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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 541
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 02:09 pm: | 
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The Color Complex—Light Skin Blacks Can’t Avoid Color Prejudice
Hazel Trice Edney, Louisiana Weekly, Apr. 26
WASHINGTON (NNPA)—Akia Dickson, a student at Howard University, was headed home from work on a Washington, D.C. subway last month when a 25-year-old brown-skin Black man slid into the seat beside her.
“This guy was trying to talk to me. And he was saying, ‘Oh, I bet you have a boyfriend.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he was like, ‘All the pretty light-skinned girls do. All I need in my life is a pretty light-skinned girl,’“ recounts Dickson, 23.
“And I said, ‘Are those your only requirements? You need to look a little deeper than this.’ I was very nice and I explained to him, ‘This just can’t be it.’“
But the interloper was not deterred.
“He said, ‘I try to date brown skin girls and it just doesn’t work out. And I brought one home one time and my grandfather said I’d better not do that again.’“
Dickson was dumbfounded.
“I was like, ‘Are you serious? They still make you?’“
Yes, even in 2004, African Americans still have a color complex, explains Julia Hare, a psychologist and executive director of the Black Think Tank in San Francisco.
“It’s alive and thriving,” says Hare. “Black men, when they went to professional schools like Meharry or Howard, the thing that assured that they would be successful to themselves was a Cadillac and a light-skinned woman on his arm. She was an ornament on his arm. It was to be sure that his children would be socially acceptable and that his children would not look like him, to suffer the same punishment that his dark-skinned sisters and his mother suffered.”
That suffering has its roots in slavery, when the white slave master showed preference to light-skin slaves, giving them jobs as “House Negroes” while their dark skin counterparts labored in the fields. And more often than many people would like to admit, slave owners and their sons would take sexual liberties with defenseless black women, producing near-white offsprings that were neither acknowledged nor accepted by the slave owner’s family.
“You would have thought that this thing would have ended after the so-called free movement and slavery supposedly was over,” Hare explains. “But black people have taken on the same patterns as the slave master. Wherever you go, I don’t care if it’s in the church, I don’t care if it’s in the bar, I don’t care if it’s in the corporate rooms, I don’t care if it’s on a cruise, color still comes up among black people.”
Dickson a Chicago native with natural blond hair and gray eyes argues that being light-skin does not make her immune from insults.
“In Chicago, they’d say stuff like ‘light skinned,’ ‘blondie,’ ‘goldie locks’ and all that stuff. They think it’s like a compliment almost. But it’s not a compliment. It does not flatter me at all. I think it’s so ignorant.”
And some members of the unofficial color club bring some things on themselves, according to Dickson.
“I know girls who’ve tried to be my friend because we’re all light-skin. And I’m like, ‘I don’t vibe with you like that. I don’t get along with you like that, so that’s not going to be our sole connecting factor.’ I have friends who are like every shade of the rainbow and we vibe off of personality and who we are.”
Dickson says her complexion has sometimes caused her to alter her personality.
“I would kind of play myself down and be nicer or friendlier or more outgoing than I already was,” she explains. “So, it kind of compromised my self-confidence because I was kind of feeling like there was something wrong with me and I had to change it in order to be liked by my peers. I guess that was my thing, my little problem.”
The problem is no easier for people who identify themselves as bi-racial.
According to the 2000 Census, there were 36.4 million black or African people in the U.S. who said they were mixed with another race (13 percent of the total U.S. population of 281.5 million). Marriages between blacks and whites, contrary to popular opinion, totaled only 784,764, less than 1 percent.
Tiffany Reynolds, 21, born to an African-American mother who reared her and a White father whom she has never met, knows how it feels to be judged for something over which she has no control.
“Some people question my identity with black. They’ll say, ‘Oh, you’re not really black. You’re this, that or the other.’ But, me, I’m black. If they question how black I am, I just wonder if they’re comfortable with themselves.”
Regina Romero, a Washington, D.C. psychologist, says the black community has a responsibility to end these kinds of superficial pre-judgments and hostility.
“It is painful and it is ugly,” she explains. “I don’t think we do enough to protect, in particular, our girls, but also our boys from that kind of hostile assault. And the truth of the matter is that it hurts more when it comes from your own.”
Romero, who is light skin and has green eyes, recalls her college experience at Howard University, arriving from the Germantown section of Philadelphia in the early 1970s. She said she was reluctant to tell fellow students that she was from West Mount Airy—a section of Germantown known for its light-skin, middle class population—for fear of being stereotyped. And even today, she is aware that some people try to judge her by her outward appearance.
“I don’t want to be known for green eyes. I’d like to be known for having some brains or for having something to contribute to the universe or something else,” she says. “I don’t want ‘green eyes’ on my tombstone.”
To get away from that color fixation, many argue that the issue must be dealt with at an early age.
“From what I see in movies, they don’t show many dark people,” says Candice Holland, 13, a brown-skin, middle school cheerleader in Washington, D.C. “They show, like, light brown and they show just creamy, buttery looking people.”
By discussing the problem openly, there is hope, says Romero, the psychologist.
“This thing isn’t going away. You know, ‘Black is beautiful’ came and went in the 60s and it was great, but I think it by-passed a lot of folks. Or, what actually happened, I think, was that people got the phrase in their heads, but didn’t necessarily get it in their hearts,” Romero says. “I think we’ve got to be honest with each other and say this is one situation that we might not have created it, but we’ve certainly got to fix it and figure out how to embrace all of us.”
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http://www.amren.com/news/news04/04/29/colorcomplex.html
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Libralind2
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Libralind2
Post Number: 313
Registered: 09-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 03:26 pm: |
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"Romero, who is light skin and has green eyes, recalls her college experience at Howard University, arriving from the Germantown section of Philadelphia in the early 1970s. She said she was reluctant to tell fellow students that she was from West Mount Airy—a section of Germantown known for its light-skin, middle class population—for fear of being stereotyped. And even today, she is aware that some people try to judge her by her outward appearance.
“I don’t want to be known for green eyes. I’d like to be known for having some brains or for having something to contribute to the universe or something else,” she says. “I don’t want ‘green eyes’ on my tombstone.”
To get away from that color fixation, many argue that the issue must be dealt with at an early age.
“From what I see in movies, they don’t show many dark people,” says Candice Holland, 13, a brown-skin, middle school cheerleader in Washington, D.C. “They show, like, light brown and they show just creamy, buttery looking people.”
By discussing the problem openly, there is hope, says Romero, the psychologist."
Hmmmmm..is that right. I suggest this board has discussed this topic openly and folks are still split on "color".
LiLi
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3422
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 03:28 pm: |
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When I read stories like this I always want to ask the writer if she could, would she trade her light skin for dark skin. I also wonder if such people subconsciously think they are doing dark-skinned folks a favor by "adopting" them, and I get a little amused by the implication they they want a pat on the back for doing what any person of integrity would do. The only way the problem of colorism will abate is if each individual makes a personal committment to judge everyone "not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." (Belated birthday greetings to you, MLK.)You can't just tell people they have to stay within their color bracket because - it's their duty to do so. Everyone has to focus on cultivating a personal appeal that transcends skin color. There are millions who are not hampered or helped by their skin color and that's because they have other assets going for them. IMO. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 416
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 03:44 pm: |
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“In Chicago, they’d say stuff like ‘light skinned,’ ‘blondie,’ ‘goldie locks’ and all that stuff. They think it’s like a compliment almost. But it’s not a compliment. It does not flatter me at all. I think it’s so ignorant.”
I definitely can understand that. The reason (IMO) so many people lie and say they're bi-racial when they aren't is because they find it a COMPLIMENT when they're called a half-white person. I do find it interesting, though, that she has blonde hair. If it's natural, OK, but if she bleached her hair, she has issues herself.
I personally don't feel that I'm doing dark skinned people a favor by "adopting" them. How can I adopt a family that's already mine? What's the alternative? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3423
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 03:55 pm: |
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The alternative, Renata, is to treat dark people like distant relatives, which I'm told is what some light-skinned people do. And, if the shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it - which means, of course, that no denial on your part is necesssary - maybe. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 418
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:03 pm: |
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Anyone willing to treat CLOSE relatives like distant relatives isn't really someone I'd want to consider my family, anyways. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3425
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:11 pm: |
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And your point is? |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 419
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:16 pm: |
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My point is just what I said:
Anyone willing to treat CLOSE relatives like distant relatives isn't really someone I'd want to consider my family.
I don't know how I can make that any clearer. I meant exactly what I said. Misconstrue it any way you wish. |
Mrs_hart
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Mrs_hart
Post Number: 96
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:17 pm: |
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She has none. She is fat, black and ugly. She is RESENTFUL because no one wants her and, therefore, she has only KNOWN her own hand sexually.
"I'm black, I'm black! Help me JAYSUS!"
Look at us NOW, MLK. A lot Still stupid and still chained. Whats worse is that they have chosen a BACKWARD and LOWLY scum of Africa to come and re-chain them again. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 420
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:33 pm: |
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What a schizoid. Before you start telling what you know of other people (nothing), it may help you to do a little research first. I'm married, GORGEOUS, and not even Christian. And the ONLY thing I dislike about being black is having to be lumped into the same group with YOU. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1374
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:42 pm: |
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And he was saying, ‘Oh, I bet you have a boyfriend.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ And he was like, ‘All the pretty light-skinned girls do. All I need in my life is a pretty light-skinned girl,’“ recounts Dickson, 23. “And I said, ‘Are those your only requirements? You need to look a little deeper than this.’ I was very nice and I explained to him, ‘This just can’t be it.’“
See, this is what I'm talking about. I know that most of everyone's beauty is on the inside. But why does he (or she) have to "look deeper" when it comes to dark girls...? I'm sure she meant well. But, despite the fact that she on the one hand was saying that there's more to life than light-skin (which is good), the words "look deeper" strongly implies that she herself can't find beauty on the surface of a dark girl; and as a result, whether she wanted to or not, she reinforced his ignorance/beliefs by choosing to respond that way. They both CLEARLY need to be educated.. but the thing that light-skinned women have got to grasp is, if we're in this together, light women and dark, there's a role that each party must play: Light-skinned women need to sit back, listen, and if necessary take notes, while dark-skinned women openly and candidly speak - period. Because it's obvious that (a) dark-skinned women are the only ones who truly understand that which concerns them; and (b) there is a lot that the rest of us ought to learn.
Tonya
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Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 421
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:47 pm: |
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I read that differently, Tonya. When she said, "Are those your only requirements? You need to look a little deeper than this," I read it as her saying he needs to look deeper than HER skin color, since his only requirement was just that.
She then went on to say "This (her skin color)just can't be it."
MHO |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3426
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 04:59 pm: |
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You were the one who didn't feel the need to adopt people who are already in your family, Renata. Who asked you to consider people as your family if they treated close relatives like distant relatives. Non sequitor, babe. LOL
And, Mrs. Hart, Renata describes herself as petite and light-skinned with a huge Afro. We have to take her word that she is gorgeous. and And I guess the reason she considers herself "lumped with you" is because her looks disqualify her from being "authentic" as defined by kola & co. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 422
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:07 pm: |
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No. Who I hate being lumped with is people who consider people from Africa scum, and who has the nerve to call me all kinds of names without knowing even one thing about me.
But as I said before, MISCRONSTRUE what I say as you wish. |
Schakspir
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 121
Registered: 12-2005
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:24 pm: |
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And he was saying, �Oh, I bet you have a boyfriend.� And I was like, �Yeah.� And he was like, �All the pretty light-skinned girls do. All I need in my life is a pretty light-skinned girl,�� recounts Dickson, 23. �And I said, �Are those your only requirements? You need to look a little deeper than this.� I was very nice and I explained to him, �This just can�t be it.��
--The man is a ignorant fag, like so many confused and foolish young black men raised by their mommies. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1375
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:25 pm: |
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Renata,
she said "Are 'THOSE' your only requirements?" The word "Those" is plural -- it means/implies more than one thing.. more than just light skin. Also, when people say "look deeper" they usually mean - look pass the surface to find either beauty or a greater beauty. Remember the phrase "beauty is only skin deep?" Meaning, if the skin is flawed look pass the skin to find a greater beauty. Or, even if the skin is flawless, you may find that what's underneath is unapealing. Well, I have a feeling that the female in the article meant the former.
Cynnique:
I also wonder if such people subconsciously think they are doing dark-skinned folks a favor by "adopting" them, and I get a little amused by the implication they they want a pat on the back for doing what any person of integrity would do.
Tonya:
I don't understand how she was "adopting" or doing dark-skinned people a favor. She was MAINLY talking about colorism as it pertains to light-skinned women, not dark. She hardly mentioned the plight of dark-skinned women/people. |
Serenasailor
Veteran Poster
Username: Serenasailor
Post Number: 52
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:45 pm: |
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I try to stay away from subjects like this because I came from a high yellow like skinned father and my mother is a chocolate woman so I am trapped in the middle. However we were never taught to see color in my house. Some blacks have an issue with skin color. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1376
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:53 pm: |
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And remember, Renata, the "those" they were talking about were light-skin & beauty (pretty):
This guy was trying to talk to me.....And he was sayins, ‘Oh, I bet you have a boyfriend.’. . . ‘All the pretty light-skinned girls do.*ALL I NEED in my life is a PRETTY LIGHT-SKINNED GIRL*.....And I said, ‘Are those your only requirements? |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1377
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 05:58 pm: |
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Serenasailor, I hear ya. But it is a subject that needs to be discussed.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3427
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 08:00 pm: |
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Tonya says:
"I don't understand how she was "adopting" or doing dark-skinned people a favor. She was MAINLY talking about colorism as it pertains to light-skinned women, not dark. She hardly mentioned the plight of dark-skinned women/people."
Cynique responds:
She was empathizing with those who are affected by colorism, and since she actually benefits from colorism, it all sounded a little condescending to me. Such an attitude is not uncommon but it is not malicious so - whatever. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1382
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 09:04 pm: |
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Cynnique if you get a chance, I'd like you to watch a documentory called "A Question Of Color" produced/directed by Kathe Sandler. In it, Sandler does a spectacular job explaining colorism from all angles and points of view. Also, she (Sandler) is a white looking woman who indentifies herself as black, yet I found her to be completely sincere in her deep concern about colorism in regards to all black women, but especially the dark ones. As well, I have light female friends and family members who exhibit the same kind of sincerity. Not all of my light-skinned family members are thrilled about the subject, actually most aren't, but I know the ones who are are being honest about their feelings. As for my girlfriends, even the ones who aren't all that enthusiastic are giving the thumbs up. Don't get me wrong, I know that there are some light-skinned women who won't have anything to do with addressing colorism cuz, like you said, it benefits them. Then there are those who pay lip service when they don't really meant it; most are this way, in fact. But I truly believe that there's a tiny percentage of them who are terribly concerned and are sincere.
Tonya |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1383
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 09:09 pm: |
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OOps! I meant to say "mean it." |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3432
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - 11:01 pm: |
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I don't know how people think I can have been around for as long as I have, and be totally isolated from the dynamics of colorism. I have never denied that it exists and have seen it in action all of my life beginning with kindergarten through a couple of years of college on through to the workplace. I have observed people rise above it and I have watched others adjust to it. I have even seen a few become incapacitated by it. I, myself, am not color-conscious and there are people of all shades in my extended family. And it's not like my skin tone has made me a consistent winner. The color caste system in the black community is deeply entrenched and very complicated, and it will take total dedication to exorcise this demon. But the fact remains that I had no say in how I came to be the color I am and the idea that I have to do penance for being light-skinned is not an option I choose because I am not a martyr. I realize that no woman is "an island entire unto herself, and that I should not ask for whom the bell tolls, because it tolls for me". But when the chime of the bell is synonymous with taking its toll on my legitimacy, then I am not willing to make this sacrifice. I understand that it would be ideal if all black women would come together because not until the least of us is free will any of us be free, and that colorism like racism diminishes the victimizers as much as the victims. This all sounds grand but movements have a history of becoming disorganized and fragmented by dissent and power struggles. So forge ahead with your ferverent quest to re-invent blackness, Tonya. But I will not be recruited into action because I am not a cause embracer or do I have a lot of faith in the chances of successfully reforming human nature. I will simply do what I have alway done and have taught my children to do in their interaction with others: not let color interefere with how you judge a person. |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1386
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 03:42 am: |
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I will simply do what I have alway done and have taught my children to do in their interaction with others: not let color interefere with how you judge a person.
Sounds good to me.
Btw, I wasn't trying to recruit you. I was just trying to explain that, to me, some women seem very sincere, sorta like your last post. Thanks.
Tonya |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 1251
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 03:53 am: |
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But of course that's all bullshit and hogwash Cynique posted.
She wasn't sincere.
And you KNOW it.
The woman's a 70 years plus old Red Bone, who has defended colorism, made jokes for the last 4 years about gleefully benefitting from it and has said outright that it would be best....if we all mixed until we were no longer black.
In fact, she's stated that more than 5 times in the last 2 years alone.
Shame "Bayou" isn't here (remember Bayou Miss Cynique?)...or she'd be showing a little more of her WHITE LIGHTNING.
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3433
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 09:54 am: |
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Poor kola. You are so deceptive and slippery yourself, that you wouldn't recognize honesty if it fell on your head. I don't have to fake sincerity because what I said about myself was true. I acknowledged the existence of colorism, but declined to be an active participant in the crusade against it, opting instead to follow a personal credo of judging people by who they are, not how they look and this includes mixed or light people. When loose cannons like you attack me, I have responded in kind, and made jokes because I refuse to be put on the defense about my color. My post sent you into a tailspin because unless you have me to make incorrect presumptions about, your whole game is blown. You've never met me and know nothing about my private life yet this hasn't prevented you from tailoring me to fit an image that you have conjured up in your mind. But, then, you whole world is an image that you have conjured up in your devious mind. While trolling the archives, I defy you to find any negative color reference I have made that was not in response to an insult hurled at me. I fight fire with fire. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 425
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 10:15 am: |
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Well, I personally can't speak of what you may have said to Kola, but I know you've told me since I was here that you feel we shouldn't acknowledge African blood, as it was so long ago, African gave us up, and we don't have African culture, but in the SAME thread you said that you think we should acknowledge our white and indian blood. That says a lot. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3435
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 10:43 am: |
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I never told you that we shouldn't acknowledge our African blood. This is not something we have a choice in. Culture-wise, I am not Afro-Centric because we've been here 400 years and are mixed with other races and our tenure in this country is the authetic source of our roots. This has nothing to do with colorism. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 426
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 10:55 am: |
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Give me some time. I'll find it before tomorrow. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3436
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 11:12 am: |
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Take all the time you want. You put your own spin on my words and that says a lot about your objectivity. Moreover, you are also mixing apples with oranges. Not being Afro-centric does not mean that one is a colorist. I acknowledged that colorism exists and I don't make any excuses for the fact that the only way I combat it is to not practice it in my own personal dealings. Stop clouding the issue. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 427
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 11:49 am: |
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That didn't take long at all.
From the thread "white kids love hip-hop"
I'll admit that perhaps my perception is different than what you meant.
What you actually said (or how I perceived it) is that Africans and Black Americans are separate and should only care about preserving themselves, and that Africa doesn't care enough about us for us to help in preserving their representation on this continent. However, in the same thread, you say that we should preserve our representation as having white and Indian blood.
Below are your exact words, a few responses apart, but intact. I didn't change any of it, and also included my own argument. (I would have bolded or underlined portions of it, but I don't know how).
---------------------
Cynique responds:
Why is it the responsibility of slave descendants in America to preserve the color of blackness?? Especially since very few of them are pure African. Why can't the obligation to maintain black skin be entrusted to the blacks who populate Africa? Why can't people of color who have lived in America for 400 years be in charge of their own destiny, and exercise the options that are in their own best interest? After all, Africa has done very little to inspire the loyalty of their American step-children.
Cynique responds:
What you are really saying is that you have deemed that black Americans should remain strangers in a strange land. That they should ignore everything else that makes them who they are, their history, their experiences, their appearance, their language, their white and Indiana blood lines their customs and culture, everything except their black skin. Why? Because that's the way you want it. I repeat it is not the mandatory responsibility of slave descendants to perpetuate black skin. It's really the duty of Africans to do this. A perspon is who they are. If they become mixed.Then that is who they are.
Renata:
Cynnique, regardless of what anyone wants, that's the way it is. It's not OUR job to perpetuate black skin? Then who's skin color SHOULD we perpetuate?
Ignore everything that makes us who we are? Our history? (black people) Our experiences? (black experiences) Our appearance? (hello) Their white and indian blood lines? (Mostly conjecture, but the black blood line is undeniable) Their customs and culture? (which is also black)
It's odd to me that black Americans are against accepting Africans as kin due to their mistreatment and rejection of us, but are too willing to accept white people as kin who (did what?).
---It'll take a while for response. My baby and I are going out for the day. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3437
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 12:34 pm: |
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Nothing in any of these posts contradicts what I said in my original post about colorism.I stand by everything you presented here. And I did NOT say that we should not acknowledge our African blood, only that I did not see it as our responsibility to perpetuate it. Why is it so HARD for you to understand that colorism is about discrimimating against people because of their color. It has nothing to do with embracing Africa???? You cannot seem to make this distinction. I guess your wild Afro is preventing this idea from getting through to your brain. You and your coach Kola can research all you what. What you think about what I say and have said is not important to me because I am not seeking your approval. Get it? |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 428
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 12:48 pm: |
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Discriminating against people because of their color? It's AFRICA that gives us that color, and to reject Africa is to reject what it's given to us, speficically, what you see in the mirror. The BIGGEST contribution we black americans have from Africa is our color, so being colorist and rejecting Africa are almost synonymous. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3438
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 01:17 pm: |
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Well, Africa is not the only source of our color, and you of all people should know this. And colorism per se is not about a continent it's about skin tone as evidence by the fact that light-skinned people can be discriminated against by dark-skinned people. I thought you went out to eat. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 1254
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 01:58 pm: |
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On top of all that, Renata,
are Cynique's comments about the lead character ...Emma Lou...in the book "The Blacker the Berry" (Wallace Thurman, 1923).
That was the first day, years ago, that I started fighting with Cynique on this issue---as Cynique basically wrote a post saying how it was Emma Lou's fault that she was experiencing the things she was...and basically making it clear that she didn't appreciate the book and didn't sympathize with Emma Lou.
Some days later, Cynique pointed to the book "Cane River" (or was it "The Wind Done Gone" Cynique?) to say that "dark skinned slave mothers" didn't love their children as much as the mulattoes loved theirs.
And in the book that Cynique wrote herself--subtitled "Story of a Black Family"----the only portrayal in the entire book of a full black woman is a very stereotypical, unkempt, unattractive, slattern of a dark girl.....and the only women in this so called black family are described as light complexioned with "patrician features" and Indian blood.
Typical Red Bone ideations of what it takes for "black" to be "pretty".
And..."ALL BLACK"...originates from the continent of Africa.
And "Black Americans" owe much more than just their color to Africa. Your rythm, soul, faces, body types; the "intonation" in your voices---EVERYTHING about you----is clearly and undeniably drawn from Africans, because....that is your mother and father.
While Black Americans try to claim that they're "mixed" and are uniquely OTHER...it's quite clear that for every white or Indian ancestor they had...there were 10 African ones.
The Black Americans, in fact....are Africans.
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Schakspir
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 126
Registered: 12-2005
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 02:24 pm: |
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This is getting boring.
People are leaving this whole forum, and for good reason.
It's because they are sick and tired of hearing this Medusa clone endlessly whining about her color and about "niggerstock" and about "Arabs" and this and that--as if there aren't any other things to talk about?
What about music? Painting? World politics? Why always the same boring navel-gazing horseshit?
Oh, yeah, I forgot--Kola Boof is on this board. My bad. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3439
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 02:30 pm: |
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As usual, kola, you are trying make an argument by misrepresenting me. Not surprising since you are a pathological liar. I guess your shrink never cured you of this affliction. I've never even read "The Wind Done Gone" or "Cane River." And you can't document what you claim I said about Emmy Lou in the "Blacker the Berry." I, too, have a good memory and over the years I have observed your deceitful machinations and, hands down, your are the biggest perpetrator on this board. I really feel no need to defend or justify myself to you in any way. Anybody with any perception knows you're coo-coo. And ugly. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3440
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 02:50 pm: |
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I'm with you, Schakespir. Here goes. I indulged in my favorite guilty pleasure last night and watched American Idol. Guess what? I found it tedious and boring. yawnn. Anybody watching Master P shuffling around the floor as a contestant on the Dancing with the Stars program? He's a disgrace to the race! LOL I never saw such a bad dancer! He does keep time to the music, though. I was looking over an old manuscript of mine and I noticed that in my effort to be clever, I had my characters saying these really witty things that the average person would never say. Anybody else have this problem? I hear this was a major complaint against playwright Neil Simon. His characters were all stand-up comedians. Oh well. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 1256
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 3 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 03:13 pm: |
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Actually, Schakspir---
the ratings for these boards have DOUBLED since last April.
I'm not the one posting Kola Boof Topics---that's you, Samater and Mrs. Hart.
You can be sure that Troy Johnson would commandeer his board, if it wasn't pulling visitors.
And I was given my own board, because of my popularity on these boards---many people of YOUR TYPE love to "hate" what I say while at work or when bored; it's like a t.v. soap opera---have you ever noticed that it's the "villainous" that everyone tunes in to see?
And then others, feel that I say what they wanted to say...more articulately than they could have said it.
And then sometimes I'm like Norman Mailer--I really cuss and let loose.
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Roxie
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Roxie
Post Number: 548
Registered: 06-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 4 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 04:21 pm: |
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---And then others, feel that I say what they wanted to say...more articulately than they could have said it.----
And that's why we love you. 
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Schakspir
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Schakspir
Post Number: 127
Registered: 12-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 04:43 pm: |
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"have you ever noticed that it's the "villainous" that everyone tunes in to see?"
Yes--that's why there are so many viewers. But participants are noticeably decreasing. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 429
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 06:26 pm: |
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Regardless of how light I am, I'm certainly DARKER than white people and can't pass for white.
And Kola, you're exactly right, for all of my "mixed" blood, they were still black, at least as far back as my great grandparents. So having one non-mixed ancestor before 1904 (when the oldest was born) hardly makes me "mixed". |
Tonya
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Tonya
Post Number: 1396
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 07:32 pm: |
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("...participants are noticeably decreasing.")
To me it contantly recycles. When one goes (and they never really do actually, not permanently) two or three take his/her place. Then there are the ones who come and go briefly, but that's normal -- they usually only come to ask questions or to stir things up. I'm assuming, though, that most people are lurkers, like I used to be. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 1267
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 07:34 pm: |
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According to TROY...the board's been HOPPING with traffic.
I told him what's been going on in the CULTURE room, but he didnt' care.
Maybe you should make recommendations, Schakspir (or complaints) directly to the board's owner---
troy@aalbc.com
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3445
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 07:38 pm: |
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Your mixed relatives just perpetuated themselves over the generations Renata. Poor lil Rennie. You continue to be in denial.LOL. Most mixed or light-skinned people can't pass for white. I can't. I don't have straight hair or sharp features. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 437
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 07:58 pm: |
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Go and be as mixed (or mixed up) as you wish. The rest of us are just fine being black. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3447
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 18, 2006 - 09:39 pm: |
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I dunno whatchoo talkin bout - and you don't either, Rennie. Mixed folks are as black as they wanna be, - as you can testify to. LMAO. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 444
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 10:20 am: |
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Mixed and black are not the same, or there wouldn't be the distinction with the names. There are real mixed people (Halle Berry, Mowry twins, etc.), and then there are "mixed" people like you who simply find it a step up from being black and use it as a tool to separate themselves from Africa. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3454
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 01:20 pm: |
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Oh puleeze, Renata. You're ridiculous. What do you think makes people mixed? A combination of BLACK and white. All light-skinned people have a history of mixed blood in their ancestry. As I have said on numerous occasions, nobody would've known I was light-skinned if Kola hadn't "outed" me. My color ain't no big thing to me. Nothing I can do about it. You, on the other hand, had to let us know that you were light skinned. But, good little girl that you are, you sported an Afro and longed to go to Africa. Good for you. Believe me I don't need any tool to separate myself from Africa; geography and centuries have done that. Unlike you, I keep Africa in perspective. I don't have to use it as a gimmick to impress people. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 447
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 04:15 pm: |
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No, you tell people you're "mixed" and hope that impresses people.
And I told what I did to point out that there are many people with TWO black parents, who go around telling people that they're mixed and NOT BLACK just to get more "in" with the non-blacks.
The reason light skinned people HATE me is because I point out the truth that they're blacker than they wish to admit. Too many people are trying to be "mixed", NOT black, just because of conjecture that they have perhaps ONE white person in their lineage long ago that they don't even know about. They look around at all of the OBVIOUSLY black people they do know in their family and lineage, and deny that they're just like them. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3458
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 04:57 pm: |
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As long as we can't agree that mixed and light-skinned are interchangeable this is an exercise in futility. And you flatter yourself into thinking that you have that big affect on light people. I don't hate you, I just find it funny that you've tried to reinvent yourself. I have never denied that you have a black mind-set. But biologically you are mixed whether you can deal with that or not. Now go look in the mirror and say, Cynique, you're right. LOL I'm done. |
Renata
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Renata
Post Number: 448
Registered: 08-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 06:27 pm: |
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I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.
I'm sorry about implying that YOU hate me, because I didn't mean you in particular, but other people I've met. There are people who pitch a FIT if I don't "admit" that I have one white parent, and then have the get angry at me when I tell them I don't. They think I'm lying.
Anyways, it's nice that you think you know so much about me to know of some reinvention of myself that I'm unaware of. My family has always been into Africa, which is cool, because I never heard about Africa at school, only at home. I even have one cousin (in a small southern town) hoping to get some NOI members to move there and "shame" the black men there into getting jobs. And he's not even Muslim, but he agrees with a lot of their ideas.
Well, agree to disagree. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 3461
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2006 - 06:45 pm: |
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Aight. We cool. |
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