McLemore 1

Masu McLemore

Professor Christen Gaughey

English 112

November 6, 2012

If You’re Black, Get Back

“So, I sit here as a light skin Black woman and I sit here to tell you that I am Black. That people who are my color in this country will always be treated as Black…” (Eleanor Holmes Norton). A lot of light skinned women are known to be treated differently than those of a darker skin tone. It’s said that lighter women are more successful, more attractive, and extremely intelligent. But at the end of the day, a black woman is still a black woman. Anybody who is black will still get treated like any other black person. A racist person will still look at a light skinned black person and still hate them because we’re all the same just in different shades. I am actually a light skin black female, but to many I’m not black at all. Apparently racial discrimination didn’t stop once white people accepted us. My own race doesn’t even accept me now, isn’t that something. To society I am beautiful. I have long hair, I’m light skinned, and I have nice features. Now, if I was dark skinned I’d just be another black face. Society has changed the definition of beauty, which led to a judgment amongst skin tone.

During slavery, light skinned women were respected more than the darker women. The lighter women were able to work indoors and they were often able to watch over the masters children. The darker women could not step foot into the household. Usually, the darker women would work in the fields with the men. It’s said that the skin tone bias from slavery have led to how we perceive one another today. “The lighter skinned slaves realized their advantage was based on their skin tone and their children have come to realize the advantage as well,” (Boutte, 2). The lighter women realized that being indoors and having children with the master was an easy way to learn new things. Many of the mixed children were able to read and write as well as the lighter women. In Coards view, “Even with the abolition of slavery, a skin ton stratification persisted where in lighter skinned African Americans operated in a generally higher socioeconomic stratum than did their darker skinned counterparts.” It was said that you could tell what a person would achieve and what they’d be capable of by their skin tone. I believe the lighter skinned slaves took advantage during slavery but I also feel that we don’t take advantage of much today because we can’t. “In today’s society, not only do African Americans have to worry about issues such as prejudice, racism, racial profiling, and negative portrayals from other races, but also they are concerned about judgments from other African Americans,” (Boutte, 2). Commercials try to sell you things to make your skin lighter, music videos portray lighter women to have more sex appeal, men want lighter women, and even parents are trying to change their children’s skin lighter. It all depends on what we think is right and what’s wrong.

In Stefanie Sniders article, “The Relationship of Skin Tone and Hair to Perceived Beauty among African American University Students,” she gets into detail on what others think about skin tone and how it goes farther than just skin color. For example, Snider says, “Skin color is highly correlated with other phenotypic features-eye color, hair texture, broadness of nose, and fullness of lips.” She also explains that, “These European traits function along with color in complex ways to shape opportunities, norms regarding attractiveness, self-concept, and overall body image.” Snider uses another study which indicates that women with more Caucasoid features are perceived as more attractive to the opposite sex and are more successful in their love lives than women with more Negroid features (Thompson and Keith, 2000). Snider declares that her findings indicate that dark skin women are seen as occupying the bottom rung of the social ladder, being least marriageable, and having the fewest options for higher education and career advancement (Snider,3). When it comes to hair texture there is a different preference of whether it’s important or not between women and men. According to Sniders survey, 93% of males felt that having “good hair” was important. On the other hand, only 47% of women felt that having “good hair” was important. Too many, there is no such thing as good hair but you can either have “nappy hair” or “white people hair.” Hair texture is a big contribution to the skin tone bias. During slavery, if you couldn’t run a comb through your hair without it getting stuck you had “nappy hair”. If you were able to comb your hair with ease, you had “good hair.” Good hair is usually considered silky curly or silky straight hair. Bad hair is the type of hair that needs chemicals in it in order for it to cooperate. Throughout Sniders survey, the males ranked higher, but when it came down to who felt that lighter complexion was more attractive the women ranked 80% while the men ranked at 70%. In Sniders research, she realized that the majority of the participants felt that many forms of media influence the issue of color consciousness within the African American community (Snider, 6). The media is more focused on women with a lighter complexion which communicates the standard of beauty (Snider, 6). Snider says, “The males who felt that skin color was more important for females also felt that lighter complexion was more attractive. Most of the men who thought having “good hair” was important also felt that hair would impact who they would marry or date (Snider, 6).

I agree with Stefanie Sniders point of view. I feel males look for women with a lighter complexion because of the magazines and music videos shown today. Social networks also add to the conflict between lighter skin women and darker skin women. For instance, the site Tumblr often portrays a beautiful black woman to be light skinned with curly hair and a nice physique. Many men will reblog the photos, comment on them, and the women will often compare themselves to those women. The age range on this site varies from 11-30 but it’s usually the young adults who take the photos personally. Some darker skin girls have even stooped to the level of posting inappropriate photos onto the internet to get some sort of attention. The iPhone even has apps now that can make you alter your skin color as well as your hair texture just by the click of a button. Men often want what they see in magazines, on Twitter, on television, and on Instagram. Everybody wants a piece of something that’ll make them look good to others or make them feel good. Men often think a lighter skinned woman will look better on their side rather than a darker skinned woman because they have that exotic look to them. Some men think being with a darker woman isn’t cool. They also believe they’ll be more successful and accepted with a lighter woman. You can’t really put a limit to who you’ll like in my opinion. I feel that what certain men prefer is instilled into their minds from family members as well as memories growing up. Similar to why I was only into one complexion at one time in my life because that was all I knew. There are millions of successful women who aren’t light skinned at all. Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey are two women who are on top of the world right now and they aren’t light skinned. Your education level and success definitely can’t be determined by your skin tone. You can only be judged by it.

The media is more focused on women with a lighter complexion which communicates the standard of beauty (Snider, 6). Rap videos today tend to have women in their videos that have more unique looks. Don’t get me wrong, the women will all generally be black but they are mostly all mixed with something. It’s said that lighter women have more sex appeal than darker women do. According to Kate Conrad in the article “Controversial Rap Themes, Gender Portrayals and Skin Tone Distortion: A Content Analysis of Rap Music Videos,” specifically, light skinnedAfrican American females are more likely to be associated with the White beautystandard. All of the women are usually being degraded in these videos as well but that’s the only equality they really have. “Blacks with more Afrocentric features are more likely to be associated with stereotypical or negative evaluations,” (Conrad, 4). The women as well as males that are darker are usually shown with criminal behavior in these videos also. There are many television shows which add fuel to the fire as well. There are shows such as “Basketball Wives,” “Bad Girls Club,” and “Real House Wives of Atlanta,” that often stir up issues between the lighter woman and the darker women. For example, Real House Wives of Atlanta focuses on the drama aspect of all the women. Compared to Real House Wives of Orange County, there are more confrontations. It’s said that the way Black Entertainment Television is perceived is also degrading to women of a darker skin tone.

When it comes to commercials, many dark skinned women are shown as “natural.” They’re the ones often seen in the McDonalds commercials as well as the Wal-Mart commercials. While the lighter skinned women will be in the latest Cover Girl commercial. YouTube has many videos that talk about dark skin vs. light skin. For example, there is a documentary called “Dark Girls” by Bill Duke that focuses on darker women who wanted to be lighter at some point in their lives. One woman’s mother had bathed her in bleach because she didn’t want her to go through what she did growing up. A young child was even shown a photo of different shades of color and pointed at the white shade and said that was the beautiful one. The media is not helping this problem. Young children are being exposed to this epidemic, which is keeping it alive and growing.

Dating is an issue that everyone encounters. Being black and dating is a bit more challenging due to low self-esteem. Many dark women have low self-esteem and many dark men are intimidated by lighter women. “For example, a darker skinned male may feel hesitant approaching a lighter skinned female in fear that he is not good enough for her, almost as if they are on two different playing fields. He may decide not to approach her in fear of getting rejected, which could ultimately lower his self-esteem,” (Boutee, 5). I’ve had my share of times where men were scared to approach me because they thought I would be stuck up and mean towards them. I’ve also been told that I’m too pretty to be with certain people and a guy even told me he didn’t want to date me because I was too smart for him. I feel that some light skinned women have self-esteem issues as well because guys are intimidated by us and women envy us.

Stephanie Irby Coard, Alfiee M. Breland, and Patricia Raskin say slavery has brought this epidemic among us today. Stefanie Snider says that the media today is what keeps this epidemic alive. I say, we can easily stop this. On the Black Entertainment Television channel there are multiple shows that focus on this issue. For instance, there is a specific show called “My Black is Beautiful” that shows the differences of black women and how they came to be at peace with who they are. The show doesn’t get too much publicity because many young adults don’t care much about it. We have to let the children know that all black is beautiful. There is a lot we can do about this “color/class thing,” we just have to put it in affect. If we can inform the younger generation about this problem and let them know how we can solve it, the problem can slowly dissolve. These plastic surgery apps to make people look prettier on the web need to stop. We need to encourage young women to love themselves rather than to change themselves to fit into what society likes. Black women should come together as one. We have to stop the judging and the stereotyping.If we continue judging, this problem will only get worse. This subject needs to be brought out more, because not many people know about it. Once the word gets out, we can all make a change. No type of racial segregation is okay, and with the help of everyone we too can make a change. All black is beautiful, we all come in different shapes, color, and forms; that’s what makes us unique, that’s what makes us who we are.

Works Cited

Snider, Stefanie R. "The Relationship of Skin Tone and Hair to Perceived Beauty among

African American University Students." Graduate.ua.edu. N.p.2006. Web. 09 Oct. 2012.

Coard, Stephanie Irby, Patricia Raskin, and Alfiee M. Breland. "Perceptions of and Preferences for Skin Color, Black Racial Identity, and Self-Esteem Among African Americans." Uncg.edu. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2012.

Conrad, Kate, Dixon, Travis, and Zhang, Yuanyuan. “Controversial Rap Themes, Gender Portrayals and Skin Tone Distortion: A Content Analysis of Rap Music Videos.” Academic.csuohio.edu. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. March 2009. Web. 22 Oct 2012.

Boutté, Alycia. “Skin Tone Preferences in African American College Students: Directions for Future Research.” Xula.edu. Xavier University. April 2009. Web. 23 Oct. 2012.

Duke, Bill and Channsin, D. “Dark Girls: Documentary.” Youtube.com. 26 May 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.

Bambara, Toni Cade. “School Daze.” Umass.edu. N.P.N.D. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.