Monday, October 15, 2007

Light = Right?

I love my people. But sometimes they can drive me up the wall.


In the latest installment of the "What the hell is wrong with us?" series, a DJ/promoter in Detroit apparently thought it would be a good idea to host a party where "light skinned" women received free admission. At no suprise, this idea was met with opposition on all fronts.

Honestly, I don't know where to start with this one. This is clearly another sad example of how the mentalities that were shaped during slavery (particularly with the conflict between house slaves and field slaves) have once again managed to rise to the 21st century surface. Further evidence that self-hatred and ignorance didn't end just because slavery did.

Hat tip to my big sis Robin for this article.

- ACL

15 "Insiders" spoke their mind. Join in...:

Anonymous said...

I'm convinced that any people who would even dare to show their face at this party is just as ignorant as the DJ. Who approved this mess?

The H.C. said...

Hey Dre,
I have to admit, when I first went to Emerson Jr. High and had my first real experiences with a majority black student population, this stunned me. My white friends didn't even believe me when I told them. The black kids would separate themselves by hues of black all the time. We must have had a dozen or so black kids that were called J.B.(Jet Black). They also would give what they called "Coffee Browns" or "N.W.'s" (Nearly Whites) a terrible time, saying that they didn't really understand what it was like to be too black to pass as Hispanic. All of this caught me off guard as we never did that at all when I was little. We had Jews, Asians, Hispanics,and Mid-Easterners in my neighborhood who we all considered to be "white". A friend of mine that was Lebanese told me she grew up thinking she was "white" and even her parents told her so. It's so strange now that blacks and whites have never been closer (albeit still too far apart) but yet we seem to have fractionized ourselves more than ever. In my opinion this all comes from the constant emphasis on our differences and a lack of emphasis on our simularities. Great post!

heiresschild said...

will we ever unite and not be divided over this nonsense. i still get flack sometimes for being "high yellow" or "redbone" and not "black" enough. what is not black enough anyway?

The H.C. said...

Hey Heiress,
I guess you could use Barrack's barometer; If it's hard to get a cab..your black enough. You strike on another interesting point, no one has ever accused me of being "white enough" but it seems people like Juan Williams, Thomas Sorel, or Clarence Thomas get accused of not being black just because they don't share the majority opinion. Why must black people tow the majority line to be black?

Anonymous said...

After reading the article, I DOUBT this dude was planning on having a dark skinned only party. He was just trying to cover his tracks because he got lambasted for his ignorance.

What the hell is wrong with us, indeed.

Anonymous said...

And even if he actually did have those other parties planned (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt), why have we gotten to the point where we revisit some of the same ignorance that kept us divided?

At least he had the smarts and cancelled this crap.

Anonymous said...

Can somebody answer a quick question for me: what kind of measurement would they have used to determine skin lightness? Would the bouncer have a strip of "black" shades like they were matching paint colors?!

This is a sad story indeed.

Anonymous said...

@ J.Alex: I wouldn't be suprised if these boneheads pulled out the brown paper bag test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_paper_bag_test).

This is pathetic.

heiresschild said...

K.C.,

wow, i'd never heard of that before so i had to check out the link. just when i think i've heard it all......

@ H.C.,

i hear you, and totally agree. i've had my share of being passed over for a cab too, but in some people's books, that still doesn't put me in the same category. sad!

Anonymous said...

This insanity aside, at least you can say that the brothah manned up, apologized, and cancelled the show. He may not have had the racial sensitivity necessary to stop him from coming up with the idea, but at least he had the sense to cancel it.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Just wow. I don't know what to say.

Malik Akbar said...

Andre:

Since you can't get into my party, I'll come hang out at yours. When I first saw this, I was like, "Naw. That's a photoshop hoax. Nobody is THAT demented." But then again, we have companies that produce marketing campaigns like this.

Andre said...

@ Malik: Have you ever been in a situation where you just could NOT find any adjectives to describe what you saw...?

I'd say "amazingly appalling" but it doesn't seem to adequately describe what I'm thinking right now.

Anonymous said...

Andre/Malik: "Demented" is the best word anybody could've come up with.

Andre said...

@ Joanne: The jury's back. As it appears, "demented" is the most appropriate word for this.

@ Malik: "Since you can't get into my party, I'll come hang out at yours."

Fortunately for you, your skin is just the right tone to get in. A little darker and I would have my bouncers turn you away.

...and then give you some Skin Light.

*Shakes my head*