The "Light Skin Libra Birthday Bash,"
which was to take place at a Detroit 's Club, APT, was the brainchild
of a self-described "dark skinned" African-American,
Detroit DJ and party promoter. The party was intended to let
"light-skinned" Black women into a downtown club for
free. In his defense, Ulysses "DJ Lish" Barnes, said
that he had plans for "Sexy Chocolate" and "Sexy
Caramel" parties too. The good news is that the parties
have been canceled after much criticism and calls for boycotts
and lawsuits.
There are no words for some of the ignorant (insert
four letter word that starts with an s rhymes with hit), that
we do to ourselves. But let me give it a try.
The short version.
History has shown that Black people with lighter
skin were treated better. In the days of slavery, the dark-skinned
Blacks worked in the fields while light-skinned Blacks worked
in the house, hence the terms "field Negroes" and
"house Negroes." It got so bad, that not only did
the slave owners, who were often responsible for the lighter
shade of brown his slaves had, give lighter-skinned Blacks more
respect, but so did the dark-skinned Blacks.
This evolved into generations of Blacks both
consciously and subconsciously teaching themselves that one
is better than the other, which eventually led to a billion-dollar
fake hair industry.
This was best illustrated in Spike Lee's 1988
film "School Daze" in the scene played out in a beauty
parlor between the "jiggaboos," otherwise known as
the darker-skinned Blacks with nappy hair, and the "wannabe's,"
the lighter-skinned Blacks with straight often times weaved
hair. But who could forget the film version of Alice Walker's
novel "The Color Purple" in which Mister asked for
Nettie who was "chocolate" colored with long hair
but was given Celie, who was dark-skinned with nappy and short
coarse hair, instead. This was followed by a grown-up Celie
dealing with the harsh realities of beauty and Mista's in-house
mistress Shug Avery.
Then you had Black sororities and fraternities
who used the "brown paper bag test" to deny entrance
to anyone darker than the bag.
There continue to be Black children who prefer
to play with dolls that are white with blond hair and blue eyes.
Some Black children actually identify with these dolls over
dolls of their own race, which could explain the 2003 case between
two Georgia Applebee's restaurant employees.
At the time, Dwight Burch a dark-skinned waiter,
was an Applebee's restaurant employee. He filed a lawsuit against
Applebee's and his light-skinned African-American manager, alleging
that during his employment, the manager repeatedly referred
to him as a "Black monkey" and a "tar baby"
and told Burch to bleach his skin. Burch claimed he was fired
after he refused to do so. His case was settled for $40,000.
But what about decades of rap music videos where
the preferred "ho" is a lighter shade of brown? And
the fact that only recently we're seeing advertisements that
highlight Black women who choose to wear their hair in its natural
state and are dark-skinned, even in our own magazines.
Remember actress Jennifer Beals' famous quote,
"I thought I would never get in. I thought they only took
geniuses. But I was lucky, because I'm a minority. I'm not Black,
and I'm not White, so I could mark 'other' on my application,
and I guess it's hard for them to fill that quota," on
how she got into Yale University. Beals, whose father was Black,
seldom identifies with the Black community, despite being nominated
for an NAACP Image Award. And then there was singer Prince,
who despite having Black parents, listed in his press bio when
he made it in the business, that he was Italian, among other
things.
More recently there was the University of Georgia's
2006 controversial study on skin tone which confirmed that light-skinned
Blacks are often more likely to be considered for jobs over
dark-skinned Blacks.
Wrap it all together and what you get a classic
example of Dr. Joy DeGruy-Leary's P.T.S.S., otherwise known
as post-traumatic slave syndrome.
You know, I can't think of one time that I witnessed
or heard of white children taunting each other for being paler
than the next, but I can think of numerous occasions when I
have seen Black children teasing each other for being "too
Black." And while our lighter skin shades can be attributed
to the Massuh's preference for his female Black slaves over
his own wife, we can't blame the Massuh for us continuing to
feed into the hype that light is good and dark is bad.
Over the weekend, I attended L.A.'s Taste of
Soul Festival on Crenshaw Blvd. I observed for quite some time
the activity at a booth selling hair extensions. Black women,
young and old, light and dark, crowded the booth to touch and
feel the long straight flowing hair extensions that were guaranteed
not to shed or to "nap up." This, while nearby booths,
offering free diabetes, obesity, and HIV/AIDS tests went virtually
unnoticed. Go figure.
While the party in Detroit is sad, it's the manifestation
of generations of Blacks still buying into the slave "house
Negro" and "field Negro" mentality given to us
by the Massuh. Don't you think there are enough forces out there
trying to divide us without us giving them a helping hand?
You know, it's funny I never heard of lighter
prison sentences for lighter Blacks. Black is Black no matter
how light or how dark your skin is.
And on a side note, I find it completely baffling
that while some of us (Lil' Kim) are out there trying to lengthen,
lighten, and straighten our hair, bleach our skin, and even
resort to plastic surgery to change our nose, on the flip side
they're busy with botox, breast and butt implants, and tanning
salons.
BC
Columnist Jasmyne Cannick is a social commentator, nationally
syndicated journalist and activist who was chosen as one of
ESSENCE Magazine's 25 Women Shaping the World. She is a member
of the National Association of Black Journalists and writes
a popular daily blog at jasmynecannick.com.
She resides in Los Angeles. Click
here to contact Ms. Cannick.