Day: July 14, 2009

Belton Family PhotoHow the person two shades lighter than you isn’t necessarily better off

Roaming among the rubble of hate, field hand’s hair and master’s face didn’t stop me from meeting a noose. (Video)

I didn’t know I was “light-skinned.”

Or should I say, I’m not light-skinned but people have informed me one way or another of what I am based on what they are. I am, in fact, not lighter than a paper bag. I am not cafe au latte. I’m a rich, reddish brown that’s lighter than most black people, but too dark to be truly considered among the what traditionally was viewed as light-skinned — which for me is damn near white.

All of this though is irrelevant as no matter what you look like, in America, if you’re black you are black. This isn’t Brazil or some other South American country where there are a billion color based delineations to separate the blue black Wesley Snipes-ish brothers and sisters from the Wentworth Miller-Grady Sizemore’s of the world. This is America, where Rev. Jeremiah Wright, an unapologetically black man, is a dead ringer for white man and former Republican Bob Barr. Did Wright get any sort of pass for his negrotude because he was two steps from passing? Or for that matter, does any black person?

More after the jump.

Over at Pam’s House Blend, Pam Spaulding took NAACP President Benjamin Jealous to task for his recent comments on CNN about the NAACP not getting involved in gay rights issues. Jealous told CNN’s TJ Holmes that the NAACP doesn’t “take a position on that nationally.”

While she called him progressive in his thinking, she argued that Jealous was “getting the message” that gay rights was a “third-rail” issue by the old guard of the NAACP and not a priority. 

Arguing that the fight for gay rights is civil rights, Spaulding criticized Jealous and the NAACP for their weak-kneed response, but praised Jealous for at least discussing the issue without malice.

More after the jump.