Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Good and Bad Hair
I was too young at the time to realize the point that Spike Lee was making with this musical number. Black is beautiful in every shade, right? At least it should be.
One of my fellow bloggers had talked about racism outside of our race. But what about the internal racism?
Either we are too light or too dark. The lighter sisters are told that they are not "black" enough or that they are trying to be white, as if they had a choice in the pigmentation of their skin color, unlike Michael Jackson, of course.
Either we are first generation African in America or we are Black Americans, several generations beyond our African roots. I have found, in my experience, that many Africans that have immigrated to America, especially African women, do not seem to care for us Black Americans. One young lady went so far as to say that Black Americans cannot be trusted. It appeared that her impressions of us was based on the white media, which, no matter what they say, is incredibly biased.
"Can't we all just get along?" Although not the best role model for the black people, Rodney King had a point. There are enough outside forces working against us as it is without us tearing one another down.
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2 comments:
Seems to me that we have been so beaten down by others that we've started to internalize it as in moest abusive relationships. Teh media, society, has done us a humongous diservice and now we are falling into the traps that they have placed. Magazines don't place dark skinned womens on their covers so we think they aren't pretty. Africans are only shown COPs or BET videos as a form of entertainment so that's what they think of us. It's depressing.
Funny that you mention this... I got thumped on all throughout my youth b/c of my skin tone (and the fact that I'm of Nigerian descent, despite the fact that I was born in NE D.C. without even the slightest hint of an accent -- go figure!)
For years, we were told that light is right & "black" isn't. It's sad, but it points back to the whole argument about trying to divvy ourselves up into races (what's the point anymore?) The darker you are, the worse people seemed to treat you -- even those who would categorize themselves as being members of your race/ethnicity.
Although I can't lie -- it's nice to be a darker-skinned brother in an era where we're more accepted. All the dark jokes got old, quick. Now if I could just help out my REALLY dark-skinned brothers & sisters, then we'd be in business!
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