African Americans should move past color, look inside

Brought here in chains, we were. Rooted in shame, we were. Slaves to the white man, we were. Now, who is to blame?
Color is a major issue in the African-American race. Whether their exposure comes from elders making comments on how to lighten up or darken down the family line or from their friends making jokes, many blacks have become more aware of what tone of black they possess.

One UMHB student is frequently judged by her family because of her skin tone.  

“I am always judged because all my family is dark, and I’m not,” she said. “Sometimes they say I had it easier than the rest of them because I’m lighter.”

The practice of one black stereotyping another based on light or dark skin tone is called colorism. Sadly, the student’s family presumption of darker blacks having a harder time than lighter skinned blacks can be historically supported.

The history of colorism is long and ugly among African Americans. Light-skinned blacks were given special treatment by their masters and other whites. While dark blacks worked in the fields and were abused, the lighter more fair-skinned blacks worked the fanciful jobs in the master’s house. They were taken on trips, exposed to the arts, and even educated.

Their dark-skinned counterparts, however, were condemned to a low status. Educating them was illegal.

After blacks were emancipated, the madness continued. Light-skinned blacks started social clubs and would not allow dark-skinned blacks to gain admittance.

For years, many events and organizations were run by the paper bag test. If blacks were lighter than or the same color as the brown bag, they were allowed in. If they were darker, they were denied admittance.

In the book entitled The Future of the Race by Henry Louis Gates Jr., the author discusses his first encounter with the brown bag when he arrived at Yale in the 1960s.

“Some of the brothers who came from New Orleans held a bag party. As a classmate explained it, a bag party was a custom wherein a brown paper bag was stuck on a door,” he said. “Anyone darker than a brown paper bag was denied entrance.”

This test has since been converted into the ideology of one not being black enough.

“I listen to white music, and my family says I’m not black,” said another UMHB student. “I don’t eat chicken, so I guess I’m not black because of that either.”

One is told she is not black enough because of the way she speaks and dresses.

“I have been told I was not black too many times,” she said. “At first, I started to question myself. Then I looked at the person who told me that and thought, if you are the example of what black is, I really am proud I am not black enough.”

From the paper bag test to the ideology of being not black enough, our race is still suffering the blows that slavery gave us. It is still not a viable excuse for our present condition. If African Americans desire a better world, we have to start with the reflection in the mirror.

African American editorial writer Bill Maxwell says it best.

“Discrimination from whites and other groups remains a big problem for blacks, but colorism is just as serious, if not more so,” he said. “It weakens our power and ability to fight the outside forces that keep us marginalized in larger society.”