Good Morning World!!! It is exactly 2:06 AM and I couldn’t sleep anymore. I have this anxious feeling for some reason. It is like a good anxiety, if that is even possible…
I came across a paragraph in the OpenStax book on colorism. Now, of course the book couldn’t delve deep into this issue, but this is a HUGE deal in the Black community. So much so, my friend is doing her dissertation on the topic. So, I just want to add my two cents.
Colorism has been the elephant in the room for Blacks since slavery. The light skinned versus the dark skinned person has been a battle that even I have been caught in. All of my family and close friends always has a word on the topic. Throughout history, it has been a well known fact that the lighter you are the more accepted by society you are. Blacks knew this long ago. That is why Blacks gave preferential treatment to other Blacks who could “pass” in society. That means hard to be detected as full Black. When you were too dark, society treated you unfairly. You were shut off from jobs, help, and many other vital services one may have needed. That same attitude trickled into the Black community and set off an intra-racial conflict that is still being waged today.
I have seen many families broken apart due to colorism. Old tensions are still high in families over this subject. There are countless stories of the lighter child being favored over the darker child. Siblings are at war to this day over this issue. When you were light skinned in a Black family, you were treated differently. The older members in the family would label you as “handsome” or “pretty” more often than they would the darker kids. The voice of the lighter skinned kids would be heard more. Even in church this issue played out before your eyes. I remember clearly my cousin Larry was favored over us darker cousins. He was the one allowed to play the drums, even though it was Ken and I with more talent. He seemed to get more kisses and hugs. It was crazy. In school, it was my homeboy Vick who the girls died over. He had no natural athletic talent, extremely goofy, and a low average student, but hey Vick was light skinned.
Blacks were and still are torturous to one another regarding this. Oh, I almost forgot about how the Black fraternity and sororities treated their fellow “brothers and sisters.” They were notorious for their “paper bag” tests. If you were darker than a brown paper bag you were excluded from their organization. That is some irony for your. Considering these organizations were started to promote unity amongst Blacks in the early 1900s. The music videos are bad too. Almost all Hip-Hop/R & B videos have the light skinned brown hair woman as the lead. This is almost inevitable. It is so predictable. So, this situation still goes on. I often wonder would President Obama been elected if he was not half white? If he was dark would there had even been an Obama candidacy?
In closing, this colorism thing is something that has broken tons of hearts. People have not dated just because of this barrier. People were mistreated by close relative, even by parents for having skin a bit darker. The emotional scars that many live with. My grandmother was a victim of this. She died at 66 years old still talking about those times. I wonder will we ever stop it… PEACE!!!
ofomarthethoughts 