THE BLACK COLOR THING

This is racist against one's race and just thinking about the terms "light skinned black people" and "dark skinned black people" make me cringe. There is a color segregation between the individuals of one race with one thinking that they are superior to the other. Total nonsense. There has been this notion over the years that the light skinned black people are superior to the dark skinned black people. My own two cents on that is that it is not just absolute nnsense, it is also sheer ignorance.

I think this whole thing started back in the slave days. I think and that is my own personal opinion that everyone is black, we all started out black until we started interbreeding. Africans back in the day were genetically pure with a dominant black gene, so where did this light gene come from?My theory is that there were probably some families who had a tinge gene of being a shade lighter than others and the biggest possibilty was inter racial breeding which actually brings out an obvious light complexion. So a white man has sex with a black slave and their baby is mixed which makes the baby light skinned!!!!!!!!!!!! Hmm. So whats so superior about being light skinned?

In the early 1900's the Paper Bag test was used and it was a big form of color discrimination back in the day. It was used as a litmus test for black people so that they could be accepted into one social field or another, if you were not lighter than a brown paper bag, you were just not light enough. Some churches, Greek systems such as Phi Alpha Phi and even schools practiced it. Some men used it as a criteria to take women out on a date, if the woman was darker than a paper bag, she just wasn't good enough. Period. Suprisingly, this practice was also carried out in historically black universities a very good example is Howard University. At parties, it was also used as a form of admission, if the paper bag is lighter, you would be denied admission, it was important back then as being 21 to drink is important today. In New Orleans, a paper bag party always had a paperbag hanging at the door, you know what that means.

In the slave times,it was used to determine what kind of slave work the slaves would do, the lighter skinned ones did the domestic chores in the house while the darker skinned ones worked on the plantations.

So what happend to Black is beautiful and where did that statement come from or is it just a consolation of being rejected by the lighter skinned black people or rather is it that the whole population of black people are just plain beautiful. Wondering? Smh. It is said that this notion is responsible for the afro hairstyle since it is said that black people have ugly facial features and our hair could be at it's worst for being thick and unmanageble without a perm.

In the media, lighter skinned black people are portrayed better than the dark skinned black people because they are seen as looking better and are highly accpeted nationally. I have seen a lot of posters with models who are lighter than a paperbag and they are said to be black women, most of the real dark skinned models always have their head shaven like its some kind of art work to look that way. Beyonce is one of the light skinned black people who is not just a celebrity but she is good enough to feature as the ad person for Loreal and Tommy Girl for Tommy Hilfiger.Lighter skinned black people are said to also be more socially desirable, the lighter skinned women would be preferably taken on a date than a real black woman. In the entertainment industry, all the light skinned dark people are prominent, Out of Eden,Ashanti,Beyonce, Alicia Keys,Chris Brown, Halle Berry, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett, Janet Jackson, Mary Mary.The last time i looked on the red carpet, a dark skinned black person was very hard to find. Even in sitcoms a replacement of a character ends up with a lighter one like in Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the Janet Whitten was replaced with Daphne Reid. (the wife of Wil's uncle) .

In the movie "Precious" from the book PUSH. All the negative characters are dark skinned such as her Precious, her mom and dad while the positive characters are the social worker and her teacher who happen to be light skinned.

School Daze and the book which is now a movie The Color Purple were written with the notion of the effects of skin color. The Barbie doll started out as a white doll with blonde hair and blue eyes, in the late twentieth century and early twenty first century the notion of a black Barbie came out but the white one is still preferable.

It is a common notion among other races that black people are not intelligent which is wrong and also what is really wrong is that lighter skinned black people are said to be more intelligent than dark skinned black people,well the only advantage i think they had in the slave time is that because they worked in the house, they had a better chance of learning to read and write from the children of the plantation owners or their wives or even the owners themselves.Intelligence has no correlation with skin color. If you are smart you are smart, if you are dumb you are dumb. Some blondes are not that dumb.i have met really smart blondes. Book smart blondes and also intelligent in everyday life.But there exists a term"Dumb blonde"

In the image of the black American woman, the light skinned one is the more preferresd one. She is said to be more attractive and is more likely to get up there in the society. This prefered image has reduced a lot of dark skinned black woman to being self conscious and also a lack of self confidence. This is one of the reasons there are so many relaxers sold on the shelves of beauty supplies and grocery stores as well as bleaching creams. The effort to look like the light skinned ones has become paramount among dark skinned black people.

I think today the light skinned , dark skinned color thing still exists espceially among our own black people which i call total ignorance. This is the second decade in the 21st century, we need to wake up. I leave on this note it's a comment made by comedian Paul Mooney on color. "If you are brown, hang around,if you are yellow, mellow,if you are white,you are alright, if you are black, get back."

I don't think i am getting back to nowhere. What do you think?