Tonisha Spratte Blog #2

Race/Nationality and Shade

Francis asked a question last class; what is out/the human way of organizing/dividing?  The first thing that popped in my head was by race.  Honestly, whether intentionally or not we tend to divide ourselves by race more often than not, especially in places such as W&M where our minority status is blatant or easily recognized.  It is a common joke amongst me and my friends and I suppose the larger black community as well, that all the black people know each other and when we see a black person we do not know we are usually quick to change that.  Race is typically one of the quicker/easier ways to try and identify someone you could get along with or have similar experiences or interests, tastes, and background.  The activities we did on Thursday, in my humble opinion, seems to have weakened this logic through explicitly exploring it.  By separating ourselves by race we not only learned of about the commonalities we share through race and nationality but also about our differences.  I’m pretty sure that everyone there had a follow-up question for someone or wanted someone to expand upon a topic.

Also, while we were doing the exercise and Francis was talking about how all of us black people probably have some European ancestry (which I agree with) as well as the many “bridges” we had in class connecting different circles of races it reminded me of this South Park episode where people from the future came to South Park to find jobs.  Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, do such a good job on criticizing so many different aspects of not only American life but humans in general.  But I digress, the people who came from the future were al one color, looked one way, and spoke one language, which happened to be some sort of mix of all the languages as their race was a mix of all races.  Not saying that this is scientifically correct but it is a reminder of how commonplace interracial couples have become, which, of course, I’m not knocking it, half of my family is in or is a product of interracial marriages and relationships.

The last point I will get into is “Shade-ism.”  This was brought up at the end of class on Thursday and as a young dark skinned African American woman, I know and feel the effects of this aforementioned –ism.  Shade-ism, for those who do not know, is a form of disdain that people, commonly throughout the African American race have for different shades of brown in said race.  A lot of people like to say that light skinned black people look better than dark skinned black people.  Now, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that is just ridiculous.  For example, when someone belittles another they might say something along the lines of “You old black….”  Why is that used in degradation?  Why is being darker a bad thing?  Oh, or something along the lines of “He was real dark, but he was cute.”  using ‘but’ to introduce a contradictory clause.  Meaning ‘real dark’ would never equate to cute ordinarily.  Or “Oh, she’s dark skinned and has long hair?” like it’s impossible or something.  And this is the worst; “You’re pretty for a dark skinned girl.”  [In my head “Fuck you.] *stale face* -_- *gets up and walks away* This is just the ignorance of this world.  It is perfectly fine that dark skinned black women may not be your preference, to each his/her own, but to project your shade-ism onto myself and others is unacceptable.  Does anyone else have an opinion on the matter? Or even know what I’m talking about/where I’m coming from?



In relation to my comment, after on the left and before on the right: