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Mahoganyanais
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mahoganyanais
Post Number: 556
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 01:01 am: | 
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My oldest daughter attends a pre-K thru 12 private school. They are building a new high school complex across from the main building, and the groundbreaking was a few weeks ago. My daughter (a kindergartener) was asked to take part in the photo-op the day before the actual ground-breaking. She got to wear a hard hat and sit on the Bobcat, along with a few other students from the various lower, middle, and upper schools. Then, at the actual groundbreaking ceremony, my daughter, another child, and a teacher wielded the shovel and broke ground.
Out of the blue tonight, my daughter says, "I think I know why they asked me to do that groundbreaking stuff. Because they needed a black person in picture. I think they said, 'We got a white person, a brown person, and a Chinese girl, now we need a black person.' And so they picked me." Just real matter of fact. Of course, I had been thinking the same thing all along, but how the heck did she know??
My daughter's awareness of race certainly predates these latest events (I have had to explain to her, repeatedly that her very light-skinned grandmother and her adopted sister are NOT white), but it made me wonder: What are some of y'all's earliest memories of race? When did you become aware that blackness wasn't just about skin color?
One of my earliest memories of race is when I was 5 years old, visiting a (black) friend of my grandmother's. This friend looked like a drag queen, which is a whole 'nother story, but she was 100% female. Well, my grandmother and I went to visit her one day, and while we were standing in the foyer, this white man comes walking down the stairs of the house. He came over and greeted me. I turned to my grandmother's friend and asked, "Now, where does he sleep?"
The man was this woman's husband, but in my youthful calculus, these two people did not go together. Uh uh.
Related aside: I recommend the children's book "Shades of Black" for addressing color issues. The refrain is "I am Black. I am unique." And the book is a compilation of beautiful photographs of black children in a variety of skin tones, hair textures, and eye colors, with these traits likened to such things as foods, wool, and precious gems. I read it to my daughter (when she thought Grandma was white), and after a few readings she finally said, "Ohhhh...so black is a rainbow." |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 3283
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 01:41 am: |
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Mah,
You're kid's quite perceptive. My youngest is pretty aware of the color inequities as well.
Interesting question too!
Man. I have A LOT of race-related childhood memories.
While in fourth grade, one of my friends was beaten so severely by our White male teacher he sustained permanent spinal injury.
Apparently news of the incident travelled instantaneously throughout our communinity. Because not long after the beating, a very ANGRY mob of Black people surrounded our school threatening to kill the teacher.
Eventually, the police arrived, arrested the teacher and took him into custody.
And I remember seeing what appeared to be a gleeful look in the teacher's eyes as the police took him away.
It was the kind of look I'd expect a triumphant Klan member might have.
I also remember witnessing groups of teenage brothahs attacking and molesting White/Hispanic couples who enjoyed canoodling in public parks.
I remember being a proud winner of an obstacle course race for 10 year olds where I was the only (of +20) Black contestant.
I remember as a 12 year old having a White cop train a gun on me while saying he wishes I would give him a reason to "blow [my] f@#$ing head off". (I was being 'mistaken' for someone who'd mugged an elderly White woman. The brotha who'd actually done the crime was was more than twice my age...and had a beard.)
I remember strange White men drive along side me and promise to pay to swab my knob (I NEVER let'em. But know a few brothahs who did.)
And I remember my very comely blond gym teacher giggle while allowing me to witness her exchange her a short skirt for even shorter gym shorts. |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 1370
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 04:45 am: |
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But Mahogany, "Shades of Black" is an AMERICAN book...
...and one thing you REALLY need to explain to your children is the "origin" of beliefs...such as the AMERICAN SLAVE PLANTATION one DECREED by the White Slavemaster that black people NATURALLY come in a multitude of colors and that our group is a "rainbow".
Because surely as the world shrinks...your children will come into contact with multitudes of Foreign Blacks who do not share that Plantation Slave view (like me and MOST of the African people I know) and they will not understand the "growing" reluctance by Authentic Black People to remain in colorist Euro-themed social groups whereby the lightest is placed on top and the blackest made invisible under the racist Precept that anything touched by black blood is "Black" in itself.
While Black Americans claim to come in 50 shades---it's only the lightest, slickest-haired that they celebrate. Their sons are downright White Supremacist and the Authentic Black Woman is virtually INVISIBLE, imitated endlessly by "part" black women.
The more I live in this country and am submerged in the self-hatred of Black Americans, the more I find myself resentful and rejecting of Mulatto and Mixed Raced people and begin to long for the Real Black African race before Whiteness defiled us.
I do not think so little of myself that just ANYBODY can be me.
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roXie
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 10:19 am: |
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I remember when I was six trying to contemplate why some blacks were golden-skinned while others were brown or sepia-colored. My 1st cousin's daughter asked me a question concerning the same thought. My cousin is golden-hued while the daughter is darker than me.My grandmother's sister still complains of her "nappy hair" and "dark skin" (although she's not that much darker than my 1st cousin). Thankfully, that mentality has not spread to any other relatives. Aside from my Aunt, color has never played a role in our family and I assume my young cousin's ponder is just observational as mine was.
Besides, My 1st cousin grew up in the projects while I grew in the suburbs, so the rules of that color hierarchy are sometimes broken. Never having had a day where I felt ashamed of my color (though I had one hair issue), reading the other posts here makes me realize how lucky I am.
Like the African culture,the african american cultural way of life different from that of the european american way of life. In that sense, the proud black woman *does* come in all colors. In this nation, it's impossible to escape the reality of interracial blood, but any woman who is proud of her african blood and her african heritage is beatiful whether the african features are visible or not. One cannot be proud of the african blood without being proud of the black african that blood came from.
We need to resist the media's color-propaganda and their puppets (50 cent, P.diddy?)and realize that what makes us African and AA respectivly is the cultural traits that bind us as a cultural family. We need to tell our communities that as an ethnic group we need to create a new beauty standard to counter the "paper-bag" nightmare that continues to divide us. Our women are beautiful, light, brown and blue-black i.e. With broad noses or defined. Krinkled hair or wavy. "Colorism" is an invention of slavery and colonialism and we can teach our children that the s0-called "high yellow" and the "nappy black" are equally beautiful. No one color is more beautiful than the other. We can't change the ways of our grandparents but we *can* change the ways of our grandchildren. |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 1373
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 12:27 pm: |
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The tragic thing, Roxie...is that black people have been making the comment you just made since 1922....and yet it never seems to get practiced.
I've never seen any "Blue Black" women (the Authentic Black Woman) portrayed in any Oscar Micheaux films or cast as the 19 yr. old love interest in any Black American films----EVER--and in order to make your grandkids thinkg that "high yellow" and "nappy black" are equally beautiful.....then you're going to have to FOCUS the camera on the dark nappy blacks for a very long time, to CATCH UP---right?
I still notice Yellow, Peach and light brown women WRINKLE UP THEIR NOSE whenever they see jet black dusty-headed Authentic Black Children on the street.....I still hear them saying, "Boy, that's a BLACK child."
I still see white-looking black woman commenting "Poor thang" when they see a deep chocolate African-haired woman enter a party. And I still see Black American "BOYS" harboring an INTENSE, OPEN prejudice and hostility towards Black women who are authentically black with African hair and African features.
Nettie in Color Purple (made by a WHITE man) is the closest I've seen a very dark woman portrayed as a human being, as beautiful and as belonging to the black community. Cicely Tyson before her as well--but again, WHITE MEN made it possible for Cicely Tyson to be celebrated.
Black people TALK "inclusiveness", but have continually killed our own mother's image---by hair and skin tone---in their quest to become white themselves. Every generation, the Black American becomes less black.....ON PURPOSE.
That's the real fact and I want no part of it.
Additonally, I have not come from/been raised in the White Man's system of color...but I completely understand that you all have and I can understand and ACCEPT your conclusions---because that's your acculturation now.
To me, however, the African standard of blackness and black beauty (the one before colonialism)is the healthiest for BLACK people, and because it was invented by Black People and not White People (white to include Arab)---it's the one I embrace.
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Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 1374
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 12:38 pm: |
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WOMEN WE NEVER GET TO SEE:
WOMEN WE NEVER GET TO SEE |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 3292
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 01:13 pm: |
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Kola,
Can you (PRETTY-PRETTY-PLEASE!!!) re-post that FIRST pic with a view that's about 6 - 12 inches lower?
SSSSSMOKINN'! |
roXie
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 01:32 pm: |
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I understand where you are coming from Ms. Boof . However,being from this society, I care too much about the people to abandon them. I feel I should make a change if not for all of the society, at least a percentage.
--I've never seen any "Blue Black" women (the Authentic Black Woman) portrayed in any Oscar Micheaux films or cast as the 19 yr. old love interest in any Black American films----EVER--and in order to make your grandkids thinkg that "high yellow" and "nappy black" are equally beautiful.....then you're going to have to FOCUS the camera on the dark nappy blacks for a very long time, to CATCH UP---right?
I still notice Yellow, Peach and light brown women WRINKLE UP THEIR NOSE whenever they see jet black dusty-headed Authentic Black Children on the street.....I still hear them saying, "Boy, that's a BLACK child."
I still see white-looking black woman commenting "Poor thang" when they see a deep chocolate African-haired woman enter a party. And I still see Black American "BOYS" harboring an INTENSE, OPEN prejudice and hostility towards Black women who are authentically black with African hair and African features. --
You've got a point there, I see the same thing and can't stand it. It even sickens me to see south and east asians using toxic skin-lightening creams. It's so bad some women in Japan use powder to make their aereolas pink like white womens' @_@ . What do they see in light skin ( or being white in general ) that is so desirable and "god-like"? IMO it's all in their heads thanks. Colonialism has kept them from loving themselves too.
One worry I do have is that if the process goes too far, Generations from now there could the possibility that the hierarchy could reverse putting light skin on the bottom. Notice the recent trends of white women tanning themselves constantly with a spay or a booth? Artificially darkening one's skin is just as harmful as artificially lightening it. I know it sounds like the perfect revenge for 400 years of psychological terror but would you wish such torture on unborn descendants? Some black americans have grown up outside this Not all of the light-skins have that superiority complex--my cousin doesn't, and she loves her two beautiful dark daughters--so why should the innocents suffer for the injustices of others? I just want to bring change at a more neutral level, that's all.
--The tragic thing, Roxie...is that black people have been making the comment you just made since 1922....and yet it never seems to get practiced.--
Some people may not have acted on it but *I* sure will and you can bet on it. This is the first site Ive shared my views and have'nt been called "crazy afrocentrist" and worse. Some people fear the truth. Anyway,I want to write stories and maybe make independant films one day(after a stint as one of National Geographic's few black photographers). And if by then hollywood is still casting Halle Berry, *I* will cast a dark actress *myself!  I'm only 22, I have time!;) |
roXie
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 01:47 pm: |
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Oh yeah, and the pictures posted earlier: Iv'e seen images like a coffe table book we had since I was a little girl (which I guess contibuted to my self-esteem today). Even my old "Afro-bets" books don't show such beautiful images, and they were supposed to uplift my african pride! ^_^ |
Kola
Moderator
Username: Kola
Post Number: 1379
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, June 09, 2005 - 02:14 pm: |
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I love you so much, ROXIE...for being so human....and not just front'n.
tima usrah
You ARE a good daughter!
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