Color Struck?
This has always been a big issue in the Black community-- and according to a couple of my South Asian friends, it's the same way. The shade of one's skin is a big issue and a lot is assumed just by looking at you. If being judged by your ethnicity isn't enough, you then have to deal with the shade of your skin. It's a daggoned trip.What's "Color Struck" you may ask? From what I understand, it's basically not being able to function because either you wished you were lighter or you often bowed down (not literally, but in one way or another) to folks who are of a certain skin tone. It's basically putting people of a certain skin color in one category and the others in another. For example, the light skin folks are uppity, conceited, richer, more educated, way prettier, more accepted and just the thing to be. The darker ones are not as educated, they are not as desirable, they aren't pretty AT ALL, tend to be on the lower end of the economic spectrum and it's just not the place to be. Basically, this is a bunch of malarky on both sides-- it's mean to call light skin people conceited and also mean to say dark skin people will always hate themselves.
I bring this up for several reasons-- I'm realizing that this is still pervasive in my family and I've always known some people have always been this way but was pretty much flabbergasted when I found out some others were. It's really annoying-- it starts with my grandfather's side of the family--- they are all really really light, "high yellow" folks and my grandfather's siblings (including himself) are all 70 and older, so you know that they grew up in a time when their skin tone was such an asset. Granddaddy married a woman who is Dark and Lovely and was pretty much subject to forms of ridicule. Grandma and Granddaddy have 8 kids, all of which are a variation of the spectrum of Black folks. Beautiful people (cuz Grandma and Granddaddy are a handsome couple... they were in 1948 when they got married, they are in 2006, looking 10 years younger than they are. They can easily pass for 60.) But my aunts and uncles are in some way or form suffering from this issue--- wishing that their mother was lighter or that they looked like Granddaddy's side of the family. And for some of them, it's not really helping them with their progressive thinking.
I was raised by Grandma and Granddaddy and I, too, am Dark and Lovely. Skin color was never an issue among the three of us-- but they did prepare me for folks who made it an issue, family and all. Basically, if I went to school, "got my lessons", get good grades and keep focused for a good future, I was pretty much set. It pretty much worked out... but there were a few encounters...
In high school, I had a group of really good friends and we all were of varying shades, sizes, heights, etc, but we were all smart people. But on the way down to the metro station after school, while it was a joke, one of my friends said "Hey, if we were all in slavery, she'd be feeding the baby in the house, she'd be in the kitchen, and Stanli, sorry, you'd be out in the field picking cotton." Wow. Where did THAT come from? To which I responded-- "Well, it was the people in the field who started the rebellions time and time again, which is allowing us to go to school and college right now. I'm not ashamed of that history at all." That statement, and also interjecting that I was going to one of the best colleges in the country, pretty much stopped that nonsense.
In college, I could tell that it was the same thing going on. Throughout most of my college career, I hung out with a lot of people who were not Black-- I figured Georgetown was an international school, why not hang out with them? But the flip side of that was not being involved in the Black community. I did get involved in the Black community from time to time-- I remember distinctly that there was a good segment that discussed the images of beauty. And at that time, I was on my bell hooks kick, so of course I was interested! Well, I just remember there being rants and raves (including myself) about how the accepted beauty of black people were tall, skinny, light-skinned, long/curly-haired Black women. And that was that. We all talked about how wrong that was, etc. But I realized that no amount of ranting in a group was going to change anything. It was always beyond me how all of us Black folks were a bunch of smart people but still acted very backwards when it came to this. While I did have some Black friends at GU, I was never a part of the community for more reasons than others, but this being one of those reasons.
Post-college, real world: This doesn't mean a doggone thing anymore, well, depending on who you're around all the time. This is what the grown folks were talking about as far as really making it in the world. It really does not matter what you look like, as long as you know how to work your job and do what is right for you. But I have to disagree a little bit--- it does matter because somehow this is perpetuated through the children... and it's their parents (in this case, future parents), my future peers, that would perpetuate this stuff. But, then again, it's really up to me to really perpetuate it.
That's the end of this rant--- but believe me, there are more to come! :)
posted by Chopin Girl @ 9:15 PM
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