Black-on-black discrimination?

JWR ^ | 3-23-05 | John Stossel

[aruanan]

"Africa," he explained, "is still equated to savage.

Funny, though, most of the black Africans I've met are truly wonderful people and have a far better attitude and outlook on life than many black Americans I've known. And the Africans know it. One thing they definitely do not want is for their kids to be assimilated into American urban black culture.

[freecopper01]

That's not the WORST of what they say about red-heads!

Let's not go there but say we did, okay.

[CatoRenasci]

No I just mean that there is 'intraracial' issues with whites too. It's just not discussed as much....

The real 'intraracial' issue that is not discussed significantly in America is social class. Since almost everyone wants to think of themselves as 'middle class' (at least in public), and it represents the American ideal, even more than social security, class is the third rail of American politics. This fact is a major reason why European style socialism, which is based on class analysis and class consciousness, has never caught on in America beyond the limited cirlces of working class immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and an upper/upper middle-class elite who disdained the middle class as they looked for cultural and intellectual self-affirmation to the European upper classes (most of whom find such aping truly ludicrous and mildly amusing).

[Always Right]

Not just black-on-black. The United States is the least prejudiced, least ethnocentric nation on the face of the earth and in the course of human history.

Also a very classless society. Go to Mexico, the upper class won't talk to or associate with the lower class.

[cyborg]

You are spot on with respect to the issue of social class.

[cyborg]

Amen to that! LOL

[normy]

You forgot "hairism". I have friends who shave their chest, and back hair, forget it.

[ReagansShinyHair]

And when a fair skinned white guy like me puts on a pair of shorts, the insults fly about how pale I am and need to get a tan.

Why is it that total strangers think it is socially appropriate to comment on the whiteness of somebody's legs? I do not want skin cancer or wrinkles. I wear sunblock. I am not the whitest white person I've ever seen, but I'm definately very white. So what? I could tan, but I think it's stupid and dangerous. Total strangers need not comment.

Given that white people and black people can both get comments about being too light or too dark, I think it's just plain old lookism, and not so much racism. Tan is the beauty ideal right now. Not too pale, not too dark.

I prefer to be pale now and not spotty, wrinkled, and cancerous later on in life.

[SMARTY]

Among whites, it's called xenophobia.

Growing up, I experienced that all the time and though it is not so pronounced now, it is still at work. Heck when I graduated from college, there were jobs I didn't get because I was not in the mold and certainly men who did not have me on their radar.BR>
I mean, in the US the Bonnie Blue Eyes, waspy, yellow hair thing will forever be paramount. For women especially, there is overwhelming pressure to fit that mold. Fortunately, other 'types' are becoming as interesting, but like I said THE genetic blueprint for American culture will always be waspy. Don't believe me? Whose image is selling beer, cars, toothpaste, insurance, furniture....on and on...

[RepublicMan4U]

Another interesting angle on the darkness versus lightness issue is that, at least in my area, someone who is of mixed race (what they used to call mulatto) is automatically considered black. I had a uncle who married a black lady. All there mixed race daughter's friends were black. It seems that blacks will accept a mixed race individual as black, but whites will not accept a mixed race individual as white. Maybe it's a cultural leftover from the "one drop rule."

[normy]

White is an easy color to dilute. If you mix white with another color, you generally get something closer to the color you mixed it with. If you mixed white paint with blue paint and asked a hundred people what color they saw, I would bet none would say white, most would say blue or a off color of blue.

[rave123]

I think she can give a you a great deal of insight into the colorism that blacks have about each other. It is not one sided. Some blacks think you can be too dark or you can be too light. Both sides tend to get a great deal of unnecessary remarks about their color. Many blacks think the lighter the skin the better because you are closer to being white. Then, some blacks think the darker the skin the better because you look black.
The bottom line, in every race people try and find ways to separate themselves. No matter what color people are there's always some need for someone to want to feel superior.

[rdb3]

^

[CSM]

I'm guessing, but I think this stems from the ancient times when the most wealthy were able to stay indoors, out of the sun. As a result, it was a sign of affluence to be as pale as possible.

As a nearly transparent person, I can't figure out why I'm not worshipped!

[brwnsuga]

It bothers me when people try to state anecdotal evidence as "fact".
My husband is white and has had not trouble keeping the same life insurance company for the 17 years of our marriage.

[brwnsuga]

LOL!

[FreedomPoster]

>>Apparently, a shade close to white is useful if you want to play a successful character in the movies.

Like Wesley Snipes and Danny Glover.

[cyborg]

I don't think that's what he meant.

[brwnsuga]

I find that people are very curious (i.e. stare) at my family at times. My husband hardly notices. He floats in a happy cloud most of the time and is just happy to be spending time together.

[Unassuaged]

I am fascinated by African/African-American/Afro-Carribian fascination with color and the reaction it causes.
Some people are proud to be dark and some A-As say that they wish they were 'pure' black like Africans. Some point out that the lighter a person is, the more accepted in general society. Some know/wonder if their ancestry was (forcibly)intermixed during slavery. If from the south, this might mean the difference between a 'house' and 'field' slave. Some are called 'Redbone', I am not 100% but it seems to mean a creole/Indian mix such as from Louisiana. Interesting example, Bob Marley was half white, but did not garner any outward benefit from his parentage, in fact lived in a rough ghetto and went on to be a voice of the oppressed in British controlled Jamaica.