Light-skinned Negroes

The names changed over the years, but the thoughts can remain. It's no secret that in the United States and around the world, people have been duped into believing that lighter-skinned people are better than the rest. The US history of slavery tells us that the lighter-skinned one was, the closer s/he worked to the main house, his clothing was better. It doesn't matter that most of those light-skinned children were the offspring of the plantation owner or one of his friends. The lighter one was, the easier one could feel relaxed around them.

I am not an assimilationist. In college I was asked to join a sorority. I declined because I'm not Greek. But I observed something that few outside the black community would see. The sororities were divided along color lines. Spike Lee tried and succeeded in showing the college was towards light versus dark blacks. His message in the movie was "WAKE UP".

We are so busy trying to identify with a culture that never wanted to accept our blackness that we embarked on a mission of self-hatred. The freedom in America for black people is that we can now be accepted by others because of skin-tone. The less melanin one has, the easier it becomes to fit in with the world. Senator Reid said in his book that President Obama was lighter skinned and didn't speak with a Negro dialect which made him more palatable to whites [sic]. Our President promptly accepted the apology and life in America went on as it always does. I don't understand why the Senator needed to apologize. Everything he said was true. We darker-skinned Americans with chemical free hair and dredlocs have dealt with this issue for 400 years. We have always known that lighter-skinned people have perks and priviledges that others of our ethnicity have been denied.

Why don't you cut your dreds? I get asked this question constantly. The translation into "negro -speak" is "Why don't you want your hair to look like white hair or at least straight hair". Slowly I learned that this was normal in our community. When I was younger, the light-skinned girls were the first to be asked to the dance. They were the first to learn about a cotillion. They always had a prominent role in school activities and always considered better looking than the rest of us. Lighter-skin does not mean better person. Lighter-skin does not mean smarter person.

This identification with light to white people can sometime start a flurry of emotions in dark skinned Blacks. For us, the election of our current president through no fault of his own, has conjealed the idea that darker skinned blacks cannot make it to the White House - at least not in my lifetime. In Chris Rock's docudrama where he explores the nature of good and bad hair, Paul Mooney stated that "if the hair is nappy,white folks ain't happy".

It seems as if the United States will not be satisfied until we look and speak and think as they do. They will not be content until I convert to their idea of what a dark-skinned person should strive to be. I am considered radical because I chose not add chemicals to my hair. When did that happen?

I love my dreds, the flowing locs that have worked their was to the three and half feet mark. My first intention was to cut my locs and donate my hair to cancer patients through the program Locks of Love but learned that they don't accept dreadlocs. Another setback for blacks that haven't assimilated. Where is it written that one has to release their cultural pride and heritage in order to fit in with the status quo? What are we saying to our children? Is the message they receive worth losing their self-esteem? Everywhere we look, we see an image of how we should look, speak and think. When will enough be enough?

This is a long standing discussion that won't get solved overnight. This dark-skinned Negro with no Negro dialect is going to bed.