Not long before finding out that Kelly Rowland (formerly in the group "Destiny's Child" with Beyonce) I had just finished reading a book that covered the Ida B Wells and the Black Women's Club Movement, which appears to have started 20-30 years after slavery and continued through the 1930s or so. When I got to the photos near the center of what turned out to be a 700 page history book, most of the women I'd been reading about turned out to be white.
Or they would have been white if the year was 3020 instead of 1920 when the one-drop rule was in serious effect.
Only one or two of the women, like Booker T Washington's wife, had been described in the text to have blond, somewhat afro-textured hair, and blue eyes, so I was surprised.
Keep in mind, I was looking at old black and white photos. I wasn't looking at skin tone so much as features and hair. Madam C J walker was probably doing her bit to alter black hair texture by then (Ida B Wells actually did meet her), but the white features were extreme. It must have been the slightest tinge of color, as well as leaving family behind, that kept most of these black women from "passing."Ida B Wells-Barnett, a founder of these women's suffrage groups, was one of the few black women that you could see was black despite the limitations of photography at the time.
When reading about the 1900 to 1920 period, I had to remind myself that Ida B was born a year or so before slavery ended. I had to remind myself that the south was still recovering from the civil war. Somehow the century change at 1900 made slavery seem further away than it was.
Slavery still seems further away than it is to me, after two century changes.
When they say "colorism" goes back to house slave* and field hand, I now realize that's not going back that far in time. And, I didn't realize just how literally true this is, how continuous it is. The 1920's were a snap of the fingers after the Civil War. And the Civil Rights movement was two finger snaps after that. And colorism was held onto tightly, it seems to me, and studiously ignored. Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat well before Rosa Parks, was very likely telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth when she said 'Rosa Parks had that light-skinned look of middle class. That's why the NAACP selected her to represent the movement before the TV cameras (paraphrased). Once I accepted Colvin's words as truth, I took a brand new look at female civil rights leaders and male civil rights leaders wives. And I saw what I hadn't noticed before. There were too many pale women, all in one place, for it to be "natural selection."
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In other words, the preference for light skinned women was quite extensive and obvious. And I had to have been ignoring skin color just like I was trained.
We're all one race, the black race
Sound familiar?
Despite my home training, I thought I was seeing most light-skinned preference easily. My light-skinned kin folk even see-and-say light-skin preference easily. But I really wasn't seeing it....or I was making sure I un-saw it quickly within the black community.
Acknowledging color differences is divisive to many black people --just as divisive as noticing racial differences seems to many white people.
I had noticed how the outsider (non-blacks) prefer lighter skin, on TV, in movies, and even in the work place. I was allowed to notice that. But I hadn't noticed just how dedicated to preferring light-skin while not noticing light-skin privilege black people are.
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| The coke-wh*re-type playing actress on the far left must have had a deep tan the day this photo was taken compared to how she showed up in the movie "Dope" |
Now that I am forcing myself to pay attention, I'm noticing just how often light-skinned, white-featured, long haired black women are present, presented, and praised as "variety" when light-skinned, pink lipped, white featured black boys are conspicuously absent. Men this pale are rarely presented in the name of loving the variety of black skin tones and almost never presented three at a time, 100% representative of black maleness as black womanhood was in the recent movie "Dope."
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QUESTION: If Black Women had a time machine, and the power to re-image our historical figures, a bunch of Mr. Americas, TV and movie stars to look like THESE GUYS to the tune of 80% would black men be bleaching skin and wearing pink lipstick? |
More and more, I am less and less confused as to how the Dolezaling of the NAACP took place.
The other thing that reflects the widespread absorption of white supremacy in the form of intra-racial light-supremacy is the low self-esteem of drop dead, gorgeous, dark-skinned women like Kelly Rowland (earlier in life).
As men are not valued by looks nearly as much, black men tend to admit light skinned privilege a lot more easily than women -- or so I've heard. But they are at the center of light-skinned privilege among women because it mostly for black men that black women perform beauty. So we're all going to have to turn into the wind and face colorism to overcome it. And we're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than uttering the black equivalent of
"There's only one race, the human race"
which would be
"There's only one race the Black Race.
We are all one.
Kumbaya"
And to do that we have to be unflinchingly honest...just like we're demanding of unwittingly racist white folk.
Currently, I'm reading a book about the historical contributions of light-skinned people like Walter White. The book talks about his numerous heroic contributions (going undercover to KKK meetings) They talk about how he uplifted of the race as head of the NAACP too, while leaving out his insinuation that scientists having found a way to lighten everybody's skin will end racism soon.
The author was wrong for that. We can't just skip over the ugly parts of our stories and hope things get better. Racism hasn't been reduced in white culture that way. Colorism isn't going to be reduced in black culture that way either.
Increasingly, I am amazed at how alike the white beneficiaries of racism and light beneficiaries of colorism are in regards to the denial of privilege. And I am equally amazed at how unalike the victims of racism and colorism are. The victims of racism are 99% against racism. But the victims of colorism want to join in the denial of light-privilege so as to be a part of a faux racial solidarity.
We are so desperate for the feeling of safety that faux solidarity gives us that we won't drag out into the light what needs to be dragged out. We, as black people - regardless of skin-tone, pretty much embrace the quieter aspects of colorism.
Honest in-fighting isn't nearly the problem that dishonest in-fighting is. Respectful and honest in-fighting is absolutely necessary from time to time.
So at the risk of continuing to sound biased for my own camp, light-skinned women are going to have to get over the denial of light-skinned privilege. It's as crucial as white people getting over white privilege. Some, without white features may not have much privilege at all. But I don't see how we begin without all of us acknowledging among ourselves that the
1) light-skinned preference is real, 2) we as black women are not monolithic in our experiences due to shade differences among other things, and 3) the basis of dark skinned jealousy and anger is real.
There's nothing without truth.
Kelly Rowland Short Video Below
"I don’t remember when I first learned about colorism, but I know it was early on in my childhood. Family members assessed my color in hushed whispers (“she’s getting darker, huh?”) and as I got older and began dating, compliments from the opposite sex always hinged on my skin tone (“You’re a pretty dark-skinned girl”)
...I learned to love my own chocolat-ee-ness.
- Kelly Rowland
HEAR & READ MORE http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2013/03/kelly-rowland-opens-up-about-learning-to-love-her-brown-skin/
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