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A review by lpm100
The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color Among African Americans by Midge Wilson, Ronald Hall, Kathy Russell
fast-paced
1.0
Book Review
The Color Complex
1/5 stars
"Old hat; Painful detailing of a black psychological hang-up"
*******
Of the book:
-301 sources/166 pages=1.8/page; respectably sourced
-Light reading; about 4 hours of reading time
*******
This book is about something that is well known within the black community, but virtually unknown outside of it: intraracial color prejudice. (In the black vernacular: being "colorstruck.")
It starts off on the wrong foot with me--and never manages to get off it.
Big problem #1: There are three people involved in its writing-- and NONE of them are historians. (One social worker and two social psychologists.)
Big Problem #2: They go right in with the hackneyed myth of "the reason black people prefer light skin is because lighter skin slaves were used in the house and darker ones were used in the field." (pps. 18, 126) This shibboleth has been repeated so many times that you might almost be forgiven for not noticing that:
1. Not all blacks were slaves;
2. Most miscegenation was voluntary and a lot of it happened after slavery;
3. A lot of the mixed race offspring were manumitted AND made a living providing services to free people of color.
Big problem #3: They make the same mistake in this book as Joel Williamson did in his book ("New People") which is to ascribe mulatto ancestry to ANY black person with ANY degree of European ancestry, in which case 90% of black Americans would be "mulattos." They even (mis)ascribe mulatto status to some of the same people as Williamson. (p.31): Sojourner Truth. Benjamin Banneker. A. Philip Randolph. Malcolm X. (There are pictures available of all of these people, and NO ONE would think that they were the same thing as Alicia Keys/Jennifer Beals / Benjamin Jealous.)
Big Problem #4: More banalities. Every time someone has a preference for a certain phenotype, then they are doing it based on some historical conflict. (p.113: "That the black man's desire is rooted in rage stemming from his unconscious desire to seek revenge for his slave past.")
It's like nobody can just like what they like.
a. What happens if it's a black guy that likes Asian women? No historical conflict there, just that Asian girls look good.
b. What happens if it's a white guy that has a stomach for black women? (I have one white coworker who has six kids with six different black women.) Is he trying to fulfill some secret desire to have a bedwench?
c. What happens if it's a guy that is interested in a brunette Italian/Jewish woman with a really thick bush (e.g.: liubimaja, noshavebabe, etc)? Is this guy REALLY making a defiant statement against having had razor bumps?
>>>See how silly this gets?
(p.121: "Why should we deprive ourselves of each other because of the history that neither one of us had anything to do with?")
*******
Second order thoughts:
1. In a lot of ways, this book has passed its (limited) relevance. You could wake up on a particular Monday and decide to change your gender and it's just a simple trip to the courthouse. So, when they talk about people such as Susie Phipps that are 1/64th black and have to be declared that way..... That is so 1991.
2. A lot of this book is academic babbling. When you live in the real world among real people, you will see that:
a. Some of them just choose their associations in a matter of fact way and without much discussion. We all know black people that are not interested in being black / having black relatives; we all know white people that choose to marry and live around blacks.
b. All men all over the world choose women lighter than themselves, and it doesn't depend on the American context. As these authors have observed. But, a book that explores those issues would be an issue for anthropologists or maybe even molecular geneticists. It is not this book.
If you consider the other 98% of the world, there's no surprise that, GIVEN A CHOICE, most black men would not choose black women.
3. This story is not new. And for the record this story is the case where you have some people that are more wealthy / advanced/civilized connect with people that are not, (whatever the reason), and the people on the higher end become something to be imitated and the people on the lower end become stigmatized. (Because so many poor black people live in ghettos, then being black *becomes* synonymous with being ghetto / trashy / low class.)
a. We could talk about the Russian royalty speaking French. We could talk about City Arabs reveling in speaking good French/English/ Modern Standard Arabic instead of local languages. We could talk about Scotsmen blindly imitating English behavior a couple of centuries back. We could be talking about people who grew up speaking Cockney or Scouse affecting an Oxbridge accent.)
b. QUOTE: (p.72) "Every time I hear African-Americans speak horrid, broken English or I see a flash of gold teeth, public displays of Jheri curl caps, genital holding, or big, gold door knocker earrings, I cringe. The hairs literally stand up on the back of my neck."
c. This is *some* of the story with the Indian caste system.
*******
What is the most useful information from this book?
1. All black people know about the concept of being "colorstruck." Maybe they don't know about blue vein societies or paper bag tests, and this is a way to help remember.
2. Virtually no white/non black people know how deep these psychological Hang-Ups are. If said people want to know a little bit more than what they did before, this is a way.
3. There is a lot of interesting history about the roles that were open to Black performers a century ago. Night and day different to today..
Appalling quotes/definitions
1. Paper bag test
2. Blue vein societies
3. Eartha kitt's stepfather would not accept her and her mother eventually sent her out to relatives and placed her in a foster home and chose over her own child for some sorry a$$ nicka. (p.99)
4. Zena Oglelsby, of a black adoption agency, says that light skin babies go first and 40% of black couples wanting to adopt specifically request light-skinned children.
5.. As of 1987, 35 States prohibited adoption of black children by white families. (The Howard Metzenbaum Multi-Ethnic Placement Act seems to have reversed this in 1994.)
6. Walter White, president of the NAACP was 1/64th black. And his wife was white, producing children that were 1/128th black.
7. dinge queen
Verdict: Not recommended.
The Color Complex
1/5 stars
"Old hat; Painful detailing of a black psychological hang-up"
*******
Of the book:
-301 sources/166 pages=1.8/page; respectably sourced
-Light reading; about 4 hours of reading time
*******
This book is about something that is well known within the black community, but virtually unknown outside of it: intraracial color prejudice. (In the black vernacular: being "colorstruck.")
It starts off on the wrong foot with me--and never manages to get off it.
Big problem #1: There are three people involved in its writing-- and NONE of them are historians. (One social worker and two social psychologists.)
Big Problem #2: They go right in with the hackneyed myth of "the reason black people prefer light skin is because lighter skin slaves were used in the house and darker ones were used in the field." (pps. 18, 126) This shibboleth has been repeated so many times that you might almost be forgiven for not noticing that:
1. Not all blacks were slaves;
2. Most miscegenation was voluntary and a lot of it happened after slavery;
3. A lot of the mixed race offspring were manumitted AND made a living providing services to free people of color.
Big problem #3: They make the same mistake in this book as Joel Williamson did in his book ("New People") which is to ascribe mulatto ancestry to ANY black person with ANY degree of European ancestry, in which case 90% of black Americans would be "mulattos." They even (mis)ascribe mulatto status to some of the same people as Williamson. (p.31): Sojourner Truth. Benjamin Banneker. A. Philip Randolph. Malcolm X. (There are pictures available of all of these people, and NO ONE would think that they were the same thing as Alicia Keys/Jennifer Beals / Benjamin Jealous.)
Big Problem #4: More banalities. Every time someone has a preference for a certain phenotype, then they are doing it based on some historical conflict. (p.113: "That the black man's desire is rooted in rage stemming from his unconscious desire to seek revenge for his slave past.")
It's like nobody can just like what they like.
a. What happens if it's a black guy that likes Asian women? No historical conflict there, just that Asian girls look good.
b. What happens if it's a white guy that has a stomach for black women? (I have one white coworker who has six kids with six different black women.) Is he trying to fulfill some secret desire to have a bedwench?
c. What happens if it's a guy that is interested in a brunette Italian/Jewish woman with a really thick bush (e.g.: liubimaja, noshavebabe, etc)? Is this guy REALLY making a defiant statement against having had razor bumps?
>>>See how silly this gets?
(p.121: "Why should we deprive ourselves of each other because of the history that neither one of us had anything to do with?")
*******
Second order thoughts:
1. In a lot of ways, this book has passed its (limited) relevance. You could wake up on a particular Monday and decide to change your gender and it's just a simple trip to the courthouse. So, when they talk about people such as Susie Phipps that are 1/64th black and have to be declared that way..... That is so 1991.
2. A lot of this book is academic babbling. When you live in the real world among real people, you will see that:
a. Some of them just choose their associations in a matter of fact way and without much discussion. We all know black people that are not interested in being black / having black relatives; we all know white people that choose to marry and live around blacks.
b. All men all over the world choose women lighter than themselves, and it doesn't depend on the American context. As these authors have observed. But, a book that explores those issues would be an issue for anthropologists or maybe even molecular geneticists. It is not this book.
If you consider the other 98% of the world, there's no surprise that, GIVEN A CHOICE, most black men would not choose black women.
3. This story is not new. And for the record this story is the case where you have some people that are more wealthy / advanced/civilized connect with people that are not, (whatever the reason), and the people on the higher end become something to be imitated and the people on the lower end become stigmatized. (Because so many poor black people live in ghettos, then being black *becomes* synonymous with being ghetto / trashy / low class.)
a. We could talk about the Russian royalty speaking French. We could talk about City Arabs reveling in speaking good French/English/ Modern Standard Arabic instead of local languages. We could talk about Scotsmen blindly imitating English behavior a couple of centuries back. We could be talking about people who grew up speaking Cockney or Scouse affecting an Oxbridge accent.)
b. QUOTE: (p.72) "Every time I hear African-Americans speak horrid, broken English or I see a flash of gold teeth, public displays of Jheri curl caps, genital holding, or big, gold door knocker earrings, I cringe. The hairs literally stand up on the back of my neck."
c. This is *some* of the story with the Indian caste system.
*******
What is the most useful information from this book?
1. All black people know about the concept of being "colorstruck." Maybe they don't know about blue vein societies or paper bag tests, and this is a way to help remember.
2. Virtually no white/non black people know how deep these psychological Hang-Ups are. If said people want to know a little bit more than what they did before, this is a way.
3. There is a lot of interesting history about the roles that were open to Black performers a century ago. Night and day different to today..
Appalling quotes/definitions
1. Paper bag test
2. Blue vein societies
3. Eartha kitt's stepfather would not accept her and her mother eventually sent her out to relatives and placed her in a foster home and chose over her own child for some sorry a$$ nicka. (p.99)
4. Zena Oglelsby, of a black adoption agency, says that light skin babies go first and 40% of black couples wanting to adopt specifically request light-skinned children.
5.. As of 1987, 35 States prohibited adoption of black children by white families. (The Howard Metzenbaum Multi-Ethnic Placement Act seems to have reversed this in 1994.)
6. Walter White, president of the NAACP was 1/64th black. And his wife was white, producing children that were 1/128th black.
7. dinge queen
Verdict: Not recommended.