Colorism - Do Black people like it?
A Girl Like Me
This film is so powerful and poignant. I heard about it while it came out but I never had the chance to see it until this morning. It raises some interesting questions and I would like to start a mini-discussion on it except this time, I have a short mini-quiz for you all so please join in!:
1) Does ‘good hair’ exist? (My answer: ‘Good hair’ is hair that you love. Whether it is kinky, thick, fine, curly or sparse, it is your crown of glory. Race does not determine this.)
2) Are mixed race people ‘exotic’? (I used to hear many people saying that mixed race people are really beautiful because they are from both sides essentially. I think comments like this are so backward. In my opinion, what makes someone physically beauty is whether their features are asymmetrical. Maybe it is scientific but whether a person has very African features or mixed race ones, I’ll find them beautiful because of symmetrical features and that glint in their eye. Light skin or blue eyes doesn’t determine this nor does dark skin or near black eyes.
3) Should pejoratives such as ‘hi-yella’, ‘tar-baby’, ‘blue-black’ still be used by the black community? (I admit, I was a former user of these disgusting words and I have moved on since my times of using them. I would never mean to use them in a pejorative way and in that same way, I don’t use the n-word because I think these derogatory words are as potent when used by us as they are when the n-word is used by us.)
4) Does the hip hop industry have a role to play in furthering colorism? (In a word: definitely. Hip Hop is a beautiful child of Soul. A Tribe Called Quest. Erykah Badu. There are so many positive sides yet…the video models and the intense pressure on black girls to look a certain way has spawned ideas of colorism. Look at that brain-deficient Kanye West with his comments about mixed-race girls being ‘mutts’ last year! That is exemplary of how much the issue of light and dark skin is rampant in hip hop. Don’t get me wrong, I love hip-hop yet I can see how it backtracks on itself.
5) Have you any examples of times when you have been a victim of colorism? (My answer: Before I learnt who I was, I did wonder if being light skinned would mean that more guys would like me. Of course, I don’t think that now because I am content with what my skin looks like. I think it affects us when we are weak and vulnerable, once we are over that stage, it is simply a painful memory.)
I’d love to hear thoughts on this and I have written a post before touching on Colorism called the Bluest Eye as there was some interesting discourse on that too. I think some black people are at the stages in their life because of colorism. Has anyone seen ‘the Human Stain’? It apparently was about Anatole Broyard, a critic who passed for white. Even if he didn’t, does colorism advance certain black people endeavours for heavier wallets?
~A
February 13, 2007 at 1:38 am
That video is so very poignant, you are correct. To answer your questions:
1) If it grows, it’s good. It’s that simple
2) Plants and some foods are exotic, not people. I’ve never understood if that word is a compliment or another way to disguise deep rooted xenophobia
3) We shouldn’t use them, but there will always unfortunately be a subset that uses those terms “as terms of endearment”. When you have to describe people by their skin’s hue rather than their facial features or their personalities, something is very deficient. I’m not sure there’s an easy fix for that
4) I agree with your answer. The “soulful” (and usually darker-skinned) artists tend to be marginalized, while the lighter skinned video girls with the “good hair” get all the attention
5) My boyfriend is a few shades lighter than me, and when I first introduced him to some of my older family members, they mentioned that he was an upgrade because of his “high-yella” color
February 13, 2007 at 3:11 am
1) Does ‘good hair’ exist? Yes, I think good hair is whatever you have to work with, kinky, straight, wavy or peazy
2) Are mixed race people ‘exotic’? Only when dipped in honey.
3) Should pejoratives such as ‘hi-yella’, ‘tar-baby’, ‘blue-black’ still be used by the black community? These terms to me is like saying Nigga on a intra-racial basis. I do not see them as needing to be banned but maybe I am just ignorant.
4) Does the hip hop industry have a role to play in furthering colorism? I say yes it does I believe Kanye when he says that rappers prefer hi-yella girls aKa “Mutts” (which pissed me off)
5) Have you any examples of times when you have been a victim of colorism? Only from my brother & sister because I was lighter. They used to tease me & tell me that I smelled like white people. This is the only overt thing that I can recall.
I think that many Black people men & women are pressed to have features or adore features that they are lacking such as eye color, complexion & hair texture. I know several people that choose their love interest based on lighter features & I find that pathetic.
I did a post on this last year & said “My feeling on those who do not acknowledge their AfricaNESS is that they need to be unplugged from their White Oriented Matrix & deal with reality!”
Peace,
Bygbaby
February 13, 2007 at 5:32 am
Aulelia,
You’ve got a great blog going here, good stuff!
I think as black people using all those derogatory terms on ourselves only serves to do us more harm than good.
As a starting point, we need to know who we are, love ourselves and treat each other with respect.
Patrick
February 13, 2007 at 7:43 am
My favorite author really is Toni Morrison, when I read the book Beloved I fell in love with how she played with the spirit world and the physical world, and how both worlds are inseperable, most of her books use the backdrop of an unseen force pulling at the psyche of the characters in her stories…Octavia Butler is also one of my favorites because she delves into the science future world which is amazing..both women truly are oracles in modern day…
The topics you address above are so deep rooted and intertwined…its like where do you start…?Really people mistaken me for so many cultures, however identify myself as african american, the bottom line is that we all came from the first human who was a black human…where one group of individuals took dominance over what is perceived as beauty? who knows? the issue of race will always will be here, as long as there is diversity…but aren’t we tired of talking about the same things that keep the human race divided? we are programmed, its imbedded in our dna, how do we deprogram the hatred, its so much more complex…
February 13, 2007 at 8:31 am
Colorism is a vestige of the manner in which slave owners divided their African captives. They’d pit darker-skinned slaves against lighter-skinned slaves and vice versa. This also served to promote their own racism in that white slave owners felt more comfortable with lighter-skinned blacks working in their households. Of course, this could have been because many of the lighter-skinned slaves were their children or siblings, too.
One participant in the film said that because our history and culture was ripped from us, we were left with a hole. I couldn’t agree more. We have poured so many things into this hole in an attempt to become whole again that it is tragic. However, what we have failed to realize as a people is that the only way we will ever become whole human beings is to learn to love and accept ourselves as we are. We, as black people, come in myriad hues–all of which are absolutely gorgeous. We come in these hues largely due to miscegenation, true, but does that doesn’t make us any less beautiful.
I see a trend in black American society that makes me extremely uncomfortable. I see us going backwards. There was a time when we were proud to be black, even if we were fair-skinned. It seems as though some of us have stepped into a time machine and travelled to the 1930s, 40s and 50s where advertisements told us that to be dark-skinned is to be less desirable to our men and, therefore, less worthy. Really, what is that about? Over 50 years after the advent of the Civil Rights Era, one would expect us to have evolved. That hasn’t happened and that is a sad case indeed.
February 13, 2007 at 1:16 pm
HI,
Sorry to not do your quiz right away.
Just wanted to answer a question that you posted on my blog a wee while ago. Sorry to take so long. I’ve been busy and not watching my blog.
YOU: “One more thing: on Thinking Girl, you mentioned that your husband was Anglo-Trinidadian. Is he black? I was wondering how big the ethnic communities in Australia were like. I have lived in the UK on and off for years and being African, I found West Indians and Africans have large but separate communities.”
ME: Yeah, James is black. How big the ethnic communities are? Do you mean black community or all groups of non-anglo people?
see: http://www.africanoz.com.au/
I worked on a project to assist African refugees with academic language skills at the local University. I didn’t teach, I did research with the students to find out what they wanted. The problem was the different groups were, like you mentioned above in your comparing West Indians and Africans, large but seperate. And this seperation impared teaching english because their mother tougues were different, and they didn’t want to mix with each other in small tutorial groups, supposidly as was peported to me when I started my contract on this short job
. In my opinion this had nothing to do with the different groups of Africans, though I may be wrong, but more to do with the fact that their confidence was low (all refugees) compared to the other international students (mostly asian) on account of their past and present circumstances.
In australia an International Student is defined by their visa status: ie student visa, etc. In the case of the African students they are placed in the same classification as Australian citizens, which means that the paid privelages of tutors, language seminars, essay editing, resource officers etc is only on offer to full fee paying privelaged International students on student visas. Ie, no funding, well very very little, alocated to support from the uni to the refugee/african students because they don’t pay full tuition fees as Australians don’t pay full tuition fees either (only international students pay these fees; tertiary education as export industry).
The university department that I was doing the research for had thought that it was the seperatism and racism amongst the students that strech what little resources given rendering them useless (the resources).
In my position the lack of sucess, from talking to the students was that they were so overwhealmed with life at home, all the change, working full time, studying full time, trying to learn english (which in many cases was a 3rd or 4th language) that they didnt have time or inclination to be involved with a support system that was under-resourced and fundamentally untrustworthy because they felt that the prior managers of the support spoke down to the African students.
This was really interesting. Basically the university was as racist as hell.
The aust gov allows students (who are academically very capable) but socially struggling into an educational institution for free and says “sink or swim”, so they sink lots and swim some. The uni sees the ’sinkers’ (and there were many, rates of failure were higher than other student groups) and hands out a fraction of what was needed to sucessfully assist the students to swim, setting them up for failure, and upon failure of the program, blaming the students for not taking the support because of inter-African political and social disharmony.
Basically the students told me this. “Tell the university to go fuck itself, we don’t need their help, we can help ourselves.”
So I reported this back and the university said this “But we have to ‘be seen’ to be supporting them with this support program to satisfy the politically correct image of the university in the eyes of the government who provide us (the uni) with most of our funding.”
I gave my job ( it was a short research contract) to an African student who wanted to find a way to help his community.
Anyway, sorry to make such a long answer but that’s my only experience with different African groups in Australia ( I live in Tasmania).
But, the term ‘ethnic’ in australia means all non-anglo, so I grew up being an ethnic kid, daugher of an immigrant.
We are friends her with 2 other families with West Indian members. There are a few black people about who are not directly African, and they dont mix with the Africans. All of the back people who I know here are here because they married Australians.
Happy travels!
Daniela
February 13, 2007 at 1:29 pm
brilliant documentary by the way.
thanks for posting it.
February 13, 2007 at 4:48 pm
You know I posted this video on my other blog community (which is heavily populated by people who are not of color) and the response was baffling. I had white people all upset even though there was no mention of whites in the video nor were any depicted.
They constantly kept fighting with me and the 1 black person who had the courage to speak up on the subject.
as for the questions
1. I grew up in the South and there was def. a perception of good hair that was pervasive was hair that was long, and curly not nappy. I absolutely bought that perception as a kid and young adult. I only embraced my natural beauty about 6 years ago and now I know what good hair is–strong, healthy hair is good hair.
2. I believe that monikers such as “exotic” further fetishize people of color and dimishes all us to the level of exhibit or experiment.So no, I dont find any of us exotic and agree with the commentor who referenced zenophobia as a culprit.
3.I certainly dont care for these words in any context but am certainly guilty of using them. In a critical literary sense (Morrison, Walker other writers of note) they offer something of value to readers and writers in the chronicle of black history but in daily language and irresponsible hip-hop/R&B…they offer little more than continued subconscious oppression…
4.Hip-hop has the unique opportunity to really affect change in our community and the world since that is where many cultures get their ideas about blacks in America. Instead of offering a real image of ourselves in a positive way Hip-Hop serves to create a caricature of what black means and boils our experiences down to bling, hyper sexuality and the so-called “pimp-ho” lifestyle.
5.Goodness yes! I am darkskinned, gap-toothed and so-called nappy-headed. All my life I have had instances of colorism and the most painful incidents were from my own community…
This is our problem and we have to fix it. I dont know where to begin…but I am certainly going to start somewhere..
This blog is a wonderful forum for discussions of this sort….
February 14, 2007 at 10:57 am
Hi Everyone, I would just like to thank all of you for your rich and diverse comments! Sorry it took me a while to reply but Paris causes many people to run around looking for somewhere nice to live!
Tasha: I agree that there isn`t an easy fix for the eradictation of those words. I will stop using them because I just don`t think that they are healthy even in a sense of being terms of endearment. I used to feel self-conscious that I was darker than my boyfriend who is light and then I realised that those words only helped to feed that insecurity (which thankfully doesn`t exist anymore). I totally agree about your comment on flora & food being exotic, not people.
Bygbaby: The reason why I see words like that as pejorative is I just think they breed insecurity amongst ourselves because they continue the idea that black people are divided and shall continue to be divided over skin colour. I definitely don’t want to dictate other black people how to speak lol but for me, I just don’t like their symbolism. Bygbaby, I definitely match your disgust at Kanye, he is an embarrassment! How could he make such an ignorant comment about his own people? I think what that did was overly-sexualised light skinned black women which is highly unfair because they (ie, legends like Dorothy Dandridge) were put on pedestals by white people anyways as ‘tragic mulattos’ in films and literature. I also agree with you when you say that we have been almost taught to desire what we can’t have for example, with black americans during slavery, afro-brazilians being seen at the bottom of the pile the more angolan they look etc and in africa herself, with aberrations such as apartheid creating superiority complexes.
Patrick: Thank you - I hope you keep enjoying the blog. Unfortunately, I just don’t know what path us as black people will go down. I think the future looks bleak…
Amiamazing: Deprogramming the hatred is paramount, you are right. I think the main obstacle hindering that is our mindsets. So many black people just have backward ways of thinking! I know that sounds almost dictatorial of me but the black people who just continue to marry in a colour bracket are embarrassments to our race and might as well auction their race away. That goes for people who only want light skinned people because they want a certain type of genepool AND for people who only want dark-skinned people for a certain genepool. I just think we should celebrate all types of black people and we should be proud of that, not selecting like Darwin who we want. I think the people who do that are sell-outs. All black people are beautiful, not only one group.
Daniela: That was an insightful comment! Thank you! Australia has always puzzled me as a country with its policies concerning race & ethnicity but you have shed some light so cheers
The differences between Africans and West Indians is so large yet we share so many similarities. I will definitely touch upon this soon in this blog. In regard to the Africans not mixing with each other, unfortunately this is normal. Language and tribes are the most important in determining whether Africans will mix with each other. If you are from the same tribe, you will probably share the same tongue and thus a bond is made. That may be able to explain why the refugees weren’t as chatty with each other…such an interesting topic!
WickedWoman: Beautiful comment. The rivalry between light and dark is just a sword in the spine of the black diaspora. I remember watching a documentary about Brazil where a white Brazilian noted that he would never date a black girl but he did find them attractive. The taboo of race and especially how black girls are seen in the world allows colorism to mutate. If we are continued to be seen as ‘taboo’ or ‘hidden’, we are still victims of colorism. Sweeping it away under the blanket of multiculturalism doesn’ help (as it is done in the United Kingdom). I think colorism too has affected black Britain in different ways to black America. UK is a society where race is not discussed heavily, probably part of the repressed nature of British people but what that has created is this vacuum where people think colorism is invisible but it actually isn’t.
Femigog: Could you please post the link of what your commenters said so I could have a look? That is so presumptuous for them to think that they should be included in a video concerning black women’s image issues. Femigog, I am gap-toothed too! In East Africa, a gap is a sign of beauty and men like that so come to my ends!You keep hitting the nail on the head - hip hop could have served as an ambassador for black people but instead, it just has helped to add to our societal and stereotypical detriment.
Cheers everyone!
–A
February 14, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Hi, new here.
I love gaptoothed grins as well.
Colorism aka light/white skin privilege like any other system will not be dismantled or even acknowledged by the vast majority of it’s beneficiaries, be they white or otherwise.
It’s very sad to see otherwise intelligent people still hold onto these vestiges of ignorance. But people must be getting some benefit to hang onto this thinking for so long, no?
Bygbaby, don’t get excited. Looking at your photos you are definitely not light or light enough to cause a riot in Martinique. Their definition of light is very precise and more clearly explained as whitish ie light skin, white features, definitely not kinky hair and hell no to African or non aquiline features. They will disabuse you of being lightskinned if you ever go there.
February 15, 2007 at 3:37 am
Hi aulelia, sorry I haven’t stopped by your new blog - I’m glad I popped through today though (finally I have time to surf the web!). That documentary was really great - it’s so inspiring what can be done with just some simple talking heads and an interesting topic.
The relaxed hair thing reminds me of that segment in White Teeth when Irie goes to have her hair straightened and ends up burning it all off. Interestingly though, I noticed that Zadie Smith’s author photograph on the back had ‘relaxed’ hair.
As I’m white, I’m not sure that I can really comment on what this regression means for the black community. The doll segment in the video was particularly disturbing, especially when the little girl identified herself effectively as being bad.
As far as names go, I think ‘reclaiming’ words like the n-word and tar-baby etc is about as productive as ‘reclaiming’ words like slut, bitch and ho. It’s the racial version of Female Chauvinist Pigs - becoming like your oppressors in an attempt to present equality through sameness.
As for ‘exotic’ labels, they make me as uncomfortable as labelling asian women ‘oriental’ - both descriptions dehumanise the people involved and set them up as objects to be enjoyed for their beauty, delicacy, difference or whatnot but never in an equal flow.
Great post anyway. Hope you’re doing well xoxo
February 15, 2007 at 10:10 am
rhonda: welcome to the blog or should i say bienvenue since i am a foreigner in paris lol. Do you think singers like Beyonce and Rihanna are benefits of colorism? I am a big Beyonce fan but when I heard her ‘Creole’ song, I was less than impressed with the following verse:
‘So all my redbones on the floor
and all my yellow bones on the floor
and all my brown bones on the floor’
This part of the song can be taken lightly - maybe she is trying to unite all black girls together but i don’t see it like that because again, it is highlighting the differences in colour and even celebrating it…how can a young insecure light skinned or dark skinned black girl feel safe then if she listens to this?
audrey: hey girl! welcome back
Zadie Smith touched upon the obsession with relaxed hair in such a poignant way because that happens to many black girls. Also in White Teeth, there is a scene in the salon when Irie is told by the hair dressers that she has ‘half-caste’ hair and they seem in awe of that.the authour manages to touch on colorism there in a nuanced and subtle way.
Exotic labels completely dehumanise their subjects — i agree. It just has to stop and when women of different races are fetishised, it just continues this vicious circle of women being 2nd class citizens, under the magnifying glass of their male masters.
February 15, 2007 at 6:34 pm
Hi Aulelia,
I do feel that Beyonce and Rihanna benefit from the light is right belief. Their handlers know this and use it to further them and honestly I can’t blame them.
Notice darker women like Fantasia and Jennifer Hudson and I honestly can’t even think about any more at this point are shunted to the niche category of soul singer and even now all these heavily promoted new age white soul singers are taking a shot at that market.
I have traveled and people are always shocked that black women come in colors darker than say jada pinkett. Most black oriented tv would have you believe that black women are light skinned, in shape, and thus sexy when they are young but morph into grotesque dark skinned, short haired harridans as they age.
Dark black men are in vogue both in the black community and outside particularly in America and Europe. Black women have to be light to even be noticed by black people or even think of being models. My gorgeous dark skinned cousin was heavily discouraged by blacks from being a model even though nonblack casting agents from major agencies were approaching her and my light skinned average looking cousin was encouraged to be a model/pageant girl.
Although it is interesting to note that now that even light black women with light eyes and long hair are starting to lose some of their allure and being replaced by white/asian/hispanic women as the media reinforced and upper class of black society as a mate, now people are panicking and wanting to address the issue. Because if those beauties can’t get a wealthy black man or preferred treatment now we really know something is wrong. The same women who said love has no skin color are now feeling the effects of being too dark and too black and suddenly colorism is a major social ill and not a probelm that originated in the mind of the dark skinned women.
March 30, 2007 at 4:03 am
hey! Forgive the lateness of this reply. Here is the link to my other blog on this subject!
http://environgirl.mindsay.com/please_comment_on_this_postwarning_the_topic_is_race_related.mws
April 2, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Hello again! I love your blog and have commented a time or two. I just wanted to invite you to a forum that me and a friend started for people of color. The site is one of the reasons it took me so long to get back to you with that link you ask after. You were one of the first people I thought of to contribute to the site, you insights into the African experience abroad is enlightening and should be shared with a wide and diverse audience. The site is brownbloggers.org and even though the site is in the early stages I would really love it if you would check it out and perhaps register and submit some of your refreshing perspectives on any subject you choose. If you have interest in being a moderator on any section that would be lovely. Or perhaps a forum on africans living abroad could be created for you to moderate if there is no existing forum you find interesting. This site is just one part of what will be a non-profit organization for the advancement and education of brown people in the US and abroad.
April 2, 2007 at 10:16 pm
sounds brilliant !! i’d love to join