This is our history, our American history; however, it is regrettable that this history is still relevant discourse today. It has been my hope that when we ushered in a new century, some things would become fodder for the history books. However, colorism is still alive and prospering.
Right about now, the naysayers (most likely the colored folk who are reading this) are refuting this assertion. They are most likely under 30 and believe they are the new "enlightened" generation of black folks. Well, think again.
The Current "Hot" Female Celebrities
As much as I love Beyonce, she is yet another example of the colorism that runs rampant in the African American community. This particular photo is the center of a recent controversy in which L'Oreal or Beyonce or both have been accused of "whitewashing" her photo. The whiter that Beyonce appears the more appealing she is to the consumer (You).
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| Alicia Keys |
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| Keri Hilson |
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| Halle Berry |
I could go on and on posting photos of light-skinned, "It List", "Hot" entertainers. However, the list of brown or dark-skinned "It Listers" is quite short. Either we are to believe that dark-skinned Black folks don't sing and perform as well as light-skinned ones, or we must accept that black folks prefer that light-skinned black folks entertain them and represent them. Yes, represent them. After all, the female entertainers I have posted above are fast becoming (if not already) beauty icons. And indeed they are beautiful. Lest we forget that while we are drooling and wallowing in our own psychological skin color baggage, there are dark-skinned beautiful, talented performers and actresses who couldn't get a gig if they paid someone to give it them. It is as if there is a quota on dark-skinned performers. One has to die before we let another in. And right now, Jennifer Hudson is "The One." I would argue that Hudson is just as beautiful and far more talented than many of the entertainers above.
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| Jennifer Hudson |
At the risk of sounding like Spike Lee, we really need to wake up. Some would say that Hollywood (as in "white" Hollywood) sets these paradigms for who they will "let in" or not let in. I don't believe that this is completely true anymore. I believe that black people themselves have become the gate keepers. Yes, whites created the white paradigm of beauty but black folks began to create a black paradigm of beauty during the 1970s when afros and natural blackness was the new beautiful, when "the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice" really meant something. Black people have the power to shape their own images and identities, but they would rather remain stuck on the plantation steeped in the racism of the past.
I enjoyed reading your article, as always. However,some things will never change. Self hatred, racial bias, and all other biases for that matter, are embedded in the mind. Therefore, minds must be changed before hearts can change.
ReplyDeleteI agree. And I challenge the black community to "get their minds right," or we will continue to revisit these same issues for another 50 years.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree completely, but I do think there is some falacies of argumentation here....first of all, there are many pictures of Rhianna with curly hair and dark hair. Same with Beyonce. Here's my question: can people of mixed race (particularly white and black) embrace both of their heritages without offending one or both? If a mixed person associates more closesly with the white part of themselves* are they always considered oppressed? If a mixed person associates more closely with the black side of themselves*, are they always considered more enlightened in some way? In terms of fashion and Hollywood, I can think of quite a few very famous/loved/accepted/successful dark skinned professionals. I believe our younger generation has a lot to teach us!
ReplyDeleteYour questions about biracial people belong in a different argument altogether. Those questions are not the subject of my post. The subject of my post is black people privileging light skin over dark skin. There are very few black people who can honestly deny that this has been and still remains a systemic identity crisis in the black community. Whites began the class system and colorism during slavery, but blacks continue to perpetuate it. Might I add that because of the legacy of slavery, all African Americans (those whose ancestors were enslaved Africans) are a mixed raced people. Some of us have white ancestors 5 or 6 generations removed, some of us are biracial, and still others are multiracial. Light skin does not equal biracial. And about your assertion that our younger generation has a lot to teach us, that remains to be seen. Some things change, and some things remain the same.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't think it is a different argument at all. It becomes a single argument because of the social stigma assigned to an over association of whiteness or blackness. I believe those associations stem from a value-system based on acceptance. These issues stem from culture and how a person is nurtured. Racism (not to be confused with predjudice [although inseperable]) has existed since the beginning of time. Actually, treating people equally regardless of race, religion, etc. is a modern social construct. In America, white people started racism and perpetuated it. The effects of white supremacy cannot be erased over night, but I think the power of youth cannot be under-estimated. The youth of today simply do not understand racism in the way our generation has experienced it. Similarly, we do not fathom racism in the way the previous generation experienced it. As much as we think we know, we lack the primary source of living it when they did as they lived it. I think everything changes eventually, and almost nothing stays the same.
ReplyDeleteYour statement, "It becomes a single argument because of the social stigma assigned to an over association of whiteness or blackness" is unclear. Do you mean that there is a stigma attached to people who associate themselves too emphatically with whiteness or with blackness? I am unclear here. Nevertheless, the issue of skin color, the racialization of skin, and the privilege attached to one skin tone over another are the issues in question in my post, and those issues have not existed since the beginning of time. Nor has racism existed since the beginning of time for that matter. Before the "cult of whiteness" somewhere around the 15th or 16th century BCE, people were divided along tribal and transnational lines. They fought over tribal and national supremacy. Some scholars place the origins of white hegemony in line with the Spanish conquistadors and the rise of the Spanish empire. In other words, when the white people began to conquer the brown and black people. Once the conquered and oppressed became colonized, they began to internalize certain systems of oppression. Reifying whiteness and disparaging blackness/browness/indigenousness is a part of those internalized structures of oppression. Therefore, the subject of my post is actually internalized structures of oppression. These internalized structures are just as prevalent in the Black community now as they were 40 years ago during the 1960s Civil Rights movement, as they were 60 years ago during the early days of the NAACP, as they were 100 years ago the during the time W.E.B. Dubois' "New Negro," as they were during the postbellum period, as they were during the antebellum period. Today's young black people are just completely oblivious that they tend to prefer light-skinned people to dark-skinned people or why they prefer them. Young black people today still use terms like "good hair" and "bad hair" when referring to straight/loosely curled hair v. kinky/tightly curled hair. Young black people still avoid the sun during the summer months, so that their skin won't become darker. It's the Kenneth B. Clark "Doll Test" all over again. This 1940s "Doll Test" was used as the primary piece of evidence in the Brown v. Board case. This is something I see first hand in black children, adolescents, and young adults every day. So, some things do remain essentially the same. As much as we want it to, the change has not come. yet.
ReplyDeleteUnderstanding is the key. We are still in some cases, judged by outward appearances (skin, hair), not by our character. I truly believe that the latter is more important today. Not only in society, but within our own culture, and sadly, even within families.
ReplyDeleteKaren you mentioned Beyonce and Rihanna being pictured w/ curly/darker hair as a fallacy of Sonya's argument, but actually the fact that they are "able" to go from straight to curly is seen as exotic amongst the Black community and makes them more socially acceptable to the White community.
ReplyDeleteWe can all go from curly to straight, even without chemical enhancement. Exotic is not an adjective used by Blacks to describe our beauty. There is still the issue of dark vs light skin tone that in some cases, determine acceptance by other...
ReplyDeleteThere's just no denying that this light skin v. dark skin thing is deeply imbedded in Black culture, Black popular culture, and now it's creeping into mainstream popular culture. All black folks regardless of age can tell stories about having been on one side or the other of this really hurtful binary.
ReplyDeleteYour article was extremely interesting and right on point. It is usually hard for those of other races to fully understand what this stigma is in our community. The problem cannot be associated with just hair, or just skin tone. It is not directly about how much white blood is in our families. It is a combination of all of the afore mentioned and the transgenerational brain washing that we have suffered at the hands of slavery, segregation, subliminal cohersion via the media, and the list goes on. To truly understand the depth to which this problem exists, one would have to be a member our community, not just witness.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that!!!!
ReplyDeletePart I:
ReplyDeleteOk...in reading all of the commentary, I will try not to restate what has already been said and, hopefully, add new insights to further the discussion. As for Karen and Sonya's debate on whether biracial identity crises and the issues surrounding skin color as measures of acceptance, or lack thereof, I do not completely separate these concepts but I do feel they should be argued separately--only because each topic is so vast and deep. I see them as two branches on the same tree--the tree being race and identity in (Black) America. So, I will TRY to stick to light vs. darker skin here in my response.
I will disagree with the notion that Blacks are now the gatekeepers of what's accepted in mass media, only because we do not own as much of the control in deciding what is selected to represent us in film and entertainment. Tyler Perry is the FIRST black man to own his own production studio. Shonda Rhimes, the head writer of Grey's Anatomy and wrote Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, is one of the few black women we can pinpoint as a figure behind the scenes and has some say in who is casted for each show. But look how small of a faction that is when you compare to the big names of producing, writing, directing and, not to mention, the head honchos over the huge networks that choose an acceptable line up of shows, etc. etc. All that to say, it is not solely in our hands what is reflected for us to see/hear. Speaking of what we see, Karen you said there are many famous darker skinned--let's focus on women--out there who are the A-List, go-to representations of blackness in entertainment. I challenge you to quickly, without much thought, name the first 3 that comes to mind. I admit it's a challenge for me; my head goes to the names mentioned above: the Halles, Beyonces, and so on. It bugs me that even on TV commercials, if a little black girl is shown, she often has very long and curly tendrils, not the kinky hair we associated with, hmmm … say Rudy Huxtable from the Cosby show. And even her hair was pressed. Let me further add to the wearing "curls" discussion, as you mentioned Rhianna is often depicted with curly hair. The type of curl they usually portray is a loser curl often still defined as “good hair,” which again perpetuates the issues we are speaking of here in this posting. As Danielle states, though these textures may still be in their natural state, a black women who can show off a mane of spiral curls and coils is much more accepted than someone who has the kinky hair more associated with “black” hair.
To be continued ...
Part II:
ReplyDeleteOkay, I digress. Let me get back to my point. Now, though I do not say we are the sole gatekeepers, we DO, however, perpetuate the problematic comparisons, categorizations, and characterizations of skin color as representations of Blackness. However, as a woman who comes from a lineage where my family is fairer skinned and has “good” hair, I see the other side of the issue. Let me say, I was one of the few that didn’t have the curls that my mom, grandma, and aunts proudly wore. I was often teased because my hair was that “kinky bad stuff” that no one knew what to do with. BUT…I do have a light skin tone and eye color AND I always had the length of hair that people also associate with “other” races. So while I was teased at home, I was also not black enough growing up. For years and years I wore a perm, which was mostly my mom’s choice since she didn’t know how to maintain my type of hair. And as my friends, most of who were darker skinned, started rebelling stereotypes of beauty by becoming natural, I was often derided for not understanding the real “black” struggles. Though I was a scholar and wanted to be a champion for African American identity, language, and culture, I didn’t feel I could do so “proudly” because I was not rocking locks, a dashiki, or an African name even. Somehow we’ve associated that darker skinned persons as being the deep, “enlightened ones”. SO … if they are in entertainment, usually they are the neo-soulsters or the deep feeling, fist-pumping, iconic women we accept as true representations of blackness. I come back to Halle who, though an icon of beauty, is often rejected for roles that are about the struggles of ever day black women.
Whew! This is getting long-winded. Though I feel I’m failing to properly espouse my argument and clearly detail all that I’m trying communicate on this issue, the main thing I want to say is that there are two sides to this coin. The black paper bag test is being used, too, to privy darker skinned persons but in different ways and by different people with different agendas. Yes, I’m annoyed that TV/Film/Radio often will showcase those who are more able to “blend” into the mainstream because of their “safe” features. However, I’m equally annoyed that I didn’t feel as culturally prideful as my darker skinned peers until I did the big chop myself. Where did this level of inferiority come from? What social paradigms, in and outside the black community, taught me to feel to feel this way? Another discussion I’m sure … so I’ll just throw this log onto the already blazing fire.
*smile*
You are spot on, Tiffany. This is one of those issues, though, that remains a "dirty little secret" in the black community. But we need to bring it out the dark and into the light.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Part II of your post, you raise some very important issues about the binary constructions of class within Black culture predicated on skin color. It reminds me of Spike Lee's "School Daze." That movie was released around 1990, yet we are still battling with these demons passed down to us from our wounded ancestors. Dark skinned = serious, enlightened, revolutionary, often times asexual, and matriarchal. Light skinned = beautiful, ornamental, sexual, and often the focus of all male attention. Here we have established yet another binary, haven't we? We have opened a "can of worms" that cannot and should not be put back in the can. In my family, the light skinned girls were always privileged and favored by the adults and children alike. As one of the "darkies," my only saving grace was my long hair. Although my hair is kinky/curly, it straightened really nicely with a press and curl. So I was always, "pretty for a dark skinned girl," or a "pretty little chocolate child." On the surface, all of this sounds really trite in the big scheme of things; however, female identity is tied up in physical aesthetics. Like it or not, it's the hand we've been dealt. So we all come out this colorism matrix with scars. My hope has always been that this generation will get things right, but they are simply creating new racial and color hierarchies.
ReplyDelete