Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was watching a segment on OWN focusing on black actresses what what they face in the industry. It was Viola Davis, Alfre Woodard, Phylicia Rashad, and Gabrielle Union where they addressed that dark skin/light skin issue. It was a very eye opening discussion.
Interesting thing is that I've seen a couple of surveys over the last 10 years indicating that the black actresses considered most beautiful by white men are women like Angela Bassett and, yes, even Gabrielle Union. I've said before, once white men get over the basic race issue, they don't seem to be colorists. IOW, using dark-skinned black women wouldn't make a difference in any acceptance of white males.
Colorism is, for sure, being promoted in media, but it seems hard to pinpoint who's actually promoting it and why.
I quoted your opening post from October of last year asking mainly for input from other blacks. Your other post I quoted was today's, stating that you did not want this thread to be hijacked by white supremacists and become a pissing contest.
I have not read any other posts, but I am wondering why didn't you invite white posters to participate in a discussion about racism? I am a white immigrant who has lived in this country for over fifty years and during this time I have developed prejudices I did not have before I arrived.
Hello,
I actually didn't disinvite anybody based on race. The discussion was primarily to discuss the good and the flaws on the black community. That said, I have not dismissed anybody's posts or input based on race as long as they were not trolling or using this discussion solely to say things like "blacks are all criminals", etc.
When I say white supremacist, that does not mean all white people. I'm talking about the ones you see on storm front.
Last edited by pandorafan5687; 03-26-2017 at 08:58 PM..
Interesting thing is this. I'm Catholic and I try to stay away from pork.
That's a good thing.
But for the Ethiopian Orthodox, it is part of of their doctrine. They have maintained, arguably, a purer version of Christianity. The Romans Catholic church disposed of dietary laws in their doctrine. The Europeans disposed of critical beliefs/practices and mixed in pagan practices.
I actually didn't disinvite anybody based on race. The discussion was primarily to discuss the good and the flaws on the black community. That said, I have not dismissed anybody's posts or input based on race as long as they were not trolling or using this discussion solely to say things like "blacks are all criminals", etc.
When I say white supremacist, that does not mean all white people. I'm talking about the ones you see on storm front.
And those are the ones we're trying to keep out. Anyone of any race can come. The bigots just need to stay away.
Broyard's father got into a carpenter's union at a time when it was racially discriminatory. He had to pass just to get work. For Broyard, father and son, "passing" meant the difference between getting good work and getting bad work. For Anatole, it meant making it to the rank of captain in the army, a segregated army.
It would not surprise me if those passing for White heard alot of nasty things about Blacks during those days. It was basically about survival. For anyone who says things were better in the 50s, this alone should show it wasn't.
One of my great grandmother's brothers passed for white and I never knew about him at all until I started doing genealogical research. He did so in order to rise in his career.
What is odd about him, is that he did not do like Ralph mentioned - not talking to family/disengaging/disappearing, etc. He still communicated with his mother and his sisters and father. FWIW this whole line of my family looks white. My 2nd great grandmother was only 1/4 black and her husband was VERY racially mixed and from an old "tri-racial" Ohio community that conducted the Underground Railroad in a location of SW Ohio. He looked similar to Anatole Broyard.
This great uncle of mine just never came to family functions. I had never seen a picture of him and thought he had died as a child like my great grandmother's other brothers. I knew all her sisters and they all looked like white women, as did my great grandmother. She was probably the most "black" looking due to having more African-esque features but most people thought she was white as well.
She told me she was shocked when she first got her job with our city when she was a young woman and hearing the horrible things her co-workers used to say about black people. She never told them she was black because back then they didn't ask her via application or anything. They just wouldn't let black people work there lol. But she looked white and they didn't know she was black until she brought my great grandfather - who was dark skinned, to a department picnic. Even then they thought she was jut "scandalous" to be a white woman with a black man. That is when she told them she was black. This was over 5 years after she started working there and she said she heard lots and lots of racist things and got into many heated discussions with her co-workers over race.
Her brother married a white woman and has white children/grandchildren and I've met one of his grandchildren. They didn't know they were "part black" until they took an AncestryDNA test because they never knew any of the extended family. Today they are mad that their dad never told them. His mother lived to be 105 years old and they never met her. She died 20 years after their dad! All his sisters, including my great grandmother also lived to nearly 100 years old. This particular cousin didn't take the test and start researching their ancestry until 2010. My great grandmother was the last person left of her generation and she died in 2008. So the cousin was very upset to never have met their family.
That said, I understand why my great uncle did what he did. He definitely would not have been able to be employed where he worked if he had not "passed." I wonder how difficult it was for him to not have much communication with his family. My grandmother said he didn't come around because the extended family was "too black." Most of us are rather light skinned but we are noticeably "black American." He didn't want his kids to talk about being black around his co-workers kids.
Did any posters in this conversation go to an HBCU? Do you feel that these campuses still serve a purpose?
I attended and graduated from an HBCU.
Yes I feel the campuses serve a purpose but I also know for a fact that there are "good" and "bad" HBCUs.
Also, all of them are not all that affordable. Morehouse is about $50k per year last time I checked. I went to a private HBCU in the AUC (Atlanta University Center). Spellman is also very expensive.
I feel that HBCUs show black American students that being black is not some sort of stereotype. I feel that that education - that black people are not all dysfunctional, especially for a student from "the hood" is a very important aspect of attendance at one of these institutions. Also, I feel that they provide more support for black students and most will do all they can to ensure those who want to stay and graduate, actually do stay and graduate.
Most of my cousins who went to college in my generation, we have all attended and graduated from HBCUs. We are from Ohio so I have some older cousins who went to Central State, my younger sister went to Wilberforce and we have a pretty big population in this generation who went to AUC schools - Clark Atlanta, Spellman, or Morehouse. I also have a cousin who went to Morris Brown before they got into their issues and had to close down.
The other large population in the family went to Howard University in DC. I have another cousin who went to Hampton.
I have a younger cousin who will be graduating this year from Tuskeegee.
The most important part of the HBCU experience is getting an in depth understanding of what "black culture" is and being firmly rooted in the history of our demographic IMO. They are also where you can just be yourself and learn and not have to deal with being the subject of any/all racial discussions. Also, many of the not as well known HBCUs allow students who did poorly in high school the opportunity to come and get a higher education. That has always been the primary mission of HBCUs - to provide an opportunity to those that mainstream schools will not accept. IMO it is better for a student to attend a 4 year institution either mainstream or an HBCU versus going to a community college that will require them to take a bunch of remedial courses that are not for credit - basically they (community colleges) waste the time of students by requiring them to pay for classes that won't count toward their graduation. At HBCUs you just take regular classes and can go to tutoring/workshops and get caught up while you take a class for credit. You will also get a lot more help than you would at mainstream schools and more chances to do better.
What is odd about him, is that he did not do like Ralph mentioned - not talking to family/disengaging/disappearing, etc. He still communicated with his mother and his sisters and father. FWIW this whole line of my family looks white. My 2nd great grandmother was only 1/4 black and her husband was VERY racially mixed and from an old "tri-racial" Ohio community that conducted the Underground Railroad in a location of SW Ohio. He looked similar to Anatole Broyard.
This great uncle of mine just never came to family functions. I had never seen a picture of him and thought he had died as a child like my great grandmother's other brothers. I knew all her sisters and they all looked like white women, as did my great grandmother. She was probably the most "black" looking due to having more African-esque features but most people thought she was white as well.
.
Jesse Williams has said that part of his impetus came from what he heard as a child from white people who forgot he was in the room.
I suspect that in his times, Anatole Broyard heard much worse--perhaps even plots of violence against other blacks. In order to "pass" in that society, it was necessary for a man to absolutely reject his family and childhood friends, to have nothing to do with them, to never speak to them again, to ignore their existence, to pretend to be an absolutely different person with a totally manufactured past.
From what I discovered about this uncle, he kept in frequent contact with his siblings and parents. He lived in the same city. He visited his parents regularly until his father died (in the 1950s) and he died in the 1970s (their mom died in the 1990s). He met monthly with his sisters for a weekend lunch.
So he didn't absolutely reject his family or friends and he still spoke to them.
He just never mentioned at work or to his children that he was part black. Also he never told his children he was part black. If you saw a pic of him, you absolutely would believe he was a white man, he, of all my great grandmother's siblings, looked the most like their mother, who looked 100% European. He was blond with blue eyes and white skin.
His wife did know he was part black but she also never mentioned it. So he kept a relationship with his core family (parents and siblings) he just didn't have one with his extended family of later generations. We got blacker as the new generations were born lol.
Do you feel that when it comes to self hatred and colorism that there is still a lot of healing that has not happened yet? The dark skin vs light skin still IMO is a problem in the black community today. Do you find that dark skinned black women suffer with this insecurity more than dark skinned black men? Why or why not? How do you about black women who perm their hair? How about those who wear wigs, weaves, and extensions?
More black women are embracing our natural beauty!
To be honest, I don't care if a black woman relaxes her hair or whatever. I'm like "Do you boo", I only take issue whenever a woman who takes the perm route turns her nose up at someone who does not do the same. The documentary "A Girl Like Me" by Kiri Davis. takes a good look w/ the dark skin/light skin issue as well as the natural vs straight hair issue.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
