Color Complexes in the Black Community

One of the unique attributes to racism is the micro racism that occurs within races. Within any race, there are people looked down upon due to class, economic status, educational level, or stereotypes. Although it isn't as severe, rigid, or inescapable as the Indian Caste system or others like it, it is still noticeable and prevalent within all races. In my specific case, being biracial is what led other blacks to look down upon me for several different reasons. As I stated earlier, biracial people have been in America since its inception and prior to that as well. Ever since this started occurring, people have looked down on people of biracial heritage because they are considered impure because they are a mixture of different races. Because of my white heritage, some blacks look down on me and think of me as "less black" than them because of it. This is an issue I have dealt with my entire life and which can lead to a lifetime of self identity issues as well.

As a child growing up, I often had to deal with blacks treating me different than other blacks because of my heritage. They would call me names, tell me that their parents told them not to associate with me and would generally look down upon me. While I was still growing up, I would spend hours trying to figure out what the big deal was as I didn't see it as an earth shattering problem that I wasn't completely black. If someone would say something about me not being black, I would look at them and if they weren't literally African, I would explain to them that they weren't 100% black either or else they wouldn't look the way they did. I would tell them that somewhere in their ancestry, someone had a child that had somewhat mixed heritage or they would have a much darker complexion and different facial features. This would generally anger people and sometimes lead to fights. The easiest way for me to piss my grandmother off was to tell her that she wasn't 100% black and she would fiercely battle this idea as if being mixed was some type of fatal disease. She would deny it with all of her might and become extremely upset. Because I was viewed as different than other blacks, myself as well as the majority of biracial people were subject to racism within our own communities and families. We had to experience racism three fold as we are victims of it from other blacks, whites and the society in whole.

One of the most prevalent examples of racism within the black community it the difference in skin color between blacks and biracial people and there is a long history of issues because of this difference. This can occur from a black person treating a biracial person different because of their lighter skin tone or a biracial person treating a black person different because of their darker skin tone. The main cause of all of this turmoil can be attributed to southern slavery as can most race issues in America. During slavery, the white plantation owners who publicly stated how inferior blacks were and who considered them less than animals, seemingly had no problem with privately fornicating with them. Because blacks were slaves and had no rights, there was nothing stopping a white slave owner from forcing himself on one of his slaves and raping her or the plantation owner's wife from threatening imminent harm on male slaves if they refused to accept her sexual advances as well. Although this practice was publicly intolerable and condemned, it was rampant in the south and quietly hushed whenever it became apparent.

Because of the white slave owners and their wives frequent fornication with slaves, eventually children began to be born who were of mixed black and white heritage. When this occurred, a few things could happen. If it was the slave owner's wife who conceived the biracial child, the father would be hunted down and lynched or sold to another plantation. If the slave owner was sure the child wasn't his, he would cause the woman of the house to miscarry or kill the baby once it was born. If it was the slave owner who had fathered a "mulatto" child as they were referred to back then, the slave owner would do one of three things: either sell the female slave before or after she gave birth in order to hide what had occurred, purposefully cause the female slave to miscarry or let the biracial child be born as his slave.

If the first option occurred, the slave owner would sell the pregnant mother for more than usual females were sold for because the new buyer would essentially be buying two slaves and would also know for a fact that the female slave was fertile, a good breeder slave and therefore a viable cash crop for lack of a better word. If the second option occurred, the slave owner would generally beat the pregnant slave until she miscarried the child in order to keep secret the fact that he was involved in sexual relations with his slaves. If the latter option occurred, there were two ways to go about that situation as well. The slave owner would either let the child be born and treat him/her just like any other slave or would treat the child with favoritism because it was his child as well. If the owner decided to treat the slave differently, it would generally be allowed to either live in the house with the slave owner and his family or live in better accommodations than the other slaves. Because the biracial slave would naturally have a lighter complexion than the other slaves, the slave would usually be used in or around the house as a cook or butler if a male or a maid or nanny for the slave owner's children if a female.

Living in or around the house offered the biracial slave opportunities not available for the darker slaves of the plantation. They were privy to luxuries not accessible or strictly forbidden to the other slaves such as clean water, shelter, good food and over all better treatment. Because the biracial slave either lived or worked in the house, he/she would be referred to as a "House Nigger" whereas the other slaves who generally worked in the cotton fields would be referred to as "Field Niggers". This differentiation would cause a riff between the two groups and I will go into further detail about it as this chapter progresses. The biracial slave would generally be treated better than the other slaves and would be taught trades not offered to the other slaves.

For instance, the biracial slave would be taught how to cook for the family and would therefore learn a valuable trade. Because they cooked the food, they would frequently be allowed to eat it as well and this caused jealousy between biracial slaves and black slaves as the black slaves were fed whatever "food" the slave owner could get the cheapest, which was generally no better than the food fed to the livestock and horses and sometimes worse. The biracial slave on the other hand would eat good as he/she was dining on the left-overs from the slave owner's family. If the biracial slave was a butler, maid or nanny, they would be allowed to live in the house with the master's family and would wear much better clothes than the other slaves. The other slaves would be forced to wear whatever clothes they could find or make and would be subjected to living in poorly and hastily made slave quarters which were generally leaky shacks in which slaves would be crowded into. Although it wasn't very frequent, other biracial slaves would sometimes be taught how to read and write in order to help the slave owner out with the day to day operations of the plantation or any other task that involved those abilities. This was strictly forbidden for the other slaves as the slave owners felt as if it would cause rebellion and uprising and since the whites in the south were outnumbered 20 to 1 by slaves in a lot of places, this was tantamount to suicide. Another way in which the biracial slave would be implemented was as superior to the other slaves on the plantation. The biracial slave would be given the authority to tell the others slaves what to do and was to report back to the slave owner if the slaves weren't cooperative. The biracial slave wouldn't be shackled and would often times be allowed to leave the plantation to run errands for the master of the plantation. These types of favoritisms towards lighter skinned, biracial slaves is what led to the separation of blacks with lighter skin tones and those with darker skin tones that exists even to this day.

Because of the favoritisms that were offered to lighter skinned, generally biracial slaves, when slavery ended these slaves were better off than the other slaves as many of them were literate, craftsmen, or knew a valuable trade whereas the other slaves were illiterate and usually couldn't work any other job than sharecropper which was basically slavery without the shackles. Furthermore, some light skinned blacks were so light in complexion that they could pass as white and often did. After reconstruction, a lot of biracial people who were former slaves found jobs either in the south or up north and because of their lighter skin tone, where considered more intelligent and less of a threat than their darker counterparts by whites. This allowed them to attend colleges, find better jobs, and receive more respect from whites which naturally angered the darker skinned blacks. Up into the present times, lighter skinned blacks find it easier to find higher paying jobs than do darker skinned blacks because of misconceptions and stereotypes placed on blacks and a lot of non minorities still ignorantly perceive biracial people or people with lighter skin as more intelligent than other blacks. Because lighter skinned blacks looked more "European" than their darker counterparts who held more "African" features, they were able to assimilate easier into American culture and were more prevalent in different industries such as entertainment, business, and other lucrative industries. Products were available for blacks who wanted to try to bleach their skin into lighter shades and only light skinned singers, actors, and models were used in the entertainment industry which caused darker skinned blacks to get inferiority complexes because of their skin tone.

Because of the obviously biased and different treatment of biracial people and people of lighter complexion in relation to darker skinned blacks, a lot of minorities began to harbor hatred and jealousy towards lighter skinned people. This phenomenon is known as a color complex and is a well documented psychological ailment in which blacks have an inferiority complex because of their skin tone and feel as if lighter skinned blacks have a superiority complex. Because of what occurred during slavery, a lot of blacks don't feel as if lighter skinned blacks are even black at all and treat them differently because of this. They refer to them as mutts, mongooses, Oreos, Uncle Toms, House Niggers, and other names meant to reflect their skin tone or relationships with whites. Some blacks are less likely to trust light skinned blacks because of the relationship light skinned blacks held with plantation owners in the past and because of some biracial peoples' relationships with whites in modern times. They feel as if light skinned people are working with whites to keep blacks down and disenfranchised. Blacks refer to light skinned people they feel act like this as "Uncle Toms" or "House Negroes".

Other blacks naturally assume that light skinned blacks look down upon them because they have fairer skin. They feel as if lighter skinned blacks try to pass for white, directly denying their African heritage and insulting other blacks. Although this did occur in the past and sometimes occurs in the present, it is no where near as wide spread as some blacks would have it seem. Some blacks rightly so, feel as if biracial people or light skinned people were/are treated differently and better than blacks because of their European features and fairer skin and thus take out their frustrations because of this on biracial or light skinned people as if it is their fault. During the "black Power" movement of the 1960's these issues came to a head as many blacks refused to accept light skinned blacks into the black community because of their fairer skin as they felt as if they weren't black enough to be a part of their community.

Because of these color complexes, biracial people are often looked down upon by blacks and treated as inferior or impure. They are unfairly stereotyped and often the victim of ridicule from other blacks. They are often times treated differently than blacks and a lot of blacks' wont associate or date biracial people because of their heritage and skin tone and the history regarding both. I feel as if this is unfair because biracial people shouldn't be judged as a whole just like blacks shouldn't be. People should be judged on an individual basis because although there are some biracial people who look down on blacks or who try to pass as white, the majority of black people accept and wholeheartedly embrace their black heritage by both choice and force. Although biracial people may individually identify themselves as black, white or biracial, ultimately they are generally viewed by mainstream America as black and are treated accordingly.

I spent the entirety of my childhood being simultaneously ridiculed for not being "black enough" or trying to embrace my black heritage, only to be denied admittance into the black community by the very people who ridiculed me for "not trying hard enough". This double standard and catch 22 is a very rampant one, although it is quietly hushed and pushed to the side in African American culture whenever brought up. It is completely unfair to type cast biracial people as uppity, bourgeois people with superiority complexes when 99% of the time that is not the case. It is completely hypocritical for blacks to talk about how unfair and evil racism is when it is whites being racist to blacks, when a lot of blacks turn around and treat biracial people indifferently because they have fairer skin. You cannot expect someone to treat you one way if you treat someone else a different way. It is time for blacks to come together as a people and stop letting antiquated racist systems of the past still pilot our decisions in the present and future.

http://sociology.missouri.edu/New%20Website%20WWW/Faculty%20and%20Staff/Assets/David%20Brunsma/The%20new%20Color%20Complex.pdf