initial reaction was laughter... I mean how was I supposed to carry myself... but after further thinking, I was saddened to believe that this brother had been brainwashed into believing another stereotype.
Hopefully, we can all one day come together and extricate ourselves from the shackles of inequity and rise to be all we can be.
I think one of the major problems is that we as black people like to blame everybody else for the ideals we reinforce ourselves. I see it already ingrained in my youngest cousins. "I wish my hair was like yours"...(yeah i'm the light bright almost white, hair down my back chick) & i think that does grant me more privileges among my own race. They're subtle, but they are there. Conversely, in many social situations i'm assumed to be the boushe(sp?) one...I think if we all tried to steer as far away from sterotypes as possible (as hard as that may be) we'd be better off. Easier said than done though. We revert to habits/expectations even sometimes unconsciously...
ReplyDeletethis blog makes me want to go watch School Daze again.
OK, so I am going to go out on a limb here and ask am I the only one still living in the dark? Until I left home and went away to college (and remind you this was only about 7 years ago), I was not aware of the major color issues within the black community.
ReplyDeleteSee I come from a family that is rich in mixed races therefore I have a variety of colors floating around the generations. From the "is she really related to you" light bright cousin to me the chocloate drop of the family (that is because daddy's grandma wasn't raped like mommy's grandma). So growing up I knew nothing about these color differences, hair types, or other "defining" characteristics.
Growing up I was always asked why do you talk like that? But I was more perplexed than anything, I had no idea why the other black kids were aksing me that, I always thought I talked like everyone else. AS far as hair is concerned I thought my hair was just like everyone else's until I began attending the most elite of HBCU's, and then of course among the most prestigious females that the African-American race has to offer we once again have to find something to divide us. So my hair texture became a major issue. I heard comments like: "How do you get your hair to do that?" "How come my hair cant 'bounce back' like yours after it rains?" This was beginning to get on my nerves. My friends refer to it as "rabbit fur" and this absolutely crazy!
I cant help it if I have a certain hair texture, dress a certain way, or if I talk with a ceratin dialect. Sooner or later we are going to begin to divide amongst ourselves based on linguistic regions (midwest, northerners, etc)-- or are we already doing this?
So I said all of this to say (an old saying) dont judge a book by its cover! Just because an individual is light skinned doesnt make them any better or worse than their chocolate counterparts. So my black people if we could just learn to not tear each other down based on these charcteristics then maybe we could learn to respect each other, therefore, "the man" an his family can respect us as well!
P.S.
Jorge i prefer my "dark-skinded" brothers anyday!