DARK/LIGHT...SKIN COLOR.........Is this still an issue? Let's be honest Sorors & SF'

[rhoyaltempest]

Originally Posted by Velocity_14

Exactly. It wasn't always so easy for me to love myself just the way I am. It was a process, but I was alway taught too that any kind of black is beautiful. My mother, who is originally from Liberia, West Africa, has had the most impact on how I see myself as not only a woman but a woman of color. People ASSume a lot of things about me and my family because I am half African and the things people say.....wheeeew knowledge certainly is the Torch!! If people could see my mother's side of the family they would be surprised...lol..you will see white people, light people, inbetween people, and everthing else...and its all beautiful.

The part of your quote I bolded...you said that! Yeeeeees mayam you did!

Children will accept what you teach them as long as you constantly reinforce it. I used to teach English at a private school in Philly that was "African centered." The kids were taught on a regular basis about their African American and African heritage. They were taught to be proud of being Black and terms like "good har/bad hair" and being teased for being dark or light was unacceptable. I can honestly say that I only caught a child teasing another child for being dark once. I only taught there for a year but it was a beautiful thing to be a part of. I know there are a lot of external influences that can lead one to self hate but it's not that hard on our part. Just teach your children to love themselves and their heritage and keep reinforcing this in positive ways.

[IOTA-4A'88F]

Originally Posted by Little32

@Iota and rhoyaltempest

I think that this point about language is important. "Good hair," "fine features," "fair-skinned," all of this language reinforces that light/white=good, dark/black=bad dichotomy. So the youth don't even have to necessarily encounter overt categorization to internalize these distinctions.

Huh? **Looking over my comment to see if I said good, hair, fine, features, fair or skinned....** you know I can get confused easily

[Little32]

Originally Posted by IOTA-4A'88F

Huh? **Looking over my comment to see if I said good, hair, fine, features, fair or skinned....** you know I can get confused easily

You didn't, you made the point that this stuff was ingrained in our language and I was agreeing with you.

[Sahara]

As far as people preferring to date people of a specific tone--that's their preference. Honestly, as long as they don't disrespect me in the process, I say live and let live. I have my own preferences, too. I believe the difference between a prejudice instead of a preference is when you won't even consider someone who is dark just because of sterotypes or whatever.

Good/bad hair--There are still morons who think straight hair=good hair and kinky hair=bad hair. If your hair is healthy and looks good, it's good hair. I've seen some women with the kinkiest hair but they looked great with it! I've seen people with naturally straight/long hair and they looked a hot mess! When people make stupid remarks about it, I confront them. It's offensive!

There are beautiful women in ALL skin tones! People are just too immature to appreciate it. When I was younger, I didn't appreciate how beautiful Grace Jones was. I was more caught up in her skin tone (the masculine thing may have also played a part). I'm dark-skinned and was lead to believe that I would never look as good as a light-skinned girl. I believed that mess because that's all I heard. As I've grown, matured, AND LEARNED TO THINK FOR MYSELF, I was able to see and appreciate that there isn't one way to be beautiful.

People naturally categorize people, things, experiences, etc... It's natural. However, some people have an 'us' against 'them' mentality and if those who fall in a different category as them become the enemy (or a threat in some way). The response to that is negative stereotypes. Those sterotypes get perpetuated by followers who just repeat what they're told and can't think for themselves. Unfortunately, this world seems to be made up of mostly those kind of people.

[Sahara]

Originally Posted by Sahara

People naturally categorize people, things, experiences, etc... It's natural. However, some people have an 'us' against 'them' mentality and if those who fall in a different category as them become the enemy (or a threat in some way). The response to that is negative stereotypes. Those sterotypes get perpetuated by followers who just repeat what they're told and can't think for themselves. Unfortunately, this world seems to be made up of mostly those kind of people.

This applies to org membership too. Some people take the (supposed to be friendly) rivalry thing too far.
But that's a different topic.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by IOTA-4A'88F

OK, I had alil' bit of time to read some of the comments, I can come at this from different angles...
1. Dealing with Albinism, yes, it can be a different topic, but it also can be the same topic. Not all have total lost of pigment, so their skin can mimic that of a White person or one of fairly complected. They not only deal with the stigma of being 'different' but also, for people of color, from their own race. "Oh you think you are better because your skin is "light bright and pretty much white." I can't count how many fights I had because of my mother's skin tone and the thoughts of; for lack of a better word.... IGNANT folk. I also was thought to be adopted, "oh that is nice of you to adopt that lil' black inner city boy" WTF. I am not gonna even go into how many "PRIVILEGED" conversations my mother had with White folks talking about Black people thinking she was White. I think that can classify as judging someone strictly on their skin tone.

**(SEPARATE THOUGHT) Yes, it was said before, red eyes in human albinos are rare, but not non-existing. My mother receives a bi-monthly Albino publication that had photos of red (and even purple) eyed human albinos. Red eyes are the cause of the underlying retinal blood vessels showing through where there is not enough pigment to cover them. Human eyes are larger (than animals) and can produce enough pigment for the eye to be opaque. **

My mother is #2 of four siblings. Two were albino. My sister and I are not, but I believe my children (whenever I have some) will be. My sister's kids showed traits of albinism.

2. One of the reasons, I think (and probably has been said) is the fact that, society plays so much of an emphasis on skin tone and color (not meaning race) in general. If it is an darker hue, it is denoted as a bad feeling, "It's pitch black outside", "I am feeling blue", "mellow yellow", "I am red hot", "Green with eny." It's only natural that we as a society bring that mentality into play. And it don't stay within the Black race. Hispanics, Asians, Indians, Jewish people have the same hangups about skin tone... some more than us. Including White people, they discriminate on skin tone (at times) worse than we do (IMHO-one of the reasons why they want a tan so bad- it denotes from a White person, a class of luxury and leisure).

Thank you! Very interesting take from primary source materials. And I will try to check out the website listed.

Just so you know, from a genetics professional perspective, your chances of producing a albino child are ~1/16 or 1/32. It is ONLY if you have children with a woman having similar family background as yours and like the "roll of the dice", your children may or may not be albino--probably not fully--i.e. red or purple eyes.

In ancient cultures, purple eyes were thought to be sent by "Heaven" and these were "Angels"...

[christiangirl]

I'm loving all the positivity in the thread. I want to put up a fist or something.

Tyra discussed this issue on her show last week and I have the online link. I didn't know how well it'd be received (lol, since it's Tyra) but just in case anyone wanted to see it, here it is: http://www.freewebtown.com/freshtbs/tyra.html

I really enjoyed it. The two sisters (one light, one dark) were sooo me and my sister. The lighter one was upset when darker-skinned people are discriminated against because her sister is so wonderful and beautiful, but she is the one who gets compliments. Although her sister is intelligent, she is getting her Ph.D. while her sister can't find a job (I didn't think she needed to put all her sister's business about being unemployed out there, but she was trying to be real). I also loved the audience's reaction to the woman who felt she was better than women who are darker than she is. First of all, the woman wasn't really light, she was medium and I was DYING for someone to knock her off her high horse and point that out. Second, I was happy to see Tyra put down the talk show host neutrality and give that woman the statements that she did. She did it extremely gently, but she at least told her what she needed to hear. And her 12 yo son saying his mom needs to get over her prejudice was AWESOME; that boy should run for president. I encourage y'all to watch if you have time, I thought it was a great show and the men in all of their shades were worth a looksy.

[GR∑∆TChan]

Hi
I've been reading this thread and I think that the fact that shad ism still exist in the african american commnunity is absolutely ludicrous.

Growing up I was always picked on for several reasons:
Being a "light skinned" person
Having longer hair than the others in class.
Wearing glasses haha
Speaking white(lol as stupid as that sounds)
Being "Bourgeois" (allegedly)
Being tall and skinny
and the list goes on...

However as I got older and met different people. I realized that issues that exist within the black community are not even a concern in main stream america. When i got to college. I realized that the way that my own people treated me during my child hood was still alive. So coming from a family full of AKA's and Delta's. I ironically made my choice to go another way. I joined a historically Jewish sorority...Obviously this didnt sit well with most of my friends and familly but I wanted to step out of my confort zone. Only to see what white people thought about my race. While doing so I've realized that they don't see complexions.hair textures.or dialects...

They see just BLACK.

I want everyone to realize that ..
Regardless of the way you look,walk or talk you are a different from them....one can try to conform but ..its useless...This issue of complexion doesn't matter to them..it just matters to us unfortunately.

I just wish that we would stop seperating ourselves and come together and represent ourselves more positively especially in neighborhoods that suffer from poverty....

My Grandmother marched back in the 60's ...for everything she believed in......the best part about it was that she was not alone.......The Harlem community was united.....we need to support eachother just the way that the Jews do it.!!!!

We suppress ourselves.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by GR∑∆TChan

Hi
I've been reading this thread and I think that the fact that shad ism still exist in the african american commnunity is absolutely ludicrous.

Growing up I was always picked on for several reasons:
Being a "light skinned" person
Having longer hair than the others in class.
Wearing glasses haha
Speaking white(lol as stupid as that sounds)
Being "Bourgeois" (allegedly)
Being tall and skinny
and the list goes on...

However as I got older and met different people. I realized that issues that exist within the black community are not even a concern in main stream america. When i got to college. I realized that the way that my own people treated me during my child hood was still alive. So coming from a family full of AKA's and Delta's. I ironically made my choice to go another way. I joined a historically Jewish sorority...Obviously this didnt sit well with most of my friends and familly but I wanted to step out of my confort zone. Only to see what white people thought about my race. While doing so I've realized that they don't see complexions.hair textures.or dialects...

They see just BLACK.

I want everyone to realize that ..
Regardless of the way you look,walk or talk you are a different from them....one can try to conform but ..its useless...This issue of complexion doesn't matter to them..it just matters to us unfortunately.

I just wish that we would stop seperating ourselves and come together and represent ourselves more positively especially in neighborhoods that suffer from poverty....

My Grandmother marched back in the 60's ...for everything she believed in......the best part about it was that she was not alone.......The Harlem community was united.....we need to support eachother just the way that the Jews do it.!!!!

We suppress ourselves.

Blacks aren't the only ones with colorisms and who treat people differently based on shade. Whites often treat blacks differently based on shade, which is a big reason why colorism continues in the black community in the first place. We don't just "suppress" ourselves. This thread is about intraracial prejudice, though, and that's why we're specifically discussing blacks' colorisms.

And what does it mean when they see you as "just BLACK?" Is that good or bad?

[AKA_Monet]

Dearest Greatchan:

After having my dinner practically ruined last night from some dumbassed caucasian teenage kids talking to their caucasian parents about what it means to be Black in the US and the difficulties Blacks face for most of their lives and how the past is invalidated like you have just judged us here, all I can say is bless your heart, good luck to your future and I wish the best for you!

Please post wherever you feel comfortable. I am overjoyed that you found open arms wherever you found it and are happy in your own midst. I hope you never face what I, my parents and my ancestors have suffered. But if in some unfortunate circumstance you ever do, I hope you have the wherewithal to overcome judgment of us kneegrows who are suffering in the trenches of life due to injustices.

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by AKA_Monet

Dearest Greatchan:

After having my dinner practically ruined last night from some dumbassed caucasian teenage kids talking to their caucasian parents about what it means to be Black in the US and the difficulties Blacks face for most of their lives and how the past is invalidated like you have just judged us here, all I can say is bless your heart, good luck to your future and I wish the best for you!

Did you want to interject? LOL.

I wish I had the transcripts for that convo. Comic relief for the day.

[GR∑∆TChan]

First and Foremost,

Perhaps ones personal experiences would determine their opinion. I respect that.However that doesn't solve the current issue. Shad ism exists because of the Western influence on society. Unfortunately the sense of being as "white" as possible has been drilled in our culture sense the days of slavery...I know that the same problem still exists.... latinos(preferring lighter hispanics) ,asians(the double eye-lid surgery), and even within the Caucasian community(slender nose augmentations),Jews changing last names and etc.......

The bottom line is this.
The change starts within our own race
realizing that BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL!!.

I LOVE MY CULTURE,RACE,AND HISTORY...DONT EVER MISTAKE THAT.....I'm proud for all of my achievements and the strength that was passed down to me from my ancestors.

There is nothing wrong with white people seeing just black...(in response to who ever asked if I felt that it was problematic.)


The problem that I was addressing was that they don't see complexion.They see race.It doesn't matter how light or dark you are, we are all African American.

I just wish we would just see that for ourselves and stop focusing on light eyes,color pigments and "good hair"(whatever that is )instead we should judge each other based on intellect.character.and ultimately our achievements.

TY.Stay Classy.

[Live2Serve]

I love reading books about issues that are prominent in our race and I have ALWAYS found the issue of "color" to be a fascinating one. I also think that the the history of HAIR is just as deep and equaly important. Anyway I just wanted to toss up a few good reads
the first: Black No More by George S. Schuyler... this is a satire.. an extremely funny way of simplifying our problem I wont tell any part of the story however the title says alot. You should read it its not only entertaining but it really shows how even if color wasnt a problem we would still find another way to seperate ourselves from eachother.
the second: Hair Story I read it in under 2 hours. It was a totaly new topic to me when I first encountered it I thought it was silly that somebody would write a whole book about hair BUT it was AMAZING!!

so yeah, just thought I would suggest those to whoever! lol I hope you enjoy them if you have not read them already

[Live2Serve]

Oh, and it was written in 1931... I think thats WILD because it seems as though it could have been written just yesterday. "A classic sign of a timeless book" as my g'ma puts it.