recently, i read a fantastic blog post called “the huey newton complex” over at the Crunk Feminist Collective blog. The post asserts that light skin black women (and we can gon’ ahead and extrapolate to other women of color) gain some privilege just by virtue of being born with lighter skin than our browner and blacker skinned sisteren. it even includes a great light skinned privilege checklist. I commented on the blog—I was compelled to. as an afro-latina woman, who couldn’t pass for anything except colored, sure can’t pass a paper bag test mid-august, but always questioned about my racial/ethnic background [as if being mixed/or perceived as mixed is better/complimentary/cuter], i read through some of the comments by light skinned women, and it was almost like reading a white feminist blog’s discussion of racism in the white feminist community. I’ve had really meaningful conversations with women of color, through work with INCITE [women of color against violence] and other WOC collectives, where we have been able to both, acknowledge our collective oppression, while holding our separate experiences, and sometimes privileges that come with looking whiter or whitish or down right white. so, I was surprised when i found many of the light skinned, black identified women defensive, and many were unwilling to own their privilege, instead pointing to the ways that they have been ousted from black female friendships and other kinships based on assumptions about them, ie. “those dark girls hate me and I don’t know why.”
i really appreciated the post- appreciated the bravery it takes to air our dirty laundry, and discuss our own internalized oppression. i think, that especially as black african diasporic women, our herstories have been so defined by color- this is certainly true for puerto ricans, and u.s. americans. we were jezebels or mammies. and i don’t know that it is useful to try and decide which is worse. being seen as angry the angry black woman (almost always attributed to darker skinned black woman), or (subservient, a sexual) mammy, or being seen as exotic (sexy, jezebel), or “uppity.” they both stem from white supremacist views that we did not create about our bodies (slavery, colonization), yet we are recycling these constantly with each other, and often with our children. but i think that being able to acknowledge the privilege that comes with being lighter skinned or racially ambiguous or being perceived as “mixed,” whatever that means for us, does come with some social capital from the people in power. white folks.
This anticipated partisan behavior as a result of skin tone dates back to the chattel system of slavery in America, where skin color was used by slave owners as the basis of their division for work chores (Hunter, 2002). Slaves who worked in the fields and had the more physically demanding tasks were disproportionately of pure African ancestry and, therefore, dark-skinned; whereas, the lighter skinned slaves (who had lighter skin because of their mixed parentage, as it was common for slave masters to have nonconsensual and consensual sexual relationships with their slaves) were usually given more desirable and prestigious positions within the chattel system (Keith & Herring, 1991). These divisions not only created animosity between the slaves, but also substantiated the notion that the lighter one’s complexion, “the better off he or she was in the eyes of the majority group members” (Ross, 1997, p. 555).
that does not mean our stories as little mixed and of color girls (or being perceived as mixed) were not hard. that does not mean that people were not cruel. That certainly does not mean that we don’t all experience racism as people of color, we do.
Perhaps lighter skinned Blacks have substantially higher incomes and attain greater education, because the U.S. is structured in such a way that attainment of schooling and competitively paying jobs is not as difficult a feat for them as it is for darker skinned Blacks. These results, however, are not intended to make the claim that light-skinned Blacks do not experience discrimination in the workplace or in society in general, for that matter. The results do, on the other hand, support the notion that the severity of the discrimination experienced may very well be dependent on whether this individual is a light- or dark-skinned Black.
but i think the difference is [and a point I think many of the lighter skinned women were missing on the blog] that when those darker skinned, shorter haired black girls who put gum in my black girl hair during nap time, it wasn’t about me. isn’t that always the case? folks in privilege trying to make it about them? it’s not about my hair. don’t get me wrong, i went home crying. i was furious, and had to cut some of my hair. but guess what? it grew back. it was hair. but i don’t know if our pain ever recovered. our stories are so filled with pains. my pain of wanting to be accepted, by the people i desperately needed as cohorts in a racist classroom, school, and world, and i imagine, their pain, of never being seen as “as pretty as” or “as smart as” me- even though I was being tokenized, and experiencing painful racism myself. They were feeling all of these things, whether i wanted them to experience them or not. but that’s the nature of privilege. i sure wish it wasn’t their experience, but it was, and i own that. i knew that their putting gum in my hair was not about their personal hatred for me. it was about their hearts being fed up and filled with hurt, at a system that constantly reinforces my type of beauty over theirs. even at a such a young age. we’ve all seen the doll tests, and color chart tests, where little black girls choose white dolls to have all of the positive attributes [smart, pretty, kind] and the black dolls have all of the negative ones [dumb, mean, ugly]. i think we should be acknowledging and holding that pain and desperation. these are ten year old girls, who have already gotten the message that lighter skinned girls are a threat, because they are perceived as better than you. these are ten year old girls who have already gotten these messages from somewhere.
we can see over and over again, the way that light skinned black folks are given social leverage in a way that darker skinned black folks- especially women- don’t usually have access to- and always have. whether that’s jobs, media (from the news to pop culture. remember diddy’s CIROC debacle? better yet, watch a movie, and see how often black men are paired with a woman lighter than him– almost always), education—we can’t deny the ways that class and color intersect. just look at images from Hurricane Katrina. look at the movie “Precious.” when you think about the black folks who were first allowed access to education, access to integration, and the legacy of Fisk and Howard University, i would urge us to really consider the way light skin has been synonymous with upper education. and even now, we see through studies of job discrimination of black folks, that lighter is still better.
They found that lighter skinned Blacks were more likely to have completed more years of schooling, to have higher salaries, and to have more prominent jobs than darker skinned Blacks. Perhaps the most compelling discovery of the study was that they found that the effect of skin color on educational attainment and socioeconomic status between light- and dark-skinned Blacks is equivalent to the effect of race between Whites and all Blacks on these two domains. These results, in addition to studies juxtaposing socioeconomic attainment between mulattoes and Blacks, clearly signify the importance of colorism, and further illustrate the prominence of color-based stratification in American society (Hill, 2000).
this does not come without challenges to light skinned folks. often having to bridge, to be extra in their [our] blackness for fear of being white-washed, or renouncing or denying our roots- being tokenized and exoticized. i don’t think anyway could dismiss it as easy for light skinned folks of color- especially when you combine things like gender/sexual identity/ability/class. but i think the point is that white folks will automatically give you an edge because they just “feel safer with you.” privilege of being light skinned is not something you can give back, it’s not personal, it’s systemic. what we can do is not reinforce society’s standards of beauty. much in the same way, that i as a queer but almost always “read as straight by straight people” person receive some privileges just for being cisgendered and “mostly looking straight.” it would be unfair of me to dismiss that my butch sisteren have different (and sometimes that means harder) life experiences. sometimes darker skinned black girls feel the brunt of racism different. many times harder. period. and- i don’t think our intra-racial struggles could be understood without looking at the ways white supremacy has created hierarchies “field vs house,” and designed society with these constructs, after all, internalized oppression is real.
what do you think- light skinned privilege- real talk?
Thanks Alicia, your commentary is so insightful. I appreciate you talking so honestly about privilege and its impact. Totally been having some realizations about my privileges as an able-bodied person and the impact it has when I don’t do my work. Such an important discussion!
yes. thank you for writing the post that sparked this conversation. i’m excited to have more conversations about our privilege as able-bodied folks- and critically thinking about ways to be better allies. so much work still left to do.
I’m light-bright and am all about using my disgusting privilege to gain whatever victories I can for my – and other oppressed – people. If white folks insist on tokenizing me, then I plan to use the weakness of their racially-addled brains to get what’s mine and ours.
I use a similar strategy to live as a woman. So far this double-agent sort of plan is working out quite well. So far……..
“but i think the point is that white folks will automatically give you an edge because they just “feel safer with you.” privilege of being light skinned is not something you can give back, it’s not personal, it’s systemic.”
right!
i agree that we should recognize and own the complexity of our experiences with privilege and oppression when it comes to hue or any other part of our identity. these experiences are not personal issues to dismiss or rate below or above others’ identity. this is not constructive at all!
and i like that you point out that rejecting racist beauty standards is one necessary step towards deconstructing colorism. i think its important to think about where we go from here… to me your blog post says a few things,
we recognize the complexity and accept it.
we understand its roots.
we honor our experiences and vulnerability, but we continue to search for greater understanding, unity and freedom.
and, lastly, we reject the practices that reinforce oppressive ideologies (i.e. racist beauty standards), and dare to reestablish our own standards.
i see why the crunk feminists blog inspired you to write this. now you are continuing to inspire others to write and think…. u go sis.
yay! can’t wait to see what comes next!
Alicia, whenever I read your blog, it brings up tough emotions for me – struggling with my own privilege (color, class, gender and sexual identity), holding it with my experiences of oppression as a woman, while ever-working to be an accountable and responsible ally without holding myself up as a “great white hope.” I need to be challenged in the ways that you – and others using their voices to talk openly about these issues – challenge me. Thank you so much. Please keep writing! (I have a feeling you will)
thank you dear.
so proud of you for doing the work.
don’t stop. we can’t stop. none of us.
I am light-skin and I don’t think/feel like I have ever been given any advantages because of it in the USA. I find it a fascinating topic because to me, white people in America view you as black no matter what your shade of ‘black’. At least that has been my experience. If anything, I have experienced being looked at more favorably because I am from the Caribbean and not American born.
However, my skin colour is a privelege in the Caribbean due to the remaining strains of people with colonized minds (I don’t need to get into that here).
moongoddess,
I agree that most of time, white folks see brown, and they see “other.” but when you say you “don’t think you have been given any advantages” because of your light skin in the USA, i’m curious about what you define as advantage, or privilege?
because, i think that if we are all working under the understanding that privilege is a structural, or socio-political right, advantage or immunity afforded some people, but not others. Something which is not interpersonal. it is not individual acts of meanness, discrimination or prejudice- just something you are given.
I wonder if you have never noticed because that’s the nature of privilege. Much in the same way that men, and white folks often are unaware of the ways that society validates them constantly?
I understand where you’re coming from, as I’ve had similar conversations with light skinned Latinos who feel the same same.
Still, much in the same way that many/most of our Caribbean folk can be said to have some level of a colonized mind(as you stated), one can make that argument for America. I say this assuming it can be agreed upon that many/most in America have some degree of a colonized/colonizer mentality. The logic still applies here. The lighter tone of your skin, much like your being from the Caribbean might just be other ways you may be utilizing social capital.
I’m not saying you are lying about your particular lived experiences, but suggesting you look deeper into it. A room full of white people or men claiming they never contributed to white supremacy or Sexism doesn’t mean it does not exist. As a man and a lighter skinned Afro-Latino it took me a while to finally realize and accept that I don’t necessarily have to be an active agent in order to benefit from things like Sexism or my skin tone in America/the world.
The links posted in this article have great additional info on the subject!
I hope it didn’t come off the wrong way…just offering my perspective.
@kacike1931
“As a man and a lighter skinned Afro-Latino it took me a while to finally realize and accept that I don’t necessarily have to be an active agent in order to benefit from things like Sexism or my skin tone in America/the world.”
that’s the nature of privilege.
we often unwittingly participate.
thank you for your words.
Thanks SO much for this. When my white, lesbian partner and I adopted a dark-skinned Black baby girl, we knew we would adopt a second child because we wanted her to have an ally who understood exactly where she had come from. We got a baby sister who is “mixed” and light. She can’t pass for white, but damned if EVERYONE doesn’t always ask if she’s part-Asian. (Her BLACK mother has almond-shaped eyes and she inherited them. Her mother’s ex-boyfriend was a white man.) We call them both “African American” and say they have light-brown skin and dark-brown skin and that we (the moms) have pale skin. We also use the words Black and white to describe our family socially (and teach the girls to identify us to strangers if they are ever lost).
So, in our well-intentioned attempt to make life a tiny bit simpler for our first child we made it ever so much more complicated. They are 5 and 3 now and so far, seem quite clear about the fact that they are both beautiful and both “Black.” But I am SURE that our younger daughter gets a certain kind of curious, exoticizing attention from white (and Black, actually) people for her unidentifiable race and her loose curls. She is going to be one of those people who always get asked “what are you?” and I need to figure out how to arm her for that. I am at a loss for now, except to be very factual and straight-forward. I do have a habit of telling people who say she looks Asian that she gets those eyes from her BLACK mother. I want to put it back in their face that they are stereotyping. But then, maybe it’s none of their business.
Rambling now! Thanks for the food for thought.
I agree with you Alicia and Kacike, that is why I said ” I don’t think…” I thought long and hard before I made that statement…and I am still thinking about it. Maybe it is because of my other experiences of racism and prejudice that I have experienced in US that is clouding that privilege;)
I think this is interesting, and as a dark-skinned black woman who is similarly non-threatening, I would add another layer. Maybe it’s not purely skin tone, but also perceived “blackness.” That a person can be dark or light or somewhere in between, but not be stereotypically “black” and there is privilege in that? Or maybe that’s a separate privilege?
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